Yola, Adamawa

Yola (Fulfulde: Ƴoola), meaning ‘Great Plain’ or ‘Vast Plain Land’, is the largest city, capital city and administrative center of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Located on the Benue River, it has a population of 336,648 (2010).[citation needed] Yola is split into two parts. The old town of Yola where the Lamido resides is the traditional city but the new city of Jimeta (about 5 km NW) is the administrative and commercial centre. Generally the term Yola is now used to mean both. To the north are the Mandara Mountains and to the south are the Shebshi Mountains with Dimlang (Vogel) Peak the second highest point (2,042 m) in Nigeria after Chappal Waddi (mountain of death). Yola is an access point to the Gashaka Gumpti Nature Reserve, which is the largest national park in Nigeria, the Ngel Nyaki montane forest reserve, the Mambilla Plateau, the Sukur UNESCO World heritage site, which is Africa’s first cultural landscape to receive World Heritage List inscription,[2] the Yadin Waterfalls, the Kiri Dam on the Gongola River, the Benue national park in nearby Cameroon, the Waza National Park, and the Cameroonian town of Garoua, which lies across the border, on the Benue river.

Established in 1841, Yola is a municipality that sprawls across the hillside of this North-Eastern region of Nigeria. It was the capital of a Fulani state until it was taken over by the British in 1901. Today, it is the capital of Adamawa State, which was formed in 1991 from part of Gongola State. Modibbo Adama, a local chief of the Fulani, founded Yola in 1841. During the Islamic movement led by Shehu Usman Dan Fodio in the early 19th Century, Modibbo Adama was recognised as a learned Muslim who could lead the people in the Upper Benue area. Modibbo is the Fulani word for “Professor”. Probably the first European to visit the area was Heinrich Barth in 1851, shortly after Yola was founded. He traveled by the Sahara route, coming through Kukawa near Lake Chad, which at the time was the capital of the Borno Empire.[3] Yola has the first airport in Nigeria as well as first town to have electricity. On 17 November 2015, a suicide bombing killed over 30 people.