Aminu Kano

== Personal life ==

=== Family ===
Aminu's first wife, Umma, was a divorcee from another marriage. Her family was 'royalty of sorts' and disapproved of her marriage to Aminu due to his 'open anti-royalty stance.' The marriage took place in Kano in 1939; however, they dissolved it once Aminu left for Kaduna College. Umma, who was against the dissolution, fled to Kaduna and remarried Aminu. Her family managed to convince the local Alkali to dissolve the marriage a second time after the couple returned to Kano for holidays. Shortly after her year-long relationship with Aminu ended, Umma fled to Ghana alone.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=67-68}}<ref name=":31" />

Aminu's second wife was Hasia, who comes from a royal family in Bauchi. Her grandmother approached Aminu's father on her behalf, and he accepted the proposal. Aminu learned of this while concluding his studies at Kaduna College and returned to Kano shortly after. Following this, he and Hasia relocated to Bauchi for his teaching assignment. At the time of their marriage, Hasia was young and lacked formal schooling. Aminu took it upon himself to educate her in the Quran, [[The three Rs|basic English literacy]] (reading, writing, and arithmetic), and personal hygiene.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=68-69}} She also shared her knowledge by tutoring other women around her.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=76}} During their marriage, Hasia suffered from a spleen infection, which hindered her ability to bear children. In 1948, she conceived but later miscarried.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=109}} Once Aminu retired from teaching in 1950 and took up politics, they moved to Kano. His political engagements left little time for Hasia, who felt isolated. She resided in Aminu's family compound in Sudawa but later returned to her mother's home after a dispute with Aminu's stepmother. Refusing to return, their marriage ended. Aminu arranged for Hasia to work in a maternity hospital, a position she held until at least the early 1970s. Despite the end of their marriage, Aminu and Hasia remained on good terms. She attended his wedding in 1969 and, a year later, he sponsored her pilgrimage to Mecca.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=68-69, 181}}

=== Personality ===
[[Chinua Achebe]], the influential Nigerian novelist and PRP colleague of Aminu, described him as "a saint and revolutionary". He further added that:<blockquote>...if Aminu Kano should discover that he had joined the ranks of the oppressor he would promptly and openly renounce his position and wage war on himself!<ref>{{Cite book |last=Achebe |first=Chinua |url=http://archive.org/details/imageofafricatro0000ache |title=An image of Africa ; and the trouble with Nigeria |date=2010 |publisher=London : Penguin |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-14-119258-1}}</ref>{{Rp|page=86}}</blockquote>British journalist and historian [[Basil Davidson]], who Aminu described as his friend, characterized Aminu as "the Teacher, the Rebel, the Crusader-Politician, and the Statesman-Parliamentarian". Adding to Davidson's description, Aminu described himself during a speech at the [[Bayero University Kano|Bayero University]]'s Convocation Ceremony in 1982 as "a democratic humanist committed to elevating humanity and upholding the dignity of women".<ref name=":17" />{{Rp|page=52}}  [[Elspeth Huxley]], British writer who met Aminu in the early 1950s, in her 1954 book "Four Guineas: A Journey Through West Africa", described Aminu as "a Cassius of a man, slight and fiery, fluent in English, his heart a scorpion and his tongue a whip". She further described him as "a [[demagogue]]—ready-tongued, fanatical".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huxley |first=Elspeth |url=http://archive.org/details/fourguineas0000huxl |title=Four Guineas: A Journey Through West Africa |date=1954 |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |others=Internet Archive }}</ref>{{Rp|pages=254-255}}

Aminu was well known for his frugal lifestyle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Achebe |first=Chinua |url=http://archive.org/details/conversationswit0000ache |title=Conversations with Chinua Achebe |date=1997 |publisher=Jackson : University Press of Mississippi |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-87805-929-4 |pages=161}}</ref> Despite his ministerial position under Gowon, he primarily sustained himself through his "small farm holding" and occasional gifts from his friends.<ref name=":30" />{{Rp|page=73}}

Aminu's knowledge of Islam earned him the title of ''Mallam'' (a title reserved for learned men in Northern Nigeria). He was an expert in [[Fiqh|Islamic jurisprudence]] and ''[[tafsir]]'', delivering widely popular lectures on these subjects, especially in Kano.<ref name=":17" />{{Rp|page=51}} His Qur'anic interpretations mainly focused on the Islamic principles of justice, the significance of education within Islam, and advocated for tolerance among the 'people of the book'—comprising Muslims, [[Christians]], and [[Jews]].<ref name=":14" />{{Rp|page=|pages=299-305}}