Our story

The story of El-Kanemi College begins before its founding, with a Syrian preacher named Sheikh Abdul Latif Zabadneh. In 1937 he left his homeland for Nigeria, teaching Arabic and calling people to Islam across Lagos, Ibadan, and Abeokuta before settling in the north, first in Jos, and later in Maiduguri. Before his death in Damascus in 1963, he gave his son one instruction: build an Islamic school to carry that work forward.

That son, Alhaji Muhammad Arif Zabadneh, a successful businessman, honoured the instruction in 1974, founding El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology in Maiduguri. It was officially opened the following year by General Muhammad Buhari, then Governor of Nigeria's North Eastern Region, who would later serve as the nation's President.

Alhaji Muhammad Arif personally financed the College for its first thirty years, until it 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.

What has stayed constant across fifty years is the emphasis on Islamic and Arabic studies as the heart of a student's education, not an addition to it. El-Kanemi has since graduated thousands of alumni, among them professors, judges, doctors, and engineers, who carry that grounding into every field they enter.