Yahaya Abubakar

Who is Yahaya Abubakar?

Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar to the family of Alhaji Abubakar Saganuwa his father and his mother Hajiya Habiba Bantigi Ndayako and was appointed the 13th Etsu Nupe [Bida Emirate], or traditional ruler of the Nupe Kingdom on 11 September 2003.

Yahaya was born on September 12, 1952 at Bida in what is today Niger State, and comes from the ruling house of Etsu Musa compound. He attended Government College, Sokoto and Commercial College, Kano, then enrolled in the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna in preparation for joining the army. Kusodu's last military posting was to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, where he was a director of foreign operations, before retiring as a brigadier general in September 2003. Kusodu was appointed the 13th Etsu Nupe on 11 September 2003, traditional leader of the Nupe people who live in Niger, Kogi, Kwara and Benue states, in succession to Alhaji Umar Sanda Ndayako. By virtue of this title he is chairman of the Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers.

Kusodu was chair of a committee pushing for the creation of Edu State, with headquarters at Bida, out of the present Niger and Kwara states, to form a homeland for the Nupe people. Other promoters of the new state are the Etsu Lapai, Umar Baogo III, and the Etsu Agaie, Muhammadu Kudu Abubakar. Following a scandal when it was found that a Nupe man, Alhaji Muhammadu Bello Masaba, had married 86 wives, the Etsu Nupe set up a five-member committee of Islamic scholars to handle the issue. In September 2008 it was reported that Masaba has agreed to divorce all but four of the wives.