In the 1980s, Dayyabu Abba-Kurfi’s striking prowess for his high school football club in north-west Nigeria earned him the unlikely nickname Doncaster, after the English third-tier side more than 3,800 miles away. More than four decades later, in August last year, he scored perhaps his most important goal, brokering a peace pact between his neighbours in Kurfi, in Katsina state, and the bandit gangs terrorising communities there.
“For months now, we have experienced relative calm … our people are rebuilding their livelihoods,” the 60-year-old civil servant and local politician said.
