Aminu Kano

=== 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}}