Zannah Mustapha

Last updated
Zannah Bukar Mustapha
Born1958 or 1959
Nationality Nigerian
OccupationLawyer

Zannah Bukar Mustapha [1] (born 1959 ) is a Nigerian educator and lawyer. He quit the legal profession in 2007 to open a school for orphaned children, opening a second school in 2016. Mustapha has twice negotiated the release of girls and women abducted in north Nigeria. He is the 2017 winner of the Nansen Refugee Award.

Contents

Education

Mustapha holds bachelor's degree in law from the University of Maiduguri. [2]

Career

After graduation, Mustapha worked as a Sharia court lawyer, resigning in 2007 after 20 years to become an educator. [3] In the midst of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2007, Mustapha opened the Future Prowess Academy and Islamic Foundation School in Maiduguri, Borno State. [4] [5] The school has no fees and also provides healthcare, food, and school uniforms to orphaned children. [4] Originally the school taught 36 students, growing to 540 in 2017. [4] Classes include Arabic, French, English, mathematics, cookery, and textile work. [6] In 2016, Mustapha opened a second school, a few kilometres from the first, that supports the education of 88 students. [4] Mustapha helped negotiate the release of 21 young women abducted in north Nigeria and the release of 82 Chibok schoolgirls in May 2017. [4]

Awards

In 2017, Mustapha was awarded the Nansen Refugee Award. [7] In 2021, Mustapha was identified as a CNN Hero at the 15th Annual CNN Heroes All-Star Tribute. [2]

Personal life

Mustapha was 63 years old in 2022. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maiduguri</span> Capital city of Borno State, Nigeria

Maiduguri is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, on the continent of Africa. The city sits along the seasonal Ngadda River which disappears into the Firki swamps in the areas around Lake Chad. Maiduguri was founded in 1907 as a military outpost by the British Empire during the colonial period. As of 2022, Maiduguri is estimated to have a population of approximately two million in the metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borno State</span> State of Nigeria

Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west for about 421 km, Gombe to the southwest for 93 km, and Adamawa to the south while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon for about 426 km, its northern border forms part of the national border with Niger, for about 223 km mostly across the Komadougou-Yobe River, and its northeastern border forms all of the national border with Chad for 85 km, being the only Nigerian state to border three foreign countries. It takes its name from the historic emirate of Borno, with the emirate's old capital of Maiduguri serving as the capital city of Borno State. The state was formed in 1976 when the former North-Eastern State was broken up. It originally included the area that is now Yobe State, which became a distinct state in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Maiduguri</span> Federal university in Maiduguri, Nigeria

The University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) is a Federal higher institution located in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State in Northeast Nigeria. The university was created by the federal government of Nigeria in 1975, with the intention of its becoming one of the country's principal higher-education institutions. It enrolls about 25,000 students in its combined programs, which include a college of medicine and faculties of agriculture, arts, environmental science, Allied health science, Basic medical science, dentistry, education, engineering, law, management science, pharmacy, science, social science, and veterinary medicine. With the encouragement of the federal government, the university has recently been increasing its research efforts, particularly in the fields of agriculture, medicine and conflict resolution, and expanding the university press. The university is the major higher institution of learning in the north-eastern part of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boko Haram</span> Central-West African jihadist terrorist organization

Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, is an Islamist jihadist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. In 2016, the group split, resulting in the emergence of a hostile faction known as the Islamic State's West Africa Province.

Konduga is a community in Borno State, Nigeria and the center of a Local Government Area of the same name about 25 km to the southeast of Maiduguri, situated on the north bank of the Ngadda River. The population of the Konduga Local Government Area is about 13,400. It is one of the sixteen LGAs that constitute the Borno Emirate, a traditional state located in Borno State, Nigeria. The primary languages are Shuwa Arabic, Kanuri, Mafa and Wandala / Malgwa.

Bama is a town and a local government area in the central part of Borno State, Nigeria.

Damboa is a Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Damboa. It has an area of 6,219 km² and had a population of 233,200 at the 2006 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwoza</span> LGA and town in Borno State, Nigeria

Gwoza is a local government area of Borno State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Gwoza, a border town "about 135 kilometres South-East of Maiduguri." The postal code of the area is 610.

Monguno is one of the LGAs Local Government Area of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boko Haram insurgency</span> Terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.

Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid-2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping</span> Kidnapping of female students in Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria

On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christian female students aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group called Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School at the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Prior to the raid, the school had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions, but the girls were in attendance in order to take final exams in physics.

As of 31 August 2020, Cameroon hosted a total refugee population of approximately 421,700. Of these, 280,500 were from the Central African Republic, driven by war and insecurity. In the Far North Region, Cameroon hosts 114,300 Nigerian refugees, with the population sharing their already scarce resources with the refugees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwoza massacre</span>

The Gwoza massacre was a terrorist event that occurred on 2 June, 2014 in the Gwoza local government district, Borno State near the Nigerian-Camerounian border.

The following lists events from 2014 in Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 West African offensive</span> Coalition offensive against Boko Haram

Starting in late January 2015, a coalition of West African troops launched an offensive against the Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chika Oduah</span> Nigerian-American journalist (born 1986)

Chikaodinaka Sandra Oduah is a Nigerian-American journalist who has worked as a television news producer, correspondent, writer and photographer. She is currently a correspondent for VICE News. Known for her unique human-focused ethnographic reporting style with an anthropological approach, she was awarded a CNN Multichoice African Journalist Award in 2016. Upon the abduction of 276 schoolgirls by the terrorist group Boko Haram in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria, she was the first international journalist to visit and spend extensive time in the remote community of Chibok. Her thorough and exclusive coverage of the mass kidnapping won her the Trust Women "Journalist of The Year Award" from the Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2014. Oduah's reporting explores culture, history, conflict, human rights, and development to capture the complexities, hopes and everyday realities of Africans and people of African descent.

On 17 January 2017, a Nigerian Air Force jet mistakenly bombed an internally displaced persons camp near the Cameroonian border in Rann, Borno State. They had believed it was a Boko Haram encampment. The bombing left at least 115 people dead, including six Red Cross aid workers, and left more than 100 injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imrana Alhaji Buba</span> Nigerian Social Entrepreneur

Imrana Alhaji Buba is a Nigerian social entrepreneur and activist who founded Youth Coalition Against Terrorism (YOCAT) which is now regarded as Youth Initiative Against Terrorism (YIAT), a volunteer-based organisation in northern Nigeria working to unite youth against violent extremism through peace education programs in schools and villages.

References

  1. "Mary Robinson to receive Tipperary international peace award". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2022-09-03.
  2. 1 2 CNN Heroes Tribute: Zannah Mustapha - CNN Video, 15 December 2021, retrieved 2022-09-03
  3. Eteng, Innocent (2022-07-29). "The Nigerian school with a radical idea: Teaching Boko Haram's kids". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2022-09-03.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Visionary Nigerian teacher wins UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award". UNHCR. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 2022-09-03.
  5. Okunola, Akindare (29 April 2022). "This Man Built 4 Schools to Help Kids Orphaned & Displaced by Boko Haram Get an Education". Global Citizen. Retrieved 2022-09-03.
  6. Unah, Linus (15 Feb 2018). "In Nigeria, a school takes on the fight against Boko Haram". Devex.
  7. Idowu, Yemisi Adegoke, Torera (2017-09-21). "Zannah Mustapha: The Nigerian man saving Boko Haram orphans". CNN. Retrieved 2022-09-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Hallett, Vicky (2017-10-05). "His School For 540 Needy Kids Earns Him A U.N. Prize". NPR. Retrieved 2022-09-03.