How Malam Aminu Kano ‘cheated’ Nigeria

Afew days ago, at the 34th anniversary of the death of Malam Aminu Kano, foremost First and Second Republic politician, and Nigeria’s undisputed champion of the masses, Professor Jibril Aminu made a telling remark. He said that Aminu Kano was blessed to be remembered every year, on April 17th.

Professor Aminu, a twotime minister, a former senator and a professor of medicine, made this remark to draw attention to the fact that not every leader can be that lucky. And he is right.

In the early days of this newspaper, a young colleague of mine went to interview a Northern notable who started out as a civil servant in the First Republic. He was then reputed to be a member of the fabled Kaduna Mafia. In the course of the interview, this elder statesman mentioned another topnotch Northerner, and my colleague quickly used the chance to say that he had plans to interview the other man too. He then asked the elder statesman to give him a note or calling card with which to approach the top-notcher and request an audience.

The elder statesman shook his head and told my colleague that a note or card from him meant a great deal to people, it carried a lot of weight so he wouldn’t give him one. On his return to the office, this young man discussed what happened with some of our more seasoned colleagues and they explained that the old man wasn’t bluffing, that an introductory note from him had made people millionaires, overnight. He was that influential.

Now, what I find instructive is that this old man has been dead for over twelve years and not once did I hear of a seminar, symposium or even a prayer session to remember him. All the millionaires he helped to create, overnight, seemed to have forgotten him. He seemed to have chosen the wrong legacy when he invested in enriching a few.

But numerous anecdotes from the life of Malam serve to show the love and dedication with which he served his people. A reason which evidently justifies the annual commemoration he gets from both his disciples and non-disciples alike.

During a dinner with his official biographer, Mr Alan Feinstein and his wife in Johannesburg, in 1994, I heard another testimony to the great and selfless nature of Malam Aminu Kano. Mrs Feinstein, whose first name I can’t remember, was the more outgoing of the two. She seemed to know everyone who was anyone in the North, at the time. When she mentioned Malam, it was with great familiarity. She particularly narrated an incident that happened when they once visited Aminu Kano at his home in Gwammaja. Probably buoyed by the legendary Kano heat, Mrs Feinstein said she was forced to ask him “Aminu why don’t you get a fan?” And Malam had looked up and answered “Because the people don’t have it.” In other words Malam did not wish to own anything that the ordinary man in Kano couldn’t afford to own. I had earlier heard about Aminu Kano’s aversion to the use of the word ‘masses’. He preferred to call them ‘people.’ Mrs Feinstein’s anecdote proved just that.

It was reported that when late Chief Obafemi Awolowo went to condole the family of Malam, after his death, he looked around the spartan bedroom and the total lack of luxury in the house and simply said ‘This country has cheated this man.’ He could not understand Aminu Kano’s asceticism and disdain for living above the ordinary man. But, to me, it was the other way round. Malam was the one who cheated Nigeria by refusing to be tainted by the corruption and self-aggrandisement that always saw her leaders always living head and shoulders above their people.

If people with the conscience of Aminu Kano have been ruling this country, today we would be rubbing shoulders with developed nations of the world, in terms of high living standards and technological advancement. Men like Aminu Kano put their people first and never elevated their wishes and demands above those of the people.

But what we’ve been having are leaders who put people last, who looted public treasuries, who allowed infrastructure to decay, who paid no attention to education, health and other vital sectors of the nation. With a fate this bad, how can we be anywhere but at the bottom wrung of the Third World?

When I worked at the defunct Continental Merchant Bank in Lagos, my immediate boss was Mr Alamu, a man confined to a wheelchair, due to an accident he had as a school boy. One day he told me that he owed his university education to the benevolence of Malam Aminu Kano. I couldn’t believe what I heard, so I asked him how, and he told me this story. After finishing secondary school, an elder advised him to visit the country home of a very prominent Yoruba politician and seek help in obtaining a scholarship. He did as he was advised but the Big Man did not even allow my boss to enter into his compound. The moment he saw the man on a wheel chair, he told his guards not to let that beggar into his house. Hurt and disappointed, my former boss returned to Lagos and told his elder what transpired. Then someone else advised him to go and see the then federal commissioner for education, who had a reputation for helping people with educationrelated problems. That man was none other than Malam Aminu Kano. And that was how Mr Alamu got a scholarship for his university education.

Though most people believe Malam Aminu Kano and Sir Ahmadu Bello were political adversaries, it is on record that a January 1966 entry into Malam’s diary showed that he had a planned meeting the Sardauna on the 7th of that month. It isn’t clear if the meeting had taken place, considering that Sir Ahmadu Bello returned from Umra on the 11th and was killed on the 15th. But this diary entry showed that they had a cordial relationship and might have agreed to disagree.

Also on record, is the fact that on the