Haske Feeds 5,000 Students, Spreads Eid Joy Across Adamawa

Eid al-Fitr arrived this year carrying the usual mix of joy and quiet strain that many Adamawa families know well. For some, the celebrations came with prayers answered. For others, they came with the kind of economic pressure that does not take a day off, not even for Sallah.

Into that space stepped Abdulrahman Bashir Haske.

The Adamawa philanthropist and APC governorship aspirant spent the Ramadan season doing something that residents say they will remember long after the festive atmosphere has faded. He mobilised food packages and welfare support for vulnerable communities across the state, helping families prepare for the Eid celebrations at a time when the cost of doing so has become genuinely difficult for many households.

The centrepiece of the outreach was a daily iftar programme that reached more than 5,000 students across eight tertiary institutions throughout Adamawa. For the duration of the fasting period, students from Modibbo Adama University, Adamawa State University, the Federal College of Education Yola, Adamawa State Polytechnic’s campuses in both Yola and Numan, the College of Agriculture Ganye, and Federal Polytechnic Mubi received meals at the time of breaking fast each evening.

It was not a one-night gesture. Running such a programme consistently across a full month of Ramadan, at that scale and across that number of campuses, represents a sustained and deliberate commitment. Students and community members who benefited described the effort as timely, with many noting that the initiative eased pressures that had been building quietly throughout the fasting season.

Public tertiary institutions in Adamawa have faced familiar welfare challenges in recent years. Student union leaders across several campuses have repeatedly raised concerns about feeding, accommodation, and the general cost of academic life in a season of high inflation. Against that backdrop, the provision of daily iftar meals registered as more than a seasonal gesture for many of those who received it.

In his Eid al-Fitr message, Haske offered gratitude to God for the completion of another Ramadan season and extended warm greetings to the people of Adamawa State. He called on residents to carry the values of compassion, generosity, and togetherness beyond the celebrations and into the everyday life of the communities around them. He also urged people to continue supporting those less fortunate, framing the spirit of Ramadan and Eid not as a seasonal mood but as a lasting civic responsibility.

Those who have followed Haske’s public activities say the Ramadan outreach fits a pattern of community engagement he has maintained with some consistency since signalling his interest in the 2027 Adamawa governorship contest under the APC platform. His supporters have pointed to interventions like this one as evidence of a candidate who chooses proximity to constituents over distance from them.

Whether the goodwill built across thousands of student tables translates into political support as the 2027 race sharpens is a question that remains open. But for the students who broke their fast through his initiative across a demanding and economically pressured Ramadan, the answer to a simpler question, whether the gesture was real and whether it mattered, appeared to be yes.

For The Gazette News (Nigeria), the scale of Haske’s Eid al-Fitr outreach is worth noting not simply as a political story but as a human one. In a season that asks its faithful to give, and in a state where many are navigating genuine hardship, the decision to show up with something tangible carries a meaning that extends beyond any campaign calendar.

Eid Mubarak.