Terem Abacha

Central Defender - Kano Pillars U18
2 Dec 2027
Thursday
Process

Marked for Terem Abacha

16 Edition

The Kano Pillars Gazette

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Muhammed Usman has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kano Pillars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Kano Pillars

Ali Abdullahi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Umar is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Kano Pillars promote Ikechukwu Osayi-Samuel from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ikechukwu Osayi-Samuel has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

Terem Abacha steps up from the Kano Pillars academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Terem Abacha has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

One of our own: Ibrahim Onyekuru joins the Kano Pillars first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibrahim Onyekuru is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Zayyad Musa

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Mustapha Umar knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kano Pillars, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Auwalu Ali Malam has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Kano Pillars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief