Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa

Located in the far north of Nigeria, Sokoto State, 'Seat of the Caliphate', is the third most-populated state in the federation with a population of about 4.4 million people.

Created as one of the original states of the Nigerian Federation in 1967 as North-Western State, it was renamed Sokoto in 1976 when Niger was separated from it. Subsequently, the states of Kebbi and Zamfara were also created, incorporating part of what was previously Sokoto's territory. Presently made up of 23 local government areas (LGAs), Sokoto has a capital of the same name; this city has been the seat of various government since its establishment by Caliph Muhammadu Bello in 1809.

Other major towns in Sokoto include Yabo, Guddu, Ilela, Binji, Gwada Bawa, Bogings, Tambulwal and Wumo. The state shares boundaries with Zamfara and kebbi and the Niger Republic to the north.

Falling between the semi-arid region and the Sahel savannah, the zone is an open and tsetse fly-free grassland suitable for the cultivation of crops and animal husbandry. Rainfall starts late and ends early with mean annual totals between 500mm and 1,300mm. The topography is dominated by a rolling plain called the Hausa which rises from elevations of 300 metres to an average height of 450 metres in the south west, while the vast fadama floodplains of the Sokoto-Rima River system bisect the plain and provide a rich alluvial soil for the growing of crops. There are also isolated hills and mountain ranges scattered throughout the state.

Culturally, Sokoto is a centre of Islamic learning, as befits a land inhabited chiefly and historically by Hausa-Fulani. Other resident peoples include the Zaborima and the Dakarkari. There are Taureg peoples living in the border areas of the state. Every group speaks Hausa as a common language, while Fulfulde is also spoken by the Fulani.

The zone was home to many empires and kingdoms of the pre-colonial Western Sudan, including the Gobir and Kebbi Kingdoms as well as the renowned Sokoto Caliphate, the state's spiritual and political headquarters. Following the colonisation of the caliphate by the British in 1903, its various components were made autonomous and then jointed into the government of Northern Nigeria. The Northern Region was thus made up of parts of the Caliphate as wll as the kanem-bornu Empire. This wasthe situation until 1967 when states were created to replace the regions by General Yakubu Gowon.