RE: LIMAMIN CANJI

One is Adamu Digare, a barber whose shop on ‘Yan Azara Road used to be the haunt of all the area’s politicos. True to the proverbial barber’s shop as centre of information and gossip, Adamu’s shop shaped many a young politico’s mind. Though he could not read English, Adamu would every morning buy newspapers on […]

One is Adamu Digare, a barber whose shop on ‘Yan Azara Road used to be the haunt of all the area’s politicos. True to the proverbial barber’s shop as centre of information and gossip, Adamu’s shop shaped many a young politico’s mind. Though he could not read English, Adamu would every morning buy newspapers on his way to work. Many students and even workers who would rather have a free read would converge on Adamu’s shop to read the papers as well as debate issues of the day. It was there in the late 1970s that Sule Lamido, Rimi’s presumed heir in the Santsi School of Kano Politics, would hold the attention of all as he espoused the ideals and ideologies of the then Peoples’ Redemption Party, PRP.

Adamu Digare, who would be listening to all the debates while he shaved one head or the other, would sometimes stop the shaving and contribute a sentence or two. That was exactly as is now done on those African-American movies, but long before they came down here to us. Adamu Digare so believed in the politics of Mallam Aminu Kano and later Rimi and Sule Lamido that many people thought he thought them saints, or more.

I haven’t seen Adamu for quite a while, and I hear that he has partially lost his sight. This is to recommend to all those Santsi followers who benefitted from Adamu Digare’s hospitality, and especially Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, to visit and condole Digare on Rimi’s death, and do him a good turn this time around. I will.

The other person who definitely deserves condolences is Mallam Sani, more identified as Mallam Sani na Dangana (the Dangana being his rather powerful wife). Mallam Sani, originally a Qur’an teacher but later to become a Messenger at Government House, Kano (where he still works even after retirement) was Santsi personified. As he sat in front of Dansokoto’s shop in Gyadi-Gyadi during those heydays of late 1970s and early 1980s, he would try to convince anyone who wanted to hear to hear how angelic PRP and Rimi and Santsi etc were. He would sometimes go round to Adamu Digare’s shop to participate in the debates, especially if he was tired of the diatribes of Dansokoto who, true to geography, supported the then Federal-ruling but Kano-hated National Party of Nigeria, NPN. Despite being so poles apart, I never so or heard Mallam Sani and Dansokoto exchange a bad word, or blows. Never.

Mallam Sani benefitted immensely from Rimi’s Adult Literacy Programme which won Kano State the UNESCO Literacy Award nearly 30 years ago. As a scholar in his own right, Mallam Sani could read and write in Ajami (the Hausa written in the Arabic script which in those days, as now, Nigeria did not respect as ‘literacy’ and ultimately even removed from our currency). But because Nigeria is about ‘boko’, Mallam Sani would thumbprint where he would sign for his monthly salary. When Rimi proclaimed that every Kano civil servant must be literate in ‘boko’ within six months, Mallam Sani was one of the first who wasted no time in learning to write from left to right, to complement his knowledge of writing from right to left.

These two, Adamu Digare and Mallam Sani na Dangana should be condoled by all for their loss of leader who may or may not even have known them at all.

And let’s listen to others:

SADA IBRAHIM: The tragic death of Limamin Canji was indeed tragic. He came, he saw and he nearly conquered when he contested alongside OBJ in 1999. But as usual, the hawks all ganged up against the talakawas by stopping him. Alhamdulillahi his legacies will continue to linger till eternity. May the almighty Allah reward him and forgive his sins, amin.

YUNUSA YUNUSA: Death of Rimi very tragic and the way you put it very interesting. May Allah empower us with the fortitude to bear the irreparable lost of ‘Limamin Canji’, ameen.

YUSUF MUHAMMAD: A giant has fallen and the political scene would no doubt never be the same again. He was a man whose ideology cut across the socio-cultural divide of this country. His life was synonymous with radicalism, confrontation and democracy. He served his people well as governor, and led a political revolution against his own master Mallam Aminu Kano. However, Rimi was only human. He had his shortcomings. Our prayers are that may Allah grant him his forgiveness for no one has that power except Him.

ABDULKADIR AHMED IBRAHIM: Bala, there was never a time from 1st of October 1979 to 20th May 1983 when Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi as the Civilian Governor of Old Kano State (now Jigawa and Kano States) suspended His Royal Highness the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, as the Chairman of Kano State Council of Emirs. What happened actually was there was a rumour that circulated widely in Kano in July 1981 that the government of Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi was about to send a letter of request for explanation from his highness about an official matter. Indeed there was an official document related to that but in draft form and was never signed by the officer responsible for such matters, but was leaked to the public by some fifth columnists in the government. The aftermath of that is now part of the history of political crises in Kano 1979 to 1983. I stand to be corrected.

KHALID IMAM: Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un were the only words I continued to mutter when the rude shock of Limamin Canji’s sudden demise struck me. The news was sent to me by a friend from Yola, hometown of Atiku who many consider to have robbed Rimi the post of VP in the PDP.

To many of us who were in primary school school when Rimi was in the driver’s seat, he was our own Mallam. I am penning a tribute, ‘The Story of Rimi’s Experiments with the Truth’ to mourn his exit and let me end with a few lines from a poem I dedicate to Rimi titled APRIL, A DEADLY ROBBER: Oh yes! To us the Kanawa/April remains a deadly robber/For it was April that snatched away/Our dear Aminu Kano from us/And now Rimi, the voice for the voiceless.

Curtains!