In the School of Mallam

At moments like this, we always struggle in vain against this inevitability; and we seek to reduce the pain of parting, this also in vain; because love doesn’t know itself until it cannot be given, and the lover doesn’t quite know the depth of his feelings until his object is missed—forever. And so, how do we remember what we haven’t forgotten?

In our landscape of broken promises, hopes betrayed, dreams shattered and resources stolen, we can better understand the uniqueness and beauty of Mallam and what he meant to us all—an honest man who had never short changed his society in any way; a trustworthy politician—almost a contradiction in terms—who had never betrayed his people’s trust; a leader who led us by the force of example and who chose to share pain when he could have partaken in every type of pleasure; for, he was a teacher to the nation who believed in and practised exactly what he preached.

Despite claims by some political leaders, he was perhaps the only genuinely socialist of the lot, not that there is anything intrinsically good in socialism; but that the truth ought to be told. While others called themselves progressives and others socialists, it was Mallam Aminu who, without being doctrinaire, came nearest to the ideal that this ideology preached—in theory and in practice. But he merely saw himself as a democratic humanist; and, if we could agree on the definition of democracy, this better term would best describe him. He was a soldier for his nation and a sentinel for his region. He was every inch and at every instance a practical and an untiring warrior in the epic battle against the three monsters of oppression, ignorance and indolence that have proved incurable Northern cankerworms.

Despite the genuineness of his lifelong struggle for national unity and integration, Mallam would in later life be boxed into a corner by a display of tribalism by Nigeria’s officialdom over the former Radio Television Kaduna, over which, for every Nigerian, he found a slight mismatch between national unity and gidan ubansa, where views of the nation were coloured by the pre-eminence of primordial instincts with regard to communal and regional territoriality; and, here, he almost became something of an angry sceptical realist. Nonetheless, if the term detribalised had any meaning at all, it would find its best expression in the political conduct and manner of Mallam Aminu. A proud Fulani by birth, a Hausaman by domicile, a Northerner by culture, a Nigerian by politics, a nationalist by alliances, Mallam Aminu represented the best of what it meant to be a Nigerian.

The actuality and essence of the life and politics of Mallam Aminu was the result and synthesis of a most beautiful contradiction. There he was, this product of Kano ta Dabo, the capital city of money and crass materialism turning his back on the world of material possessions; a scion of the triumvirate of an aristocracy of scholars, judges and monarchs turning his back on every type of privilege and shelteredness and fighting the entire nobility of the Establishment that sired him; someone schooled and accomplished in Western ways eschewing its promises and demands, always going back to origin—to religious verities—to validate his here and now.

Mallam Aminu pioneered a revolution in the thinking and conduct of people. He taught his followers that their takbirat al-ihram was the declaration of rebellion to all earthly power; and no one should obey any order not in conformity with justice which alone reflected the will of God.  This NEPU idea which was popularised and later symbolised by Mallam Aminu was sown by the NEPU 8, all of whom are now late, with the exception of Mallam Magaji Dambatta; and this true magaji has outlived even his political colleagues. But more than that, Mallam Magaji represents in his person and achievements all that NEPU stood for and was able to identify, nurture in people and set them to work—a love for justice and hatred for injustice, intelligence, competence, courage, a love for people and a sense of responsibility to them.  This was the promise of NEPU which resurrected in the Second Republic People’s Redemption Party, PRP, but which now seemed to be on retreat despite the masterful attempts of Alhaji Sule Lamido, governor of Jigawa State.

The real loss for Nigeria was that it allowed the NEPU spirit to die, for the politics of this country had not produced a political idea better NEPU or nurtured a spirit nobler than the true NEPU persona. And the NEPU idea is not found in and does not depend on the possession of executive power as the example of its classical period demonstrated. It is first and foremost to be found in the attitude of man, an expression of and commitment by the independent personality in his ordinary course of everyday life to always be on the side of the truth. It is to be able to fight for justice whoever it is for or against, even if it is against one’s own self; to be able to keep and discharge trusts in situations of extreme temptation; to be able to take a stand against the power of oppression at its most arbitrary; and, above all, to be able to tell truth to power, and to say ‘No’ to it—and mean it, even at the pain of death.

His was politics of purpose and always ideologically-based. In the First Republic, it was anti-colonial and anti-feudal, and in the Second Republic anti-imperial—but always nationalist. It was politics as it should be and into it, he drew the true cream of society—not the moneyed class but those of the downtrodden who were endowed with street wisdom, native intelligence and a discriminating spirit that would make them easily understand an oppressive set-up even when clothed in religious or cultural garbs. He taught them to demand not just their own rights but the rights of others—and they did just that. They did it because they believed in the cause, and for them politics was its own reward. How different they were from the men of today.

Where is the politician today who, for the sake of an idea or ideal, can accept to undergo the trials suffered by Mallam Illa Ringim, or suffer similar tribulations to those endured by Ali Kaura Bichi or accept to be a permanent tenant in Plateau jails as suffered by Dawai Jos, who died only two weeks ago, or accept the systematic breaking of bones like Tela Bari Azare, or run the unpaid errands covered by the likes of Tanko Yakasai from Kano to Ibi and from Ibi to Pategi through Hardawa; or be so enamoured of justice for others like Umaru Launi Bauchi that he would drop everything and cover the miles to free someone from trouble whom he never knew?

Or where is the one among them who can tolerate the current circumstances of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, the governor who would rather leave office than compromise his principles. And today, though lacking in executive power, which is perhaps the only thing in the world that he lacks and doesn’t need, even in his splendid isolation and political loneliness, he dwarfs all those who do have office and power—in moral stature and authority, in unapproachable integrity and probity, and in his total defiance to a world built on graft and basking and subsisting in pleasure unearned; and in being a man as a man should be, which is perhaps the most difficult thing to attempt or achieve, and in playing politics as it should be played.

And if a life like Balarabe’s or his politics and ideal are all that remained of the dream of Mallam Aminu Kano, his life would still have been richly vindicated and wholly justified; for, they are more difficult to create and nurture than a nation’s development agenda. If the success of leadership is to be measured by the smallness of means, the nobility of intention, the singleness of purpose, the greatness of goals, the immensity of opposition, the staying power of mission and the permanence of effect on society, then Mallam Aminu would have few rivals on the nation’s political scene.