Aminu Kano: Once upon a radical

Every year, at the anniversary of Malam Aminu’s death, I try to publish a two-part article on the revolutionary – mainly to inspire myself.  This year, I couldn’t, as other matters conspire to distract me.  But since it is better late than never, I’m compressing the two parts into one to mark the occasion.  Enjoy. […]

Every year, at the anniversary of Malam Aminu’s death, I try to publish a two-part article on the revolutionary – mainly to inspire myself.  This year, I couldn’t, as other matters conspire to distract me.  But since it is better late than never, I’m compressing the two parts into one to mark the occasion.  Enjoy.
Graduating from instigating students’ unrest in the middle school, he moved to writing, organizing, directing and acting plays that subtly (sometimes not so subtly) ridiculed the native authority and the colonial masters.  And when he met Sa’adu Zungur for the first time in Zaria, during Aminu’s teaching practice, he witnessed the activities of Sa’adu’s brainchild, the Zaria Friendly Society.  This was where contemporary issues were intellectually discussed and debated.
Ideas were always burning inside Malam Aminu.  So it was difficult to for him to sit still and just follow conventions.  His constant search for answers to his questions and his never-ending quest for outlets to bring his ideas to lifemarked him as one easily capable of arousing controversy.
Whenever a door closed, Malam Aminu opened another.  Whenever he knocked and the door wasn’t opened, he pulled it down.  And where there was no door, he erected one.
When Aminu was posted to Bauchi as a junior teacher, he opened a forum of his own in 1943 and called it Bauchi General Improvement Union. By this time Sa’adu Zungur had returned to Bauchi from Zaria due to his failing health. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, later the prime minister, agreed with the general idea of the Union but disagreed with their methods; thus steered clear. 
 Malam Sa’adu and Malam Aminu wanted a rapid ‘now now’ reform in the style of Mustapha Kemal Attaturk of Turkey.  But Mal Abubakar advocated a gradual process.  Although the duo respected the intelligence and patriotism of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, they ignored him and went about writing caustic letters and articles to any newspaper that would publish them. 
It was one of these letters that the colonialists saw and decided to bring the two under their umbrella in order to control them.  This reasoning gave birth to the first officially sanctioned discussion circle, the Bauchi Discussion Circle.  But that was a terrible mistake on the part of the colonialists because rather than allowing their wings to be clipped, the two soared higher because now they had larger audience which included the Emir of Bauchi and the Senior Political Officer, Mr. Knott who attended their meetings. 
As the Secretary, Mal Aminu was the engine room of the circle and was left to choose the topics to debate.  However, his topics were almost always not what the Emir and the white masters wanted to hear.  So in less than a year, the discussion circle died and was quickly interred.
Except that in just a few weeks Sa’adu and Aminu exhumed and rebranded it to Bauchi Community Centre.  At their first meeting, Mal Abubakar Tafawa Balewa suddenly appeared with a message from the Emir, “As a member of the emir’s council,” he said, “I am hereby requested by the emir to inform you that you are to disband, as all unions are forbidden.”
  When others were still in shock, Sa’adu asked, “Tell me, sir, are you a messenger carrying information, or are you the executor of the order as well?”  Mal Abubakar said he was only a messenger.  “In that case,” Sa’adu continued “we ask you to deliver our reply to the Emir that we will not disband.”
 Now the government weary of Aminu’s sharp tongue and pen, sent him to England for a year’s study.  The government back home got a year’s respite which they sought but Mal Aminu started another association in London, which he packaged and imported to Nigeria after graduation.
 Northern Teachers Association (NTA) was started in London when Mal. Aminu reasoned that there was need for a northern association in London.  Therefore he dragged his friends, colleagues and even his teachers – the willing and the unwilling – all along.  
When Mal Aminu came back to Nigeria, Abubakar Imam, a journalist and Dr. Dikko, a medical practitioner appealed to him to expand the organization to include other professionals other than teachers.  Thereafter, NTA became NPC (Northern People’s Congress).  With the expansion of the umbrella came many problems.  So when some radicals in Kano started a new political party (NEPU), Aminu Kano jumped in front of the parade and later became the live wire of the party although he wasn’t one of the founders.  
Professor Alkasum Abba the former Vice Chancellor of Adamawa State University listed the original founders of NEPU in his book, The Politics of Principles in Nigeria, The Example of the NEPU, as: Abba Maikwaru, Bello Ijumu, Babaliya Manaja, Musa Kaula, Abdulkadir Danjaji, Musa Bida, Magaji Danbatta and Mudi Sipikin. NEPU was derived from NEPA (Northern Elements Progressive Association).  Abdu Rahman Bida, the President, and Abubakar Zukogi both Nupe radicals were sacked from the Native Authority because of their membership.
Nonetheless, because of his busy-beaver disposition, his inescapable presence and his constant fight for justice, Aminu Kano is the most remembered member of the party.  Isn’t it time we produced another bloke like him?