My first book was on Mu’azu, the poet in Jigawa. It was my PhD project and I selected him as a poet, because he impacted on my life. There was a part… - Sa'adiya Omar Bello

Sometimes when you go for research, people might be having manuscripts you need, but they would not release it to you because of lack of trust, as they don’t know what you are going to do with it. But Alhamdulillah, I was opportune to get close to them. Number one, I am a woman; two, because of my marital relationship with the Caliphate and three, the Hubbare, that is the tomb of Shehu, they accepted me so much and once the Hubbare accepts you, then you have few problems.

Another challenge is funding, because I said I was not going to ask anybody to give me money. My idea was that it’s my interest, I want to do it and I will prove to people that I have done it. So, anybody who wants to support me now, can. You know now our society is so corrupt, you can go to somebody to support your project, but he may think you are not genuine. If you initiate a thing, then prove to people that you can do it and maybe when they see the quality of work, the significance and importance of the work, they might support you later. So, I had a challenge there. I spent millions doing the project and I had only the support of my family.

As an academician, I had to continue presenting papers and my area of interest was on Shehu Usman, their contributions to poetry and I took Nana Asma’u who was also a renowned Islamic scholar. I wrote a paper on her and presented it at the university and a friend to late Waziri Junaidu the erudite scholar attended the seminar and said that the paper I presented on Nana Asma’u was great. Then I also presented another paper on her sister, because I realized that most of these women were well- versed and educated, but their contributions were not documented.