The passionate Dan Masanin Kano, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule (1929-2017)

July 3, 2024, marked the seventh anniversary of the death of the Dan Masanin Kano, His Excellency, Ambassador Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule.

Writing a tribute on the seventh anniversary may appear strange, but seven holds a special significance in many cultures. Many Muslims name their children on the seventh day of their birth and organise fidau prayers seven days after the death of their loved ones. In Islam, the first chapter of the Holy Quran begins with seven verses. Islam also teaches about the Seven Heavens and the Seven Gates of Hell. During pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for hajj, Muslims walk seven times round the Kaaba; which is the holiest and most sacred site in Islam.

It is, therefore, not out of place to remember and write a tribute for this illustrious Nigerian seven years after his death. Secondly, his home state of Kano is currently enmeshed in a crisis over the leadership of the Kano Emirate and the legitimacy of four new emirates created five years ago. Apart from generating concerns and anxiety among traditional rulers in the country, the crisis has polarised the citizens of the state, and questions are now being asked about the relevance of the traditional institution in today’s democratic Nigeria.

As a traditional title holder in Kano who served five emirs, Maitama Sule as a repository of history and culture would have been a good source and support in finding a solution and the way out.

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But why is this writer qualified to pen this tribute? Maitama Sule was no relative of his except that they both bear the same name. While they are both indigines of Kano, Maitama earned the title of Dan Masanin Kano from Emir Muhammadu Sunusi I for his service to the emirate, the writer on the other hand is simply a loyal subject of the Emir of Kano. And although Dan Masani’s house in Durumin Zungura, opposite School for Arabic Studies in Kano City, is not far from the house of the writer’s father in Wudilawa Quarters, where the writer was raised, he never set his eyes on Dan Masani during his growing days. Yet the writer sometimes visited Dan Masani’s house in company of his friend, Sagir Wali Abdullahi, who was a friend of Dan Masani’s second son, Mukhtari. In addition to the visits, the writer was a regular participant in the games organised on the field leading to Yar Magaji Quarters, adjacent to Dan Masani’s house, with his friends such as Kabiru Isiyaku Wudilawa, Ali Baba Yaro and Turaki Sani Gezawa; all of blessed memory. 

Even when years later Dan Masani moved to the writer’s neighbourhood on Dawaki Road, Nassarawa GRA, now appropriately named after the Dan Masani, he established an Islamiyya school in his compound thereby sparing the writer from the difficult task of ferrying his children to the nearby Magwan Islamiyya School, but the writer never met Dan Masani that time.

It was in 1999 that the writer came into direct contact with Dan Masani, when as curator of Gidan Makama National Museum, Kano, the writer set up a committee to plan a celebration marking 1,000 years of Kano’s royalty, and the Kano State Ministry of Home Affairs, Information and Culture, hijacked the initiative. It was Dan Masani who came to his rescue by accepting to speak at the event he was able to organise in the museum, involving all traditional rulers (sarakuna), various segments, groups and professional guilds in Kano such as the city gate keepers, the blind, crippled, butchers and builders

Consequently, the interview by late Yusuf Jibo to complement his report of the celebrations for the American Cable News Network (CNN) with Dan Masani, the writer and the Kano State Commissioner for Information and Culture was conducted on the premises of the museum.

The passion with which Dan Masani spoke on the process of political centralisation in Kano and the place of leadership in social engineering remained in the writer’s subconscious for years on end. So, when this writer’s friend, Dr Dalhatu Sani Yola, a royal member of the Yolawa Clan of Kano where the father of Dan Masani was a knight, told him the story of how Dan Masani was freely shedding tears when bidding farewell to his first son and eldest child, Bashir, who was going to school in London. It dawned on the writer how passionate a person Dan Masani was.

The writer also recalls his close encounters with Dan Masani during which the circumstances made Dan Masani cry.

Passion is a manifestation of compassion. It is reported in an authentic Hadith that when the companions of the Prophet of Islam (SAW) asked him why he was shedding tears at the death of his son, he replied that tears flowed from a heart full of compassion. And truly, Dan Masani was a compassionate man.

Perhaps that was the reason Emir Muhammadu Sunusi I chose the title of Dan Masani when he decided to honour him. The title originated from Katsina where one of the four Saints of Katsina, Waliyai, bore the name and was a devoted Islamic scholar and the sufi guiding the emir and the council on religious practices, issues and conduct. When Wali Dan Masani died, the name became a sarauta title conferred on trusted advisers of the emir. Hence the choice of the title for Yusuf Maitama Sule.

The first occasion this writer witnessed the compassion of Dan Masani was when he came out powerfully to support the writer in his altercation with the Kano State Ministry of Information, Home Affairs and Culture over the copyright of the celebration of the millennium of Kano royalty as recounted above.

The second occasion Danmasani cried openly in his presence was in 2007 when members of the Presidential Committee on the Rehabilitation of National Museums and Archives, in which the writer was a member, and Director of Heritage Monuments and Sites at the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) visited Dan Masani in his house. The visit was led by late Ambassador Segun Olusola of Village Headmaster, who together with Dan Masani, established the Nigerian Arts Council (NAC), the precursor of the National Council of Arts and Culture. While lamenting the deplorable state of the public record system and the poor cultural preservation and promotion efforts, Dan Masani wept.

In 2015, DanMasani cried when the writer invited him to Bauchi to deliver a lecture at the opening of the rehabilitated tomb of the late Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, organised by NCMM.

The fourth occasion when the writer witnessed the strength of Dan Masani’s passion was at the twilight of his career and tenure as the Director General (DG) of NCMM during an exhibition on the life and times of the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, one year after the death of the revered monarch. Dan Masani, who was the speaker at the event, “cried”, calling on Emir Sanusi II and Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who were at the occasion, to work together for the progress of Kano State, prophesying doom for the state if they failed to cooperate with each other. What do we have today in Kano?

The official biography of the elder statesman, authored by Dr A.T. Abubakar, is replete with several instances when the passion of Dan Masani was palpable.

According to Dr Abubakar, when in 1957 the father of Dan Masani’s heartthrob denied him her hand in marriage because he was not of Nupe ethnic origin, Dan Masani “cried”. It was the intervention of the then Emir of Kano that saved him from depression, and he subsequently married Nusa.

Dan Masani “cried” when his friend, Abdulkadir Koguna, disappointed him after he stood out for him when the position of Provincial President of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) became vacant with the appointment of Alhaji Maikano Dutse, its occupant, as Minister for Local Government and was won by Malam Lurwanu Abdullahi. DanMasani convinced the newly elected president, an elder relative of his, to take his friend and defeated candidate as deputy against the strong advice of fellow friends, Malam Tukur Gwarzo and Malam Ibrahim Dantiye. Not long after, as it turned out, Koguna schemed out Malam Lurwuna Abdullahi as feared by the duo of Gwarzo and Dantiye. After ingratiating himself to the Sardauna and the leadership of the party in Kaduna, Koguna convinced the party’s hierarchy to call for an early re-election, which he ostensibly won.

Dan Masani cried when the January 15, 1956, coup took place, not because he was losing his position as Minister of Mines and Power, but because his close friend and confidant, Brigadier Maimalari, and mentor, Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, were killed in the process. Brigadier Maimalari was killed more for being a high-ranking military officer of Northern extraction than anything else. While everybody was afraid to even associate with Maimalari’s family for fear of being branded disloyal, Dan Masani moved the wife and children of the brigadier to his house and handed them over to his family for proper care.

Again, while other ministers and politicians were busy planning their escape out of Lagos, Dan Masani told General Aguiyi Ironsi who had taken over power as Head of State, that he was going nowhere until the body of the prime minister was found. Indeed it was only after the body of Balewa was seen that Dan Masani enjoyed inner peace and began preparations for burial. Eventually, Dan Masani, the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Kam Salem, Alhaji Hamma Maiduguri, the Madakin Bauchi and Ibrahim Baban Kowa accompanied the corpse to Bauchi.

Dan Masani “cried” when he became estranged from his friend, Governor Audu Bako, head of the first government of Kano State under who Dan Masani was a commissioner. This followed intrigues by detractors who weaved falsehood to vilify him in order to put a wedge between him and Governor Bako.

When the news of the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed was broken to him, Dan Masani cried and could not eat for two days.

Dan Masani cried when late General Musa Yar’Adua informed him that he was one of the reasons for the failed Dimka coup against General Murtala. According Yar’Adua, the coupist claimed that the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) was created by Murtala specifically for Dan Masani and that he was given the highest salary in the country to prepare him as a civilian successor to Murtala. Contrary to this falsehood, Murtala was constantly applying pressure on Dan Masani to renounce politics in order to serve the country as Chief Public Complaints Commissioner.

Dan Masani cried when during the 1976 Murtala/Obasanjo transition to civil rule, the Constituent Assembly became entangled in a fierce debate over sharia, prompting Dan Masani to rally round his commissioners at the Public Complaints Commission who were all persons of impeccable character to go to work to save the country from catastrophe. The intervention of Dan Masani eventually made the Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, to address the conference and to ask the members to drop all debates on the subject, promising that after they might have submitted their report, the Supreme Military Council would decide on the matter, thereby dousing the raging fire which was threatening to engulf the country.

It was Dan Masani’s passionate commitment to justice and peace as head of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid that partly accounted for the spectacular success Nigeria recorded in its leadership role during the anti-apartheid struggle and independence of Zimbabwe and South Africa. 

On hearing how President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was humiliated during his two-year detention in the hands of the military junta that toppled his government, tears rolled out of Dan Masani’s eyes.

Born October 1, 1929, Dan Masani was a teacher, politician and diplomat. Between 1955 and 1956 he was the Chief Whip of the Federal House of Representatives. In 1960, he led the Nigerian delegation to the Conference of Independent African States. He was the nation’s pioneer ombudsman, when in 1976 he was appointed the Federal Commissioner of Public Complaints.

During the Second Republic, he sought nomination as the presidential candidate of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) but lost to Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari. After the election, he was appointed Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in September, 1979. While there, he was the Chairman of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid.

During President Shagari’s second term, in 1983, Dan Masani was made the Minister for National Guidance, a portfolio designed to assist fight corruption.

He died in Cairo, Egypt, on July 3, 2017, and was buried at the Kara Cemetery after a funeral prayer at the palace of the Emir of Kano.

It is gratifying to note that the Kano State Government has immortalised this illustrious Nigerian and Kano indigine by naming the street he lived on and one of its universities after him. By far, the most befitting honour done to Dan Masani is the decision by the state government to convert his house into a museum.

May Allah repose his soul, forgive his shortcomings and admit him in Aljanna Firdaus.

We conclude this tribute with the prayer Dan Masani usually ended his speeches with: “Allah, give us leaders who are upright, leaders who fear God, leaders who are just and fair, leaders who mean what they say, not say what they don’t mean, leaders who are not thieves to loot our treasury, leaders who look at their people with compassion, leaders who know when they no longer enjoy the support and pleasure of their people and will therefore leave the scene when they notice it is time to give way to new people, leaders who are eager to meet their God because they have not cheated anybody. May Allah also make us good followers, followers who will not wish and pray evil on our leaders, but rather pray that Allah makes them mend their ways and benefit the followers. Amin and Amin.” 

Yusuf Abdallah Usman, Haufat Heritage Centre, Abuja