Aminu Kano

=== Women's empowerment ===
Aminu's deep concern for his mother and the societal constraints she faced led him to make women's empowerment a lifelong dedication.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal |editor-last=Wakili |editor-first=Haruna |title=The Social and Political Thoughts of Malam Aminu Kano |url=https://www.academia.edu/38919731 |journal=The Social and Political Thoughts of Malam Aminu Kano |date=January 2019 |publisher=Mambayya House, Centre for Democratic Studies, Bayero University |publication-place=[[Kano, Nigeria]]}}</ref>{{Rp|page=53}} He refrained from having multiple wives, asserting that the Qur'an permitted a Muslim to marry up to four wives only if equal treatment was ensured, which he thought was impossible to achieve. He interpreted this as the Qur'an not advocating polygamy. A strong believer in education as a means of women's emancipation, he sponsored a school for women which convened at his home from 1952 until his death in 1983, offering courses in handicrafts, sewing, Hausa, and basic English literacy. During his two year course at the Institute of Education, he wrote all his term papers on "The Problem of Girls' Education in Kano".<ref name=":14" />{{Rp|pages=290-291}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=102}}<ref name=":15">{{Cite journal |last=Callaway |first=Barbara J. |date=1987 |title=Women and Political Participation in Kano City |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/421813 |journal=Comparative Politics |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=379–393 |doi=10.2307/421813 |jstor=421813 |issn=0010-4159}}</ref>

Throughout his political career, Aminu consistently challenged the exclusion of [[Women in Nigeria|women]] from public life and formal political processes. He evoked Islamic concepts of "freedom," "[[jihad]]," and "justice" to advocate for [[women's empowerment]], positioning it as a fundamental concern within his political party. Alongside his cousin [[Isa Wali]], he championed this cause in the 1950s and 1960s, a stance that was relatively rare during that period. During the 1970s and 1980s, with the [[Second Nigerian Republic|return to democracy in Nigeria]], the [[People's Redemption Party]] (PRP), under his leadership, emerged as the only political party in Nigeria addressing this issue, and Aminu became closely associated with advocating for [[women's rights]] more than any other politician in the country. He argued that the [[Quran|Qur'an]] gave Muslims the right to "have a direct say in the affairs of the state or a representative chosen by him or her".<ref name=":16">{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/hausawomenintwen0000unse |title=Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century |date=1991 |publisher=Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-299-13024-4 |editor-last=Coles |editor-first=Catherine |editor-last2=Mack |editor-first2=Beverly}}</ref>{{Rp|page=153}}<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/womenstatedevelo0000unse |title=Women, the state, and development |date=1989 |publisher=Albany : State University of New York Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-7914-0064-7 |editor-last=M. Charlton |editor-first=Sue Ellen |pages=108 |editor-last2=Everett |editor-first2=Jana |editor-last3=Staudt |editor-first3=Kathleen}}</ref>

Had he participated in the [[1983 Nigerian presidential election|1983 Presidential election]], his running mate would have been Mrs. Bola Ogunbo, which would have been the first time a Nigerian woman was nominated for high national office. He advocated for the greater involvement of women in public affairs, implementing large-scale education programs for women through his party PRP and appointed several women to public positions. In both the parties he led, the [[Northern Elements Progressive Union]] (NEPU) from 1953 to 1966 and the PRP from 1978 to 1983, women were encouraged to engage politically. However, while these parties established women's wings and addressed issues concerning education and voting rights, they often stifled female members' attempts to independently confront wider issues. The women's wings, though present, did not lead reformative or revolutionary changes for women.<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|page=157}}