ADIEU, GOOD EMIR ADO BAYERO!

Bayero, CFR, LLD, JP, Emir of Kano, and No. 1 Reader of The Saturday Column.I was personally close to the Emir; first, as writer of a column which he avidly followed (rarely missing it every week, he once told me – even if he had to travel abroad, he would ask that copies be kept […]

Bayero, CFR, LLD, JP, Emir of Kano, and No. 1 Reader of The Saturday Column.
I was personally close to the Emir; first, as writer of a column which he avidly followed (rarely missing it every week, he once told me – even if he had to travel abroad, he would ask that copies be kept for him); and second, as Director General of the A Daidaita Sahu programme initiated by former Kano State Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, a programme the Emir took up as his own personal assignment.
Therefore, the death of the Emir is a personal loss. We take solace in the fact that the Emir ruled well for over fifty years, and he was much beloved of his people. Despite the fact that the Emir was over 83, we intensely feel the pain of his departure. Inna lilLahi wa inna ilaiHi raji’un! May Allah forgive Emir Ado Bayero. Allah Ya jikan Sarki Ado.
As writer of my weekly Saturday Column, I would only know who reads me only from the feedback I get from readers. But when the Emir wanted to send his own feedback, he did it in two dramatic ways: first, he told my boss Mallam Shekarau to tell me that he really loved my writing; and two, when he was once leaving Kano Government House after a Sallah Hawan Nassarawa event, the Emir saw me, stopped in his tracks, turned back, came up to me, shook my hands and said ”Kwana Biyu. Continue writing fa!”
Would the earth have swallowed me that day! All the Commissioners, Special Advisers and top functionaries of the State were there. So were all the King’s Men! Those who thought I was politically-inclined were quick to comment: “Sarki ya nuna ka!” For that sort of recognition, or feedback, I would forever remain grateful to Alhaji Ado Bayero. (Some of the King’s Men were later to visit me in the office and reveal that that was the first time they had seen the Emir do that to anyone – and so would I kawo gaisuwa please)…
One day, the Emir invited me to the Palace for a private audience. As I did not know whether the invitation was official (related to A Daidaita Sahu) or unofficial (related to my writing), I decided on the side of caution to presume it official and go with then A Daidaita Sahu Director of Administration, Alhaji Ibrahim Sagagi. It turned out that the Emir wanted to emphasise what he had once told Mallam Shekarau to tell me – that he wanted me to compile all I had ever written into a book, or books.
During that private meeting, the Emir, un-turbanned and free of all officialdom and royal-dom, freely discussed how he liked my ideas, and reeled off examples from my past articles, many of which I had personally forgotten. He particularly liked many of the humorous articles that appeared long past on this page. He laughed heartily, and I laughed with, but after, him. Sagagi, my companion, would later say also would the earth have swallowed him too that day – he never imagined the Emir in that state of relaxation. And, Sagagi added with good measure, that he was mortally terrified that I would do hi-fives (tafawa) with the royal personage!
But we became extra close, the Emir and I, during the A Daidaita Sahu assignment (which was essentially an Attitudinal and Behavioural Change Campaign). He took it upon himself as his personal crusade. As Mallam Shekarau was Chairman and the Emir Alternate Chairman, we alternated A Daidaita Sahu Council Meetings between the Government House and the Palace. At the Palace, even if he were present, Mallam Shekarau would ask the Emir to chair the meetings. And he would do so efficiently and officiously.
For a period of six months from October 2005 to April 2006, the Emir personally toured all the headquarters of the forty four local governments in Kano State (which, to the Kano Emirate Council, doubled as District Headquarters) to launch the A Daidaita Sahu programme. At over seventy then, the energy the Emir exhibited during those six months were unprecedented – according to those closest to him and who were on the tours.
In two far-flung local governments, Rogo and Doguwa (the latter with headquarters at Riruwai), the Emir spent the nights because of the distance, so that the launches would not be delayed while he commuted. For other local governments where proximity allowed, such as Minjibir and Gezawa, he would do the two launches on the same day, one in the morning and the other in the evening. So tireless was he.
When, at Riruwai, the Emir noticed that A Daidaita Sahu was showing majigi (mobile cinema) in the night, he called us (my colleagues and me) and commended that innovative approach to public enlightenment – and then asked how he could watch the majigi too. When we promised him a private viewing, he said he would love to watch it together with his subjects, the people!
At Garun Mallam, the Emir told my colleagues and me that it was then more than thirty years since he last visited that particular district. He thanked all of us – his niece Gwaggo Mariya, Ibrahim Kabara, Abdullahi Musa, Amina Umar, Auwalu Mu’azu, myelf and others – most sincerely for making it possible for him to see his people.
When Mallam Shekarau concluded his tenure in 2011, he handed over a white flag, symbolising A Daidaita Sahu, to the Emir. Whenever I would visit the Emir after 2011, he would always remember to say “Tutar nan tana nan!” (The flag is intact!) Allahu Akbar!
In January 2013, while returning from a Qur’anic Graduation at Masallacin Murtala in Hausawa Area, the Emir was waylaid by suspected Boko Haram militants, and was nearly assassinated. As his time was not then up, Allah used the agency of his bodyguards to take the bullets for him; many of them died. From then on, the state of health of the Emir took a turn for the worse.
His last, and apparently fatal, assignment was the appointment last week of his childhood friend Shaikh Muhammad Nasir Muhammad, Imam of Waje Juma’a Mosque at Fagge, as Waziri, or Prime Minister/Chief Adviser, of the Kano Emirate. The government of Kano State and apparently many at the Palace, and many more outside, did not see this appointment as wise. First, Shaikh Nasir, as Imam and Islamic scholar, is seen by many to be controversial, to say the least; and second, many had expected another Waziri to be chosen from the traditional Wazirci House where the last, Shaikh Isa Waziri (who died in 2013) came from.
When attempt by the Kano State Government to prevail on the Emir to rescind the Waziri decision apparently failed, it was said the Sultanate Council, as headquarters of the Sokoto Caliphate of which Kano is a part, intervened. A top official was dispatched to Kano (as was done in a not too dissimilar situation back in 1899 or thereabouts), and the end result was that the appointment of Shaikh Nasir was rescinded. Only Allah knows what transpired in that Palace during those hours. But we know that the Emir just recently returned from a medical treatment abroad; he was over eighty; and he had survived an assassination attempt.
May Allah forgive Emir Ado Bayero. Allah Ya jikan Sarki Ado.