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Aminu Kano: The Ideological Basis of His Struggle By Aliyu A. Ammani
Friday the 17th of April marked the 26th anniversary of the death and immortality of Malam Aminu Kano, one of Africa’s greatest revolutionary. Rallies and talk-shows were organized. Much was written and said about the struggles of Malam Aminu Kano for the emancipation and redemption of the Talakawa from the shackles of the Sarakuna; old and new forms of Zalunci etcetera, particularly in the years leading to our independence, 1948-1960. The Jigawa State government was at the forefront of this year’s event.
One essential ingredient that was missing in almost all the rallies and talk-shows, in my view, is the ideological basis of Malam Aminu Kano’s struggles. In other words, what inspired Malam Aminu Kano that made him truly and totally committed to the struggle for the redemption of the Talakawa?
Malam’s disciples and old friends like Alhaji Tanko Yakasai made reference, in passing, to the fact that the late Prime Minister, Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, nicknamed Malam Aminu Kano, Molotov. To refresh the reader’s memory, Vyacheslav Molotov was a Bolshevik politician; Bolshevism was a communist doctrine based on the theories of Karl Marx as formulated by Vladimir Lenin. Molotov was foreign minister of the defunct USSR and one of the most influential lieutenants to the late Josef Stalin. That Malam Aminu Kano was nicknamed Molotov, no doubt project an image of the Malam as a socialist of the defunct USSR brand! Nothing could be further from the truth.
Anybody privileged to have attended any of Malam Aminu Kano’s campaign rallies will agree that the Malam had a gift of oratory. He held his audience spellbound; the pedagogue in him simplified complex issues for easy intake, absorption and digestion by the audience. Those of us that still have, in our possession, the audio tapes of his campaign rallies are indeed fortunate. Very fortunate.
In the final year of his meritorious life, Malam Aminu Kano gave a deeply moving lecture on the occasion of the opening of his Gidan Mumbayya residence in Kano. On that occasion the late Malam made it crystal clear to all and sundry, what the ideological basis or inspiration for his struggles was: the Qur’anic doctrine of Fakku-Raqabah: freeing the bondman [Qur’an 90:13]. He gave a perspicuous illustration of the doctrine of Fakku-Raqabah and how it inspired and guided his lifelong struggle: championing the rights of the poor and downtrodden.
What is the import of the Qur’anic doctrine of Fakku-Raqabah: the ideological basis of Malam Aminu Kano’s struggles? In his book, The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali gave an explanation of the meaning of the doctrine of Fakku-Raqabah, though not as graphic as Malam’s, in the following words: As regards the bondman, we are to understand not only a reference to legal slavery, which happily is extinct in all civilized lands; but many other kinds of slavery which flourish especially in advanced societies. There is political slavery, industrial slavery and social slavery. There is the slavery of convention, of ignorance, and of superstition. There is slavery to wealth or passion or power. The good man tries to liberate men and women from all kinds of slavery, often at great danger to himself.
The thrust of this essay is to document for posterity that the Qur’anic doctrine of Fakku-Raqabah was the ideological basis of Malam Aminu Kano’s lifelong struggles for the redemption of the Talakawa. Malam Aminu Kano was inspired by the Qur’an. If it succeeds only in dispelling the suggestion that the ideological basis of Malam Aminu Kano’s struggles was somewhere in the theories of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Friedrich Engels or Mao Zedong, it will have achieved its purpose.
May Allah (TWA) Whose Qur”anic injuction of Fakku-Raqabah, Malam Aminu Kano followed all his life, reward him with Al-jannat-al firdaus, amin.
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