Sen. Abdulaziz BAbubakar Yari was the cynosure of all eyes at the book launch on Argungu Emirate on Saturday, as he announced a total donation of N280 million for himself and associates.
Of the amount, Yari personally donated N150 million as the chief launcher, promising to redeem the pledge by this week.
The book entitled, ‘A Kingdom in Crisis; Kabi in the Nineteenth Century’, was written by late Muhammad Bello Alkali, as Masters’ Thesis in 1969, in ABU, Zaria.
Sen. Yari commended the Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Sama’ila Muhammad Mera and other traditional rulers for their loyalty and support to the administration of Dr. Nasir Idris, which facilitated peace, tranquility and development.
The book reviewer, Professor Alkasum Abba, described it as work of intellectual rigour and historical scholarship.
“The book is a carefully crafted narrative of pre-colonial Hausa Kingdom of Kabi, the conflicts and challenges it went through in the face of the two monumental historical events.
“These were the Sokoto Jihad of 1804 and colonial conquest in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
“The author traced the background of the formation of Kabi as vassalage of the Songhai Empire in the 16th century and transformation into an independent Hausa Kingdom.
“Elaborate mention was made on internal political and ecological challenges, as well as leadership disputes that fragmented the kingdom and rendered it prostrate in the face of the Sokoto Jihad, and finally fell to the imperial conquest of the British and the French in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries,” Prof. Abba narrated.
Governor Idris announced a combined donation of N100 million by Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states, while the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, donated N10 million.
