A leading Nigerian Islamic scholar and a senior figure in the Tijaniyya Sufi order, Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, is dead.
The Sheikh died after a long illness, according to statements from family and religious sources early on Thursday. He was about 98 years old.
Sheikh Dahiru rose from a small town in northern Nigeria to become one of the country’s best-known Qur’an teachers. He began teaching and explaining the Qur’an (tafsir) in 1948 and kept working for more than seven decades. His lessons were widely heard on radio across northern Nigeria, helping him reach many students.
As a senior Tijani leader, Sheikh Dahiru guided millions of followers and trained thousands of students. He was known for long, clear talks about faith and for organising religious study circles. His followers said he helped spread Sufi traditions and Qur’anic learning in towns and cities across Nigeria and beyond.
Reports say he died after a prolonged illness in Kaduna, where he had been receiving care. Local and national leaders — religious figures, politicians and ordinary people — sent messages of sympathy and praised his life of teaching and prayer. Funeral arrangements were expected to follow family and religious customs.
