I have numerous fond thoughts and memories about the person of His Royal Highness, the late Emir of Kano. I will attempt to share some.
I first came into contact with him when I returned from my expedition across the Sahara Desert in 1967. He was very interested in knowing why I would venture into a risky sojourn like that and I could see his curiosity was heightened by his own desire for adventure. I would later on get to know that he was passionate about the impact the encroaching Sahara Desert was having on his constituents. He went on to ask to go with me when next I was embarking on another trip across the Sahara Desert which unfortunately did not materialise until over 30 years after. That marked the beginning of our close friendship, which spanned over 40 years.
A true leader to his subjects, he stood by me when I started campaigning about the dangers of the encroaching desert in Northern Nigeria. His support for my cause for a better environment proved to be invaluable especially with the establishment of Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE) in May 2000. Our pilot project was flagged off in Makoda town located in the Makoda/Danbatta Local Government Area in Kano under the Chairmanship of His Royal Highness.He was extremely supportive from the beginning and was present not only at the unveiling ceremony but also at subsequent tree planting and secondary schools’ competition ceremonies that FADE holds biennially. He was gracious enough to allow these ceremonies take place within the grounds of the Emirate Palace and had personally handed out prizes to students from winning schools. He was to his death, the Chairman of FADE, a position he held from inception.
I recall we traveled together on a number of Environmental Summits worldwide such as to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa, the Festival of the People of the Desert in Algeria and another in Dubai.
A lover of peace and huge promoter of the arts, he was present at the official opening of DIDI Museum in Lagos in May 1983 and DIDI Museum Skills Acquisition Centre in Akwukwu-Igbo, Delta State in 2008 and also attended a number of exhibitions in DIDI Museum Lagos. He later became the Chairman Board of Trustees for DIDI Museum. He recently sent his brother, Tafidan Kano, Alhaji Tijani, who unfortunately passed on this year, to represent him at the unveiling of the new DIDI Museum in July 2012.
When I decided to host an exhibition to celebrate “The Masters of Arts” that had passed on, he agreed to host the exhibition which was to be tagged “How Legends are made”. In his usual jovial self, he told me a joke of how ancient legends were made. He recalled one night roughly at about 2 a.m, he was unable to sleep and decided to walk out to his balcony and enjoy the view of the stars. This was shortly after the annual festivities and the palace had just received scores of bags of rice as gifts which were inside the courtyard. Out of the dark came one of his most senior security guards who sneaked in to steal not one but a number of the bags of rice while checking to be sure he was not seen. Unknown to him, His Royal Highness could see him from his vantage position at the balcony and even saw his cap fall down. Commotion broke loose the following morning when palace guards noticed that there were missing bags of rice. The voice of this security guard was the loudest calling out on knowing who the thief was. The Emir in his usual demeanour calmly told everyone gathered that he knew what happened the previous night before going ahead to narrate what transpired without mentioning who was responsible. The culprit’s voice defensively rang out shrilly saying “Our Emir is a god, even when he is asleep, he sees everything that goes on” because he assumed the Emir could only have known what transpired that night because of his supernatural powers. That to him exemplified how Legends were made. His Royal Highness was gracious enough to keep him in his employ.
Despite his position, he respected me as a friend. I recall during President Shagari’s era, sometime in the early 1980’s when the Emir was the Chairman of Foundation Construction (now Costain West Africa) and I was the Managing Director. He arrived at the Lagos airport to attend our quarterly board meeting and I went to the airport to receive him with the usual escorts and was even able to get the escorts to the tarmac, to wait for him at the foot of the arriving plane. About the same time, President Shagari was traveling out of the country and immediately most of the ministers that came to see off Shagari, when they heard the Emir was arriving, about seven of them trooped down with me to receive him particularly those from Northern Nigeria. Unfortunately in their excited state, I was pushed back till I found myself being the last person in the group of eight! As soon as he alighted, he offered his hand the way he normally does. Practically all of them who lined up ahead of me refused to shake him in reverence to his position but when he got to me I also decided not to shake his hand but instead, he grabbed my hand from my chest where I had placed it with a firm grip and shook it. That was the kind of affirmation he gave friends and that act touched me.
The late emir was a strong promoter of national peace, developmental growth for his people and a strong advocate for environmental causes and women empowerment.
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