By Gimba Kakanda

On Sudan, and why (Northern) Nigerians study there—a response to some of the condescending, sensationalising and unmistakably prejudiced hot takes trending:

1. Sudan isn’t the collapsible banana republic you assumed it is. It’s not just what you see on CNN. It’s had over a century of health professions education, long before Nigeria had its first medical school, and they have an evolved medical education system that attracts undergraduate and postgraduate medical students from across the world. They had had a university for more than half a century before Nigeria had one.

2. Northern Nigeria and Sudan haven’t only had historical interactions and cultural similarities, but Sudanese tertiary institutions also offer superior specialised training in various fields of Islamic studies. For instance, Nigeria’s former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, obtained a master’s degree in Islamic Jurisprudence at a Sudanese university in the 90s—and he’s one of the smartest public servants Nigeria has ever had. This Sudanese education you’ve portrayed with contempt guided him in reforming Islamic banking in Nigeria during his stewardship at the apex bank.

3. If your aim was to treat Sudan as a hub of substandard education in a country that rushes to French-speaking Cotonou for months-long bachelor’s degrees, that argument won’t hold water. Your stereotypical point about Sudan being a breeding ground of religious extremism is also your consumption of the wrong news channels. The last time I checked, some of the most notorious international terrorists we’ve seen were radicalised in the West, including Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who’s studying at UCL when he fell apart.

4. A few months ago, Nigerian students were rescued from Ukraine, a European country, and we didn’t see these epistles about the whys of their choices of unstable and war-prone countries to study. FYI, Ukraine is a third-world country of blue-eyed, blonde-haired people. Or is your outrage because Sudan is an African or Muslim country?

5. Even as I wrote this, there were still Nigerians from all parts of the country studying in the war-torn Ukraine and Russia, two countries locked in the deadliest war in the world right now. Why aren’t you alarmed by the presence of Nigerians in Ukraine, a country that has been at war for decades? I know this because I have friends still studying there. So, let me ask you exactly what you asked northerners: “What kind of people are these people?”

6. You know quite well the reason Nigerians rush to study abroad—this fear of studying a 5-year programme for about a decade. Ironically, Sudan, for the Nigerians there, isn’t just for the affordability of the schools—a lot of our students in Sudan are from comfortable middle-class families that pay huge sums in tuition and other fees to give their children decent education at private institutions in a culturally familiar foreign country close to their home.

7. And, yes, this environment matters to some. The alienation of adapting to a new environment isn’t an easy cultural dislocation for some, and Sudan offers these northern Muslim students that avenue to study without the culture shocks or civilisational crisis, which even cosmopolitan black students experience in the West.

8. I think some of you should take your time and read up on Sudan. If you can’t write Ukraine off as just a place of war, that ancient African country too deserves the benefit of the doubt. It’s more than its war. There are people elsewhere who also wonder why there are still people in Nigeria, believing the entire country is at war. This isn’t even the time to point fingers.

https://twitter.com/gimbakakanda/status/1650361786728677378

I'm not even saying Sudan is the best place to study, but if our southern brothers can be studying in Kosovo, Maldova and Belarus( just because they're in European continent), then we have no justification to tell north not to go to Sudan. Just my simple opinion

Educative.

ECWA SIM emanated from there also.

Tolue43:
I'm not even saying Sudan is the best place to study, but if our southern brothers can be studying in Kosovo, Maldova and Belarus( just because they're in European continent), then we have no justification to tell north not to go to Sudan. Just my simple opinion

sudan is below nigeria in all ramifications,meanwhile ukraine before the war and even after the war is still above nigeria in all ramifications so I don't get the comparisms

I need a JOB

LordIsaac:
ECWA SIM emanated from there also.

Not true sir. The work of SIM in Africa started in Pategi, Kwara State.

PROPEACE:

Not true sir. The work of SIM in Africa started in Pategi, Kwara State.

SIM is "Sudan Interior Mission."

Comparing Ukraine and lesser Europeans countries to Sudan.
No disrespect to Sudan and Sudanese, but let's be factual when we to start this contrast and compare thing.

Who goes to Sudan to study, you can still present a case for Cotonou,the urge to learn French.
a universal language.
But what are we gaining in Sudan.

Na we be your best plug for everything Sexual enhancement tho

Most terrorist school in Sudan ... Usman bin ladi even own a company in Sudan... Most of the wanted terrorist in Nigeria have link with Sudan....confidecial...... Top secret

Change it to. Why Nigerian Northerners school in Sudan.

E for make sense like dat.

Nigerians are everywhereSha..... even for space you go see them

Northern Sudan and Yemen have one thing in common

LordIsaac:
ECWA SIM emanated from there also.

It means Sudan region of West Africa. Now (Sudan Interior Mission)
Former:SIM-Soudan Interior Mission.

ECWA: Evangelical Church Of West Africa.
Now Evangelical Church Winning All.

To be a certified terrorist,you must pass through Sudan, Lebanon or Libya.

LordIsaac:

SIM is "Sudan Interior Mission."

Not Sudan as a country but Sudan region of West Africa.

AntiChristian:
By Gimba Kakanda

On Sudan, and why (Northern) Nigerians study there—a response to some of the condescending, sensationalising and unmistakably prejudiced hot takes trending:
https://twitter.com/gimbakakanda/status/1650361786728677378

You people love romancing lies and evil.

Continue deceiving the gullible!

Sudan is good country to study. There are many scholarship places for international students.
I knew muslim brothers and sisters that went to sudan to study. Free university education.
They studied medicine, law, engineering etc.

AS muslims, good thing about studying in sudan is one learn arabic or rather study in arabic.
I knew brothers that went there because of that.

Nonsense!

By the way, why are there hardly any Christian countries but we have Muslim countries and Islamic republics? Is Islam synonymous with deep rooted allround stupidity?

CondenseMilk:


You people love romancing lies and evil.

Continue deceiving the gullible!

Where is your Truth?

CodeTemplar:
Nonsense!

By the way, why are there hardly any Christian countries but we have Muslim countries and Islamic republics? Is Islam synonymous with deep rooted allround stupidity?

Where do you see any country calling itself Christian or ruling themselves with the laws of the Bible?

Abeg go sidown somewhere jáwé!
They'll always divert thread to another flimsy argument!

LordIsaac:
ECWA SIM emanated from there also.

Sudan Savannah not Sudan nation. There's a region in Africa known as Sudan Savannah that's Sudan region

If their education is so advanced and that is why the northerners go there according to your post, how many children of elite northerners go to school in Sudan? How many children of elite northerners who schooled in America, Europe and UAE are into terrorism?Why will elite northerners seek medical attention and investment opportunities in America, Europe and UAE, instead of your *advanced Sudan"?. I still believe there are motives not known to other regions of Nigeria why they school there.

LordIsaac:

SIM is "Sudan Interior Mission."

The name "Sudan" was an Arabic term which means the "lands of the blacks". So from geographical and historical points of view, the whole of the Savannah regions outside the rainforests and up to the Sahara desert, stretching from West Africa to parts of East Africa was known to Arab explorers as "Sudan". The Sudan region in Nigeria covers from Kogi and Benue States upward to Sokoto-Kano-Borno States. Similarly, the whole of the rainforest region of West Africa stretching from Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Ghana, Southern Nigeria and down to Cameroon is called "Guinea" which means "forest" in the Portuguese language.

Kirigidi:
The name "Sudan" was an Arabic term which means the "lands of the blacks". So from geographical and historical points of view, the whole of the Savannah regions outside the rainforests and up to the Sahara desert, stretching from West Africa to parts of East Africa was known to Arab explorers as "Sudan". The Sudan region in Nigeria covers from Kogi and Benue States upward to Sokoto-Kano-Borno States. Similarly, the whole of the rainforest region of West Africa stretching from Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Ghana, Southern Nigeria and down to Cameroon is called "Guinea" which means "forest" in the Portuguese language.

Yet, you haven't pointed out how the present Sudan is excluded from the description above. Last time I checked, it fits!

Christians and wailing are siamese twins.

They wail over anything and everything rather than action.

Those who go to Sudan to study will return and act while you Christians will remain on social media wailing with your education.