Mallam Aminu Kano was a Muslim politician from northern Nigeria. He symbolized democratization, women’s empowerment and freedom of speech. He also proposed a fiscal system that favors heavy taxation of the rich in the region and was notably one of the few leading Nigerian politicians that supported equal rights for women. Mallam Aminu Kano joined the Northern Elements Progressive Union as a political platform to challenge what he felt was the autocratic and feudalistic actions of the Native Northern Government. In the 1940s he led a socialist movement in the northern part of the country in opposition to British rule.
Early Life and Education
Aminu Kano was born into the family of the Islamic scholar, Mallam Yusuf, of the scholarly Gyanawa Fulani tribe, who was a mufti at the Alkali court in Kano around the year 1920.
He attended Katsina College and then went to the Institute of Education at the University of London, along with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. After completing his studies at Katsina College, he received his teaching certificate and subsequently became a teacher; he started teaching at Bauchi Training College.
The Politics of Mallam Aminu Kano
Aminu Kano co-founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) as a political forum to counter what he saw as the autocratic and oppressive actions of the Native Northern Government. He focused his attack on the ruling class, including the emirs, who were mostly Fulanis.
The influence of his platform was enhanced partly because of its history. His father was an acting Alkali in Kano who came from a family of Islamic clerics, and Aminu Kano even introduced Islamic ideas about justice in his campaign trails in the First Republic.
Many Talakawas (commoners) in Kano lined up behind his post and his political popularity grew from the support of the Kano commoners and the migrating petty traders in the north.
Mallam Bello Ijumu, Secretary-General of the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) in a chat with Mallam Aminu Kano, Leader of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), 1956.
One emir in the north said that the key problem created by Mallam Aminu for the traditional institution was that “he taught the common people how to say ‘no’” He also organised the people to know their rights and to stand up for these rights.
Aminu Kano’s contributions to Nigeria
Mallam Aminu, along with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mallam Yahaya Gusau and Chief Joseph S. Tarka, was in General Yakubu Gowon‘s cabinet during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). In fact, he was in charge of the war procurements, in addition to being the Federal Commissioner for Health and Communications at various times in that military government.
When he went to Sudan and saw how Islamic schools were incorporated into modern education, he came to Kano to set up the first model of Islamiyya school. His greatest concern in his life was how to get everyone informed and successful. Mallam Aminu was a visionary who was well ahead of his time.
Death and Legacy
At the time of his unexpected death on April 17, 1983, at the age of 63, Mallam Aminu Kano left behind only one house, which is now a research centre of Bayero University, Kano; one wife, Hajia Aishatu, one daughter, Hajiya Maryam; one radio, one television and one farmland.
The Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, North-West Nigeria, is the first airport in Nigeria.
Mallam Aminu Kano was an accomplished politician, a brilliant scholar and teacher, an accomplished administrator, a champion of the emancipation of women, a nationalist, a patriot and, above all, an activist who lived and died for social justice and for the protection and preservation of the fundamental rights of the common people.
As a matter of fact, on page 63 of his book, The Trouble With Nigeria, Professor Chinua Achebe wrote in 1983 that “Nigeria cannot be the same again because Aminu Kano once lived here.”
The Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, and the Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies, all in Kano, are named after him.
