Suleja

Suleja is a city and Local Government Area in Niger State, Nigeria, just north of Abuja, the national capital. It is sometimes confused with Abuja because the town was itself originally named Abuja, before the Nigerian government adopted that name for its new federal capital in 1976. The Wikipedia article says that after Fulani forces captured Zaria in about 1804, Muhamman Makau, king of Zazzau, led many Hausa nobles south, and that his brother and successor Abu Ja founded Abuja town in 1828 and began its wall a year later. The British occupied the town in 1902, and alluvial tin mining began in the reign of Emir Musa Angulu. Suleja is the location of the Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre, founded by Michael Cardew in 1950, and it still exports Gbari pottery; cotton weaving, dyeing with indigo and mat making are traditional activities, though farming remains the chief occupation. In January 2025 a fuel tanker overturned near the Dikko junction and the explosion that followed killed over one hundred people. GeoNames lists Suleja with 162,135 people.