Leadership & Legacy
Fifty Years of Steadfast Guardianship
El-Kanemi College has been shaped by eleven Directors-General across five decades, united by one belief: that Islamic education and academic excellence belong together.
50+
Years of continuous education
11
Directors-General since founding
1000s
Alumni across Nigeria & beyond
1
Unbroken founding vision
The Founder
Est. 1974
The founding vision
The College was founded to fulfil a bequest from the founder's father, Sheikh Abdul-Latif Zabadneh, a Syrian-born Islamic preacher who settled in Nigeria to spread Islam and the Arabic language. His instruction to his son was simple: establish an Islamic school to carry that call forward.
Alhaji Muhammad Arif Zabadneh
Founder, El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology
Alhaji Muhammad Arif Zabadneh founded El-Kanemi College in Maiduguri in 1974; it was officially opened in 1975 by General Muhammad Buhari, then Governor of Nigeria's North-Eastern Region, who would later serve as the nation's President. A successful businessman, Alhaji Muhammad Arif personally financed the College from its founding until it reached thirty years of age and became self-sufficient. He continues, to this day, to be the sole financial supporter of the College's orphan care section, established for children who lost parents and relatives in the region's conflict with Boko Haram. His name is still spoken with reverence by every generation of alumni.
Directors-General, 1975 – Present
1975 – 1976
Sheikh Engineer Ma'mun al-Juwayjati
Arrived from Damascus in 1974 to complete the College's construction; served as its first Director, briefly, before returning to Syria.
Following Sheikh Ma'mun's first term
Professor Dr. Ahmad Khan
Pakistani academic who took the reins with Sheikh Ma'mun serving as his deputy.
Brief tenure, before 1978
Dr. Nafis al-Din al-Siddiq
Pakistani academic; moved on to Maiduguri University after a short period, with Sheikh Muwaffaq al-Jaza'iri serving as assistant and teacher throughout.
1978 – 1980
Sheikh Muwaffaq al-Jaza'iri
1980 – 1983
Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Shuqayr
Oversaw the founding of El-Kanemi Primary School before returning to Damascus.
1984 – 1985
Sheikh Nizar al-Halabi
First of two terms leading the College. May Allah have mercy on him.
1985 – 1990
Sheikh Engineer Ma'mun al-Juwayjati
Returned for a second term. Expanded the Primary School (completed 1989), expanded the College further in 1990, and began construction of Abdul-Latif Mosque on campus.
1990 – 1991
Sheikh Nizar al-Halabi
Second term. Sheikh Zakariya jimoh served as deputy Director-General in 1991.
1992 – 2003
Sheikh Dr. Mu'ayyad al-Rashid
Founded the Diploma Section and the Girls' Secondary Section (both 1993), and the Educational Center for Teaching Mothers (2001).
2003 – 2024
Dr. Muhammad Sani Idris al-Blatori
The College's first Nigerian Director-General, and its longest-serving. Oversaw major infrastructure growth and El-Kanemi's 2014 recognition as Nigeria's best private secondary school.
2024 – present
Sheikh Judge Zubair Muhammad Wasagu
The College's current Director-General — and himself a graduate of El-Kanemi's founding Cohort 1, 1981.
Those Who Shaped the College
Sheikh Engineer Ma'mun al-Juwayjati
Director, 1975–76 and 1985–90
Born in Damascus in 1946, Sheikh Ma'mun trained as an architectural engineer, graduating from Damascus University in 1967, while pursuing Shari'ah studies alongside his father, Sheikh Arif al-Juwayjati, a noted Hanafi jurist. He came to Nigeria in 1974 at the request of the College's founder, who was seeking a religious engineer to build the school. He personally completed the College's original construction, served briefly as its first Director, and returned a second time in 1985 for a five-year term, during which he expanded the Primary School, grew the campus further, and began construction of the Abdul-Latif Mosque. He now serves as imam of al-Hussein Congregational Mosque in Damascus, where he continues to teach Shari'ah sciences.
Sheikh Dr. Mu'ayyad Mahmud al-Rashid
Director, 1992–2003
Born in Fiq, in the Syrian Golan Heights, in 1963, his family was displaced when Fiq fell in 1967. He studied in Aleppo, Damascus, and Saudi Arabia, trained at Al-Furqan Institute for Shari'ah Studies, and completed a university degree and postgraduate diploma at Damascus University in 1987. He arrived in Jos, Nigeria in 1988 to direct Al-Iman School, before moving to Maiduguri in 1992 to lead El-Kanemi College. During his eleven years as Director, he founded the Diploma Section, the Girls' Secondary Section, and the Educational Center for Teaching Mothers, reformed the College's Arabic curriculum, and co-authored Arabic textbooks still used in Islamic schools today.
Dr. Muhammad Sani Idris al-Blatori
Director, 2003–2024
Born in Inguru, Yobe State, in 1970, Dr. Muhammad Sani Idris, known by his birthplace as al-Blatori, is himself an El-Kanemi graduate, going on to earn further degrees in Niger, Maiduguri, and Keffi before completing a doctorate in Islamic Studies in 2017. He became the College's first Nigerian Director-General in 2003, serving until 2024. He has the longest tenure in its history, and later serving as Commissioner for Education, Yobe State. Under his leadership the College grew to over 250 classrooms, added new laboratories, computer centers, and dormitories, and was named Nigeria's best private secondary school in 2014, having also won the Desert Herald prize for NECO administration three years running (2012–2014). His tenure drew visits from prominent figures including the Sultan of Kano and the Sultan of Muslims in Nigeria, Abubakar Sa'ad, and saw satellite schools founded in Kwara, Nasarawa, Borno, Katsina, and Sokoto States.
Current Leadership
Sheikh Judge Zubair Muhammad Wasagu
General Director
In office since 2024
The current and eleventh Director-General in the College's history and fittingly, the College's own top graduate, having led Cohort 1 to a distinction in 1981. His tenure continues a lineage of leadership stretching back to the College's founding in 1975.
Photo
Dr. Zakariya Jimoh
Dr. Zakariya Jimoh
Deputy Director
Serving El-Kanemi College since 1991
The institutional memory of El-Kanemi. Dr. Zakariya Jimoh has served the college across multiple decades including as Deputy Director-General as early as 1991. And he is the author of the definitive account of the college's history. His daily presence in the school is a living link between the founding generation and the students of today.
What They Passed Down
The Values That Outlast Any Title
أمانة
Amanah
Trustworthiness
Every director has treated the institution as a trust — not their own achievement, but a responsibility held on behalf of the community and the generation yet to come.
علم
Ilm
Knowledge
The college has never separated worldly learning from Islamic scholarship. This integration was the founder's original insight and remains the compass of every leader after him.
صبر
Sabr
Perseverance
Through eleven changes of leadership and a changing educational landscape, El-Kanemi's leadership has kept the institution open and its mission undiluted.
Continue the Story
Every Student Enrolled Is Part of This Legacy
The people who built El-Kanemi did so for the children of this community. Enrol your child, or learn about our history, and become part of something that will outlast all of us.