KANO MASSACRE: ADIEU SARKI LAWAN, MUHAMMAD HASSAN, OTHERS…

Almost every Kano family lost someone in the Grand Mosque Massacre of Friday November 28. This Friday December 5 marked one week since this unprecedented attack at Kano City’s Grand Mosque. In all these losses, perhaps the saddest story was that of the 80-year old man whose family and he were said to have fled […]

Almost every Kano family lost someone in the Grand Mosque Massacre of Friday November 28. This Friday December 5 marked one week since this unprecedented attack at Kano City’s Grand Mosque. In all these losses, perhaps the saddest story was that of the 80-year old man whose family and he were said to have fled Mubi for safety in Kano a few weeks ago. Alas! On that fateful Friday, the calamity of Mubi followed him all the way to Kano, and he was killed. Allahu Akbar!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
Personally, I lost many friends, acquaintances and colleagues, but two names stand out among my many losses – Alhaji Sarki Lawan Yakasai, my headmaster, mentor, guide; and Alhaji Muhammad Hassan Kofar Na’isa, my friend and colleague at Bayero University, Kano (BUK), and a lover of a good laugh. These two were among the more than 100 that perished on that fateful Friday. May Allah have mercy on their souls, and on the souls of all the others. May the injured heal, may the bereaved be consoled, and may this poisoned chalice pass over us, amin!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
Sarki Lawan was many things to many people. He was my last and most impactful headmaster at Gandun Nassarawa Primary School on Zaria Road, Kano and it was in his ‘hands’ that I ‘graduated’ in the mid-1970s. He was much more than a headmaster to me, he being a close associate and colleague of my own father (who was a schoolteacher like him, though my father was much older). In Primary School, I dared not cross Alhaji Sarki’s path; I would get double punishment – he would ‘deal’ with me and report me to Mallam, my own father, his friend, for another round. He ‘daidaitad my sahu’ straight from the beginning! He was tough, he was fearsome, but he was also gentle and kind! And he was so full of life; a life cut short at only 67.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
Muhammad Hassan, Deputy Chief Librarian at BUK, my friend and colleague, had come in from the office on that fateful Friday of November 28 in a hurry. He saw that he was running late for mosque, and he hurriedly decided to leave. His wife urged him to wait for his driver who had just gone home to also prepare. The jovial person he was, he cracked a joke with the wife, and left. He used to always pray by Gidan Koguna, just to the west of the mosque. But on that fateful day, strangely, he told his fellow ‘co-prayerers’ that he couldn’t hear the khutba, sermon, well enough. So he moved further towards the mosque and, Allahu Akbar, towards his death. And they shot him in the head!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
When Alhaji Sarki Lawan Yakasai’s family finally found him after searching for long, he was among the many dead and the many injured, but he was still alive. They took him to four different hospitals looking for help. At one hospital, there was no doctor. At another, they wanted a police report. At yet another, the medical workers were on strike. Meanwhile, he continued to bleed. His bearers thought the bullet on his thigh was all there was. Alas! There was another bullet in his back, and it was not obvious, until it was too late. And Alhaji Sarki bled to death!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
When Alhaji Muhammad Hassan Kofar Na’isa’s family didn’t hear from him after the report of the mosque massacre started making waves in the city, they called his mobile phone, but there was no response. They called again and again, and waited and waited, but he never responded, he never returned. Allahu Akbar! The family immediately set out in several search parties. Anywhere they heard that the injured and the dead were deposited, they would go there. They searched, and searched. Finally, they discovered his corpse at Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital mortuary around Maghrib time.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
Alhaji Sarki was a great community leader. He was a pillar of the Sarkin Shanun Kano family, a great mender of many a marriage. He co-founded the Kano State Network of NGOs (KANET) and was its founding president in 2004. He was a pioneer member of that great Kano NGO, Yakasai Zumunta. He was Chairman, Kano Pillars Basketball Club and Chairman of several Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) such as of FGGC Kazaure, GGSSS Shekara, Khulafa’u Islamiyya, Dangote Islamiyya, etc. He was never tired since he retired as a Director Personnel Management (DPM)‎ in the Kano State Civil Service. All these community works full stopped by bullets!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
On condoling the Muhammad Hassan family at their home, BUK’s Deputy Vice Chancellors (DVCs) Academic and Administration, Professors Hafiz Abubakar and Saddiq Isah Radda respectively, as well as the late colleague’s immediate superior the University Librarian Professor Lukman Diso, described Muhammad as a dedicated member of staff worthy of emulation. He had spent all his working life in the service of the people. He has been with BUK since 1978. The family added that he had started out as a lecturer in the former University of Sokoto, before returning home. Muhammad was like me in many facets – he loved a good laugh! One would never be bored with Muhammad. I would sometimes go to his office in the Library to share a joke, and we would heartily enjoy a laugh despite today’s difficulties. He was so full of life, a life cut short at 66, a year shy of Alhaji Sarki.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
We the people of Kano have mourned like the people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa! We just concluded three days of fasts (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) as Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II advised. We have prayed long and hard. We have given much in ’sadaqa’ on Monday and Friday, the Third and Seventh Days after the demise of our people. We all cry to Him, Most High, MATA NASRUL LAH?
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
Our attitude to all this is like that of the grandfather in this tale seen on the Internet: “A granddaughter student said to her grandfather (who had narrowly escaped the Mosque Massacre): ‘Grandy, don’t go to the mosque this week. You know how close to death you were last week.’ Grandfather asked: ‘What school do you say you go to?’ ‘BUK’ was her response. ‘And was not BUK attacked some time back?’ ‘Yes, it was.’ ‘And you still go to BUK?’ ‘Yes,’ she said lamely, seeing where the old man was headed. ‘Now if you, as a young person, do not fear going to BUK for this life, how can I, as an old man, fear going to the mosque for the next life?’”
Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un!
May Allah forgive Sarki Lawan Yakasai, Muhammad Hassan Kofar Na’isa and all others. We thank Allah for the life of the Emir, the Imam of Kano Professor Muhammad Sani Zahraddeen and the other tens of thousands. May we or our children learn how to handle emergencies; may we all learn simple First Aid (as in how to even staunch blood); may Civic Education be amended to do that. Hasbunal Lahu wa ni’imal Wakeel! (Allah is Sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs!). And in Hausa, Hasbunal Lah means ‘Allah Ya isa!’