We’re too poor to maintain a generator , Aminu Kano’s widow says

Hajiya Shatu Aminu Kano, now in her 60s lives in an old one-storey building conspicuously situated at the far end of the popular Zoo Road area of the ancient city of Kano. She welcomed our reporter with a cheerful smile as she offered him a seat in her moderately furnished though aging sitting room.   […]

Hajiya Shatu Aminu Kano, now in her 60s lives in an old one-storey building conspicuously situated at the far end of the popular Zoo Road area of the ancient city of Kano. She welcomed our reporter with a cheerful smile as she offered him a seat in her moderately furnished though aging sitting room.

 

As our reporter fanned himself with a notepad due to the heat from the afternoon sun, his attention caught a popular portrait of the late Malam Aminu Kano donning a black suit with his symbolic red cap to match, placed atop a well kept cupboard at one corner of the room. Beside the portrait was that of his much younger wife probably in her 30s, wearing a smile.

Hajiya Shatu abruptly broke the silence with an apology for her inability to offer water to our reporter or put on a fan.“Sorry, you know we don’t have water and electricity. I had just sent somebody to buy sachet water, but unfortunately it’s not cold. We’ve spent several months without electricity. Sometimes, we get it for just 10 or 15 minutes before it disappears again,” she complained.

Asked if she has a generator, she said: “No. We don’t have a generator. In any case who would maintain a generator for us in these  difficult times? We don’t have the ‘power’ to maintain a generator because not everyone could maintain one nowadays. In fact,  we have become used to it.”

Changing the topic, she dug quickly into the thrust of the interview and began to recount the personal and political life of her celebrated husband, Malam Aminu Kano, whose 29th memorial lecture   held last Tuesday at the Center for Democratic Research and Training, Mumbayya House in Kano.

According to her: “Malam had been a full-time politician up to the time of his death. He had maintained a cordial relationship with people from all walks of life regardless of religion, ethnicity or creed. He was a patient, amiable  and courageous man who resisted all forms of hardships without making it noticeable even in the slightest change of facial or verbal expressions.

“He had no enemy during his political struggles for the liberation of the common man from oppression. He respected the views of political opponents and managed his political differences with them cautiously without allowing those differences to degenerate into vitriolic rivalry.”

“Malam regarded Sir Ahmadu Bello, the then Premier of the Northern Region as a father. The same applies to his relationship with the then Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. To my knowledge, nobody ever speak ill of those two prominent personalities in the presence of my husband, ” she narrated.

Hajiya Shatu told Weekly Trust that her husband, Malam Aminu Kano once confided in her that his first pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia was paid for by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto though they did not belong to the same political party at the time.

“This was a far cry from modern-day politics in which such a kind gesture could have evoked so many negative speculations. Politicians of nowadays could have interpreted Sardauna’s gesture as a ploy to woo my husband to his political camp. But to my surprise, neither Sardauna nor Malam ever went public with the pilgrimage issue. They all kept it to themselves. This was because all of them regarded whatever was in the interests of the northern region as sacrosanct,” she said.

Hajiya Shatu further said that their only daughter has not been influenced by her father’s political adventures, but remained committed to her matrimonial responsibilities instead. The mother also refused to disclose the name or location of her daughter to Weekly Trust.

On whether governments, past and present had supported the family of late Malam Aminu Kano, his widow said such questions should be directed to those in authority. According to her, “they are in the best position to know if they are supporting us or not. Why should you ask me? A song they say is more pleasing to the ear when sung by its original composer.”

She observed that “it is an obligation for any government to hold Malam Aminu Kano and his legacies in high esteem because he was a father to the present set of political leaders and I am a mother. Therefore I can’t tell you if any government supported us or not.”

“As for those who might have acquired my husband’s political virtues, it is your duty as journalists to identify them since you travel across the country.”

“But Malam has already attained the pinnacle of fame since his name is being remembered every day by those who revere him. I will continue to appreciate the efforts of all those who honour him through events like the one you attended, because they are doing it on their own volition and not because I asked them to,” she said.