Aminu Kano

=== Bauchi ===
Upon completing his teacher training, Aminu relocated to Bauchi, assuming the role of a junior teacher at Bauchi Middle School.<ref name=":5" /> His colleagues at the school included [[Abubakar Tafawa Balewa]] and Yahaya Gusau. Aminu's amicable relationship with Balewa, who later became [[Prime Minister of Nigeria|Nigeria's only ever Prime Minister]], began during their time teaching in Bauchi. It was during this period that Balewa gave him the nickname 'Molotov' after [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] statesman. Zungur also moved to Bauchi during this time, having returned to his hometown due to a lung disorder he got in Zaria.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=84–85}}

Aminu was well-respected among the students at the school. They often gathered at his home after school hours for discussions and other extra-curricular activities. He occasionally organised plays and shows for the students, sometimes using [[Abubakar Imam]]'s works. To supplement his lessons, he composed songs and poems for his students. He was also active in various student societies including drama, debating, and science.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=85–86}}[[File:Your Tin Makes Engine Parts For Army Lorries - Thank You Nigeria! Art.IWMPST8268.jpg|thumb|A 1940s [[British propaganda during World War II|propaganda poster made by Britain]] to encourage Nigerian 'volunteers' to aid its war effort]]His close association with the students and his radical ideas made him unpopular with the school's administration and other teachers. On one occasion, the entire student body staged a strike over issues such as lack of uniforms and blankets, withheld pocket money, and poor food quality. The one student left, the head boy who was Balewa's younger brother, acted as their spokesman. The senior students, among them was [[Katagum#Wazirin Katagum|Sule Katagum]], lead the other students towards [[Maiduguri]]. The [[Bauchi Emirate|Emir of Bauchi]] and several teachers caught up with them, attempting to negotiate, but the students insisted on speaking only with Aminu. Later, Aminu arrived with Yahya Gusau, and "reassured them that their complaints would get proper airing" and convinced them to return to their dormitories. Following an investigation into the complaints, they were validated, resulting in the replacement of the headmaster with Balewa, "who righted the pre-existing wrongs".<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=86}}

==== Bauchi General Improvement Union ====
In 1943, Aminu, alongside Zungur, Balewa and Gusau, formed the Bauchi General Improvement Union (BGIU), where they held discussions critiquing British colonial policies and the Native Authority.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=100}}<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Awa|first=Eme O.|title=Federal Government in Nigeria|publisher=University of California Press|year=1964|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|pages=99}}</ref> This organisation was likely influenced by a similar organisation Zungur had founded while in Zaria, the Northern Provinces General Improvement Union (NPGIU).<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last1=Al-Sadique |first1=Abubakar Sufyan |last2=Ahmed |first2=Abubakar |date=2021-09-25 |title=Bauchi Discussion Circle: The Circle of Northern Nigerian Politics and Nigeria's Independence {{!}} Wikkitimes |url=https://wikkitimes.com/bauchi-discussion-circle-the-circle-of-northern-nigerian-politics-and-nigerias-independence/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |language=en-US}}</ref> Aminu and Zungur wrote letters and articles attacking the British 'directed labour' policy, which they saw as a disguised form of [[conscription]]. With Britain requiring significant quantities of food, tin, and soldiers for [[British Empire in World War II|World War II]], colonial officials exerted pressure on Native Authorities to 'direct' specified quotas of food and manpower. Britain extensively used unregulated forced conscription in Northern Nigeria to support its war effort after [[Fall of Singapore|its military misfortunes in the Far East]] in 1942.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ekoko |first=A. E. |date=1982 |title=Conscript Labour and Tin Mining in Nigeria During the Second World War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41857118 |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |volume=11 |issue=3/4 |pages=66–85 |jstor=41857118 |issn=0018-2540}}</ref> One of Aminu's unsigned articles was read by the senior District Officer, A J Knott, in the [[West African Pilot]], who traced it back to the BGIU. This discovery led to the dissolution of the union and its replacement with the Bauchi Discussion Circle (BDC) or ''Majalisar Tadi ta Bauchi'', sponsored by colonial authorities. The BDC was designed as a sanctioned platform for open debate encompassing 'any and all ideas'.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=89}}<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=89}}<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Karin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7n2-fYwvtKIC |title=Africa's Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34729-9 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=423}}

==== Bauchi Discussion Circle ====
BDC held weekly discussions, attracting various attendees like department heads, administrators, merchants and teachers. The number of participants surpassed that of the previous Bauchi General Improvement Union (BGIU), attracting moderates who felt more at ease given the government's sanction. Aminu, as secretary, was in charge of sending out invitations and choosing the topics to be discussed. These topics discussed included economic development, democracy, medicine, war and religion. When the topic was freedom of the press, Aminu and Zungur highlighted the contradiction in British policy, arguing that on the one hand they suppressed and privately condemned the only voices independent of the emirs and on the other hand, they publicly encouraged independent thought and initiative.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=89}}

In a discussion on indirect rule, he argued that "it had outlived the purpose for which it was originally intended" and that it was "the most exploiting system of colonial administration the world had ever known".<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=90}}<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=100}} He further pointed out that at the time of the British takeover, the [[Sokoto Caliphate]] and [[Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate|its emirates]] had morphed into a system unintended by [[Usman dan Fodio|Shehu Usman dan Fodio]], its founder. Aminu argued that the [[List of sultans of Sokoto|succession of caliphs]] was meant to be based on merit rather than birth and that the [[Autocracy|autocratic]] system of governance was against the teachings of the [[Muhammad in Islam|Islamic Prophet Muhammad]] and the Shehu. Balewa, being more of a moderate than Aminu, lightly defended the indirect rule system, arguing that the maintenance of law and order was essential in securing the foundation on which desired reforms could be carried out. Zungur, bedridden during the session, in response to Balewa, wrote his own arguments in a letter which was delivered to the discussion circle by Aminu during the following session. In this letter, he bolstered Aminu's arguments while adding a few of his own.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=90}} He urged Balewa to reconsider his "ill-conceived" defence of indirect rule and further argued:<blockquote>The selection of its [the Native Authority's] gutter elite is being made neither on the basis of intelligence nor capacity, but simply by denial of the decent citizen's outlook. Members of the ruling minority have the readiness of desperadoes to gamble, with nothing to lose but everything to gain.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=90}}</blockquote>During another meeting, Aminu posed a question to Officer Knott: 'What determines an emir's salary?' Knott responded that it depended on the extent of his duties and the weight of his responsibilities. Aminu then pointed out that despite having fewer constituents and responsibilities compared to the Emir of Bauchi, the [[Adamawa Emirate|Lamido of Adamawa]] received a higher salary. Following this exchange, the meeting abruptly ended. Soon after, Knott announced the termination of the BDC, citing that the discussions were 'getting off the rails'.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=91}}<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|page=423}}

==== Bauchi Community Center ====
To replace the BDC, Aminu and Zungur established another political organisation, the Bauchi Community Center. Starting with about 20 members, their first meeting took place at the Native Authority Library, near the emir's palace. During this meeting, accompanied by a policeman, Balewa approached them at the emir's request, asking them to disband as "all unions (organizations) are forbidden". Zungur then told him to tell the emir that they were not going to disband. After Balewa left, they decided to deliver a letter to the senior political officer telling him what had happened, claiming the emir was trespassing on their rights.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages= 91–92 }}

Three days later, the organization's members were invited to meet with the emir. The emir denied ordering their disbandment, and claimed that he had only forbade them from using "the Native Authority Library typewriters and facilities". Despite Balewa complaining that he delivered the message given to him accurately and Zungur ready to exploit this contradiction, the matter wasn't pursued further, and the organization accepted the emir's decision. Shortly after, an elderly man named Mallam Waziri offered them the use of his roofless hall for meetings, provided they roofed it themselves. They pooled their money together and roofed it.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=93}}  Not long after, the British government offered Aminu one of seven scholarships to study in [[England]] starting from September 1946, which he accepted.<ref name=":14" />{{Rp|page=276}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=97}} <ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" />{{Rp|page=154}}