By Ikeddy ISIGUZO, Chairman Editorial Board

ANYONE younger than 60 cannot claim to have known any Emir of Kano, other than Alhaji Ado Abdullahi Bayero who transited yesterday at 83, weeks shy of his 84th birthday on 25 July. He was the only Emir of Kano we knew.

His longevity on the throne saw to that. Bayero, after whom the federal university in Kano was named, celebrated his 50th anniverary as emir last June. He was the 13th Fulani Emir of Kano following the Usman dan Fadio conquest of Hausa cities, including Kano and the 56th ruler of Kano Kingdom.

* Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero Photo: AFP

Bayero’s father, Abdullahi Bayero, a former emir, reigned for 27 years. His successor Muhammadu Sanusi (1953-1963), father of the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was dethroned. Muhammadu Inuwa, the next emir, died after three months.

From his post as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Senegal, Bayero was recalled to ascend the throne. The calm his reign brought to Kano had several interferences. He managed them with an equanimity that became his signature.

The civilian administration of Governor Abubakar Rimi restricted traditional obeisance village heads paid Bayero and reduced his emirate. These were in addition to the political reforms from civil and military rule since independence that impinged on the powers of the once all-powerful Emir of Kano.

When he returned from a business trip to Israel with his friends – Obi of Onitsha Okagbue II and Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade in 1984 – the military government of Mohammadu Buhari banned them from travelling abroad without permit.  Bayero then remarked that he was not a civil servant, which further infuriated the military.

A former Chancellor of the University of Nigeria and of the University of Ibadan until his death, the emir survived a terrorist attack on 19 January 2013. Several aides, including his driver and bodyguard, died in the attack. Bayero and two of his injured sons had to be flown abroad for treatment.

He was Chief of the Kano Native Authority Police, a position he used in checking excesses of powerful politicians in Kano. The emir was at Kano Middle School and graduated from the School of Arabic Studies in 1947. He was a bank clerk (Bank of British West Africa) until 1949, when he joined the Kano Native Authority. In 1952, he attended the Zaria Clerical College. Two years after, he won a seat in the Northern Region House of Assembly.

Bayero was a respected voice who said important things or said things importantly. His royalty spoke for him. His loyalty to Kano was never in doubt.

The rambunctious race to succeed him could put more pressure on a city already under the scourge of terror. Adieu, Bayero, Kano’s most famous personality in half