His mother died shortly after giving birth to him, and he was raised by his father's first wife, Tasalla, as her own child, alongside her other sons, Makau and Abu Kwaka.
In 1828, at the foot of the Abuchi hills, he built his house, and a year later, he began constructing defensive walls around the new town, which he named after himself.
Some years after the completion of the walls of Abuja, the Emir of Zazzau, Mamman Sani, set out on an expedition and camped outside the town.
However, after holding talks with Abu Ja, he gathered his army and left, declaring that he had only set out to fight pagans, not the people of Abuja.
[2] In 1851, a combined force from Nassarawa and Kontagora, both owing allegiance to the Sokoto Caliphate, waged war on the people of Toto.
Umaru Nagwamatse, a Sokoto prince and the Emir of Kontagora, threatened to abandon the war if Abu Ja's sons were not released.