FROM KUMASI, REMEMBERING ADO BAYERO

“Ka taba jin wanda ya ce ya yi da-na-sanin hakuri?” (Have you ever heard of anyone regretting being patient?”) This philosophical question was once asked by the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, of one of his children. That question, the son said, has ever since stuck in his mind, as it will now […]

“Ka taba jin wanda ya ce ya yi da-na-sanin hakuri?” (Have you ever heard of anyone regretting being patient?”) This philosophical question was once asked by the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, of one of his children. That question, the son said, has ever since stuck in his mind, as it will now ours.

That, and many other pieces of wisdom from the departed Sarki, were the points of discussion two weekends ago in Kumasi, Ghana, where we were for the Third Annual Conference of the Ado Bayero Foundation (ABF), a body set up to sustain the memory and legacy of the late Sarki who reigned from 1963 till his demise in June 2014.

The purposes of taking this year’s Conference to Kumasi, according to ABF President Barrister Abdullahi Ado Bayero in his Welcome Remarks that morning of July 2, were one, to dedicate the Ado Bayero Institute (consisting of a mosque and a school), and two, to inaugurate the Ghana Branch of the Foundation founded by Muslim Ghanaians.

My role at the event was Keynote Speaker with the topic “Sarki Ado Bayero – the Quintessential Intellectual.” I was invited because the Foundation’s founders remember my close association with the late king spanning several years (especially from 2004 when I became DG of Kano State Societal Reorientation Programme, A Daidaita Sahu, which he personally chaired with then Governor Ibrahim Shekarau), and also because he was an avid reader of this Column, and a regular commentator (though, as Sarki, he would personally send for me to comment directly, and say ‘not for publication’).

Since the ABF Annual Lectures began in 2015, the series had benefitted immensely from the intellectual outpourings of my good friend, colleague and brother Historian Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa and of my senior colleague Prof. Mustafa Gwadabe of ABU Zaria.

“Life is about change. We used to be the ones who called the shots; then a time came when we were consulted; then another time came when we were only informed; then finally came a time came when they would finish everything and then inform us. Such is life.” Another pearl of wisdom from the late Emir, as reported by Historian Kurawa.

One important takeaway from the Kumasi meeting, which should be important for us, was that Sarkin Yarabawa (Leader of the Yorubas in Kumasi) represented Sultan Alhaji Umarul Faruk Saeed, the Sarkin Zango (Leader of the Hausas and all Muslims) at the Lecture (as the Sarki himself was indisposed). At the occasion, there were Sarkin Barebari (Kanuri), Sarkin Borgawa (Borgu, Niger State), Sarkin Mossawa (Mossi, Burkina Faso), Sarkin Dagwambawa (Dagomba, Northern Ghana) and others. And, of course, the Ulama were there.

The Chairman of this year’s Lecture, Ciroman Kano Alhaji Nasir Ado Bayero, recalled the visit he accompanied the late Emir to Kumasi about ten years earlier to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Asantehene, ruler of the Asantes whose headquarters is Kumasi. He stated that the Muslim Community were hospitable then, as they were hospitable now. This, he said, was evidence that the people of Kumasi still held his late father in high esteem. The bonds the late Emir established in Ghana, according to the Chairman, were an extension of the ones he was known for in Nigeria – bridge-builder, peace-maker.

The Ciroma shared several anecdotal episodes with his late father, many of which have remained eternal lessons for him. Once, he said, they were in Singapore on a visit, and the late Emir was declared missing from his hotel room. And it was long before the age of mobile phones and GPS. They searched for him for the whole day, eventually reporting to hotel management and the police. It was almost Maghrib time that the late Sarki turned up, finding his entourage jugum-jugum (sad and gloomy) in the Reception.

“Whatever happened to you, Sire?”, they chorused. “Well,” he told them, “I was trying to see if I could be independent of you and navigate the town on my own. Then I got lost! And I completely forgot the hotel’s name, the area, and even the telephone number the hotel gave us just in case. And this, my being lost, is one of the greatest lessons I have learnt in life – getting lost in a foreign land without navigational aids (and without you, Entourage), and being able to trace my way back! Everyone should get lost once or twice!”

After the inauguration of the Ghana Branch of the ABF under its President Alhaji Muhammad Yasin Yusha, the Sarkin Zango’s representative and his Chiefs and Islamic Scholars were profuse in their gratitude to the ABF and the event chairman for choosing Kumasi to host such an auspicious event.

In my lecture, I also narrated what I learnt from the late Sarki and his intellectual impact on my Lilliputian output. If, as I had said previously, he had any comment on any piece I wrote, he would ask his private secretary, the Sallaman Kano, to place a call to me. It would be like, “His Highness will see you on so and so a day at so and so a time” (which was a euphemism for “Sarki wants to see you.”) I didn’t ask for appointment, yet here was I being summoned for a private audience (for which at one time I had to rush from abroad to honour!)

At first, I didn’t know what these private audiences entailed, so would go with ‘entourage’. One day in 2010, as I narrated on this page in my Eulogy of him and also of Late Governor Rimi, the Emir invited me for private audience and I went with Alhaji Ibrahim Sagagi, my then Director Admin. It turned out that the Emir wanted to discuss intellectual matters and re-emphasise his directive to me to compile all I had ever written into a book, or books.

During that meeting, the Emir, un-turbanned and free of officialdom and royal-dom, freely discussed my and his ideas, reeling off examples from my past articles. He particularly liked the humorous pieces that always adorned this page. We laughed heartily (though I laughed after him). Sagagi, my companion, would later say would the earth have opened up and swallowed him that day – he never imagined the Emir of Kano in that state of humour and joviality. And, Sagagi added with good measure, he was mortally terrified that I would do hi-fives (tafawa) with the royal personage!

Another example: In 2007, I invited my good friend Yousuf Deedat to Nigeria. We paid a courtesy call on the Emir and paid homage at Court (Fada). He later invited us to see him in the evening. On seeing him all relaxed and changed, Yousuf looked at the Emir and said “What a transformation! You were the King in the morning?” (Woe unto me! Would the earth have swallowed me, Yousuf’s escort!)

But the Sarki took it in his stride and said, “You haven’t seen anything on transformation. Do you remember the gentleman that visited your late father (Shaikh Ahmad Deedat) in Durban such and such year, and you took him out to a barber’s and back to his hotel?” Yousuf said he clearly remembered and added, “Please don’t tell me you were the one!” “Indeed I was!” was the answer. “Now talk of transformation again.” Till Yousuf left for Durban a week later, he was in a sort of swoon! And I with him!

The Kumasi Gathering finally asked that the legacy of the late Emir should be preserved in an Ado Bayero Library similar to that of Abuja’s Shehu Yarádua or Kaduna’s Gusau Institute.