Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He organised the northern commoners — the talakawa — against both the colonial government and the emirate establishment, and lived as plainly as they did.
Mallam Aminu Kano was born into a scholarly Fulani family in Kano, trained as a teacher, and studied in London, where he met the ideas he spent the rest of his life applying at home.
In 1950 he founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union. Its target was not only British rule. It was the Native Authority system the British governed through — the emirs and their courts, whose taxation, forced labour and arbitrary justice bore on the talakawa, the ordinary people, far more directly than any colonial officer did. Saying so in Kano in 1950 took a particular kind of nerve, and NEPU was harassed by both the colonial administration and the emirate.
He campaigned relentlessly for mass education, for the abolition of the more punitive elements of the native authority system, and for the education and political participation of northern women, which set him against almost every powerful interest in the region. He served as a federal minister in the 1960s and founded the People's Redemption Party in the Second Republic, winning power in Kano and Kaduna states.
He lived on almost nothing, gave his salary away, and died in 1983 owning very little. Bayero University's campus, Kano's airport and a great deal of northern Nigerian political argument still carry his name.
In 1950 he founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union. Its target was not only British rule. It was the Native Authority system the British governed through — the emirs and their courts, whose taxation, forced labour and arbitrary justice bore on the talakawa, the ordinary people, far more directly than any colonial officer did. Saying so in Kano in 1950 took a particular kind of nerve, and NEPU was harassed by both the colonial administration and the emirate.
He campaigned relentlessly for mass education, for the abolition of the more punitive elements of the native authority system, and for the education and political participation of northern women, which set him against almost every powerful interest in the region. He served as a federal minister in the 1960s and founded the People's Redemption Party in the Second Republic, winning power in Kano and Kaduna states.
He lived on almost nothing, gave his salary away, and died in 1983 owning very little. Bayero University's campus, Kano's airport and a great deal of northern Nigerian political argument still carry his name.
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