Yola

Yola (Fulfulde: Ƴoola) is the capital of Adamawa State, North East Nigeria. With a population of 337,000 in 2010, it is the largest city in Adamawa State. It is also the seat of the traditional Adamawa emirate. The town is served by the port of Jimeta (9 km north-northwest) on the Benue River, about 800 km above its confluence with the Niger, and by an airfield. It is about 10 km north of the city on the road to Mubi.

Understand
Yola (Fulfulde: Ƴoola) means 'Great Plain' or 'Vast Plain Land'. The name Yola is derived from yolde, a Fula (Fulani language) word signifying a settlement on rising ground. Yola is split into two parts which are the old town of Yola where the Lamido resides and the new city of Jimeta (about 5 km NW) which is the administrative and commercial centre. The ethnic groups in Yola include the Fulbe, Yungur, Kilba, Higgi, Hausa, Bata, Yoruba, Kanuri, and Igbo.

It is the home to various institutions of learning, such as the: American University of Nigeria (AUN) (which is Africa's first and only development university), Adamawa State Polytechnic, the Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola (MAUTECH, previously known as Federal University of Technology). It also houses one of the six campuses of the Nigerian Law school located beside the American University of Nigeria and many other educational institutions.

Yola has the first airport in Nigeria and was the first town to have electricity. On 17 November 2015, a suicide bombing killed over 30 people.

History
Yola was founded and made the political centre of Adamawa emirate in 1841, when Modibbo Adama (“Learned One”) Adama, the Fulani founder of the emirate, established Yola as a base in his jihad against the indigenous Bata (Batta) and Vere (Verre) peoples. The municipality of Yola sprawls across the hillside of 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. During the Islamic movement led by Shehu Usman Dan Fodio in the early 19th century, Modibbo Adama was recognized 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.

By plane
Visitors that intend to come into Yola by Air have to make use of the state airport which is Yola International Airport.

By bus
There are many bus transport companies in Yola that offer daily services from almost all major cities and states around the country. The buses are usually comfortable for short and long journey. You can travel to Yola from major cities like Abuja, Lagos, Kano. Some of the transport companies are:




 * GUO Transport, Jendutu Park, customer care line: +234 807 509 0653, +234 908 671 2710, +234 700 012 1000
 * Oyiad Transport and Logistics, Modibbo Street, Yola, Adamawa
 * Adamawa Transport company Limited, 21A, Sir Kashim Ibrahi­m Way.

Get around
Yola being the state capital, it is a major transport hub with buses and taxis heading North to Mubi and Maiduguri, West to Numan, Gombe, jalingo and Bauchi and South to Makurdi and Katsina Ala. Taxis are available to Garoua in Cameroon. There is an airport with regular flights to Abuja, Kano, Maiduguri and Lagos.

See

 * The Three Sisters are a natural body of mountains in Song LGA of Adamawa state. Although it is not clearly known how the name of the hill came about, people around the place really behave in appreciation of the natural wonder of this hill. They believe the threesome mountains form a part of them and as such, take them as family. The place is not too far from Jimeta in Yola, because it is just about an hour’s drive from the Adamawa state capital. One interesting aspect of the tree sisters hills is that when you are approaching the mountains, one would only see the three slanting inwards to the right. The most prominent one is the mountain to the left and it is the only one that could be climbed by the adventurous at heart.
 * Mandara Mountains are a volcanic range extending about 190 km along the northern part of the Cameroon–Nigeria border, from the Benue River in the south to the north-west of Maroua in the north.
 * Koma is a relatively primitive hill-dwelling ethnic group in northern Adamawa, in the Atlantika. The Koma people are divided into three main groups, the hill-dwelling Beya and Ndamti, and the Vomni and Verre lowlanders.
 * Kiri Dam is located in Shelleng local government area of Adamawa State in the North East of Nigeria, built across the Gongola River. It is a 1.2 km long, 20 m high zoned embankment with an internal clay blanket. The dam was mainly completed in 1982. The reservoir has a capacity of 615 million m³. This dam was built to provide irrigation for the Savannah Sugar Company (SSC) which is a large-scale sugar cane plantation and processing company.
 * Koma is a relatively primitive hill-dwelling ethnic group in northern Adamawa, in the Atlantika. The Koma people are divided into three main groups, the hill-dwelling Beya and Ndamti, and the Vomni and Verre lowlanders.
 * Kiri Dam is located in Shelleng local government area of Adamawa State in the North East of Nigeria, built across the Gongola River. It is a 1.2 km long, 20 m high zoned embankment with an internal clay blanket. The dam was mainly completed in 1982. The reservoir has a capacity of 615 million m³. This dam was built to provide irrigation for the Savannah Sugar Company (SSC) which is a large-scale sugar cane plantation and processing company.

Do
Njuwa fishing festival is an annual fishing festival performed by the Buatiye (Bata) people of Rugange, Njoboliyo, Dasin, Dulo, Bagale, Dagri, and Vunoklan villages of Adamawa Emirate. Although there is no fixed date for the festival, it usually takes place when the level of the water in the lake reduces. In most cases, it comes up in the month of April. The fishing festival attracts many people from within and outside the state. It is one of the numerous festivals in the state that attracts milling crowds. Some of these festivals include Kuchichep in Takum, Ibi fishing festival in Ibi, Vunon wrestling in Farai near Numan, Yinagu near Gulak and Kilashe feast at Mbulo near Ganye. The festival is usually a two-day festival and it is normally marked by a lot of performances, ranging from traditional dances to competitive running, tug-of-war, boat riding, swimming, fishing, etc. The festival attracts many fishermen with different kinds of style and skill in catching fish. While some make good use of their bare hands and gourds to catch fish, others make use of nets to do so.

Buy
Yolal has local markets and supermarkets where visitors and tourists can go and buy anything they need.

Connect
In Yola, you would most likely find a reliable coverage of the 2G/3G mobile networks in most areas of this city, but reliable coverage of the 4G network might only be limited to some areas in Yola. Signal strength might diminish further away from the city centre, and you might occasionally experience a network outage for all or some of the mobile phone service providers in some remote areas in the region. Different networks tend to be more stable and reliable in different locations of the region at different times.

Go next

 * Numan
 * Jalingo
 * Ganye
 * Fufore
 * Jimeta
 * Mubi