By Muhsin Alhassan

Before taking the mantle of leadership as Governor of Kano state, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf developed a clear vision of industrialization, taking cognisance of the business and economic viability of Kano in the Northern region.

For centuries, Kano has remained a major economic centre in the African region, a vital hub for Trans-Saharan trade, facilitating the exchange of goods like kola nuts, cloth, and leather for salt, weapons, and manufactured goods.

Governor Abba Yusuf’s broad understanding of commerce, trade, investment opportunities and creating an enabling environment for corporate entities to strive left no one in doubt about his unwavering commitment to rebuild and rebrand the economic potential of the ancient city to compete with industrial and megacities in Africa.

On assumption as Chief Executive of the state, Governor Yusuf, who had earlier set his eyes on target to visualize the vision as conceptualised in his blueprint and campaign promises hinged on industrialization and commerce.

In the blueprint, the award-winning Governor on education and empowerment planned to create an enabling environment for Kano to be ranked highest on ease of doing business and support micro, small and medium enterprises for wealth creation as well as reviving moribund industries and businesses in the state.

To execute the huge mandate, Governor Yusuf searched for the right man for the
job and rightly settled for the choice of one of his confident and former Chief of Staff, Alh. Shehu Sagagi, whose wealth of experience in both public and private business ecosystems, speaks volumes of capacity and competency.

With a clear mandate to turn around the system, ‘Goni’ Sagagi immediately swung into action, injecting a breath of fresh air into trade, commerce, industries and bilateral investment environment, leaving no stone unturned to make Kano an attraction and destination for unlimited business opportunities.

Goni Sagagi, a strong torchbearer of Governor Yusuf’s mandate in the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce, has made a significant impact and recorded success, giving the business environment a facelift.

For the first time in history, the Ministry approved the establishment of a private export processing zone in the two senatorial zones to widen the ease of doing business in Kano. The new zone will also serve side by side in trade and investment opportunities with the existing Federal Government trade zone.

Another giant stride recorded by Governor Abba Yusuf under the ministry was the approval for the resuscitation of the 44 garment centres abandoned by the last administration for eight years. With the reopening of the garment clusters, the centres have opened a new vista of training and job opportunities to over 10,000 youths.

Similarly, the Ministry of Investment under Sagagi constituted a technical committee for the establishment and promotion of a commodity exchange market to boost trade and commerce that will facilitate access to agricultural produce to the international market.

Sagagi has also opened up an additional common facility centre for shoe and bag making to accommodate more women entrepreneurs, making them self-reliant and reducing poverty and gender-based violence in Kano.

Again, part of the success stories recorded under Sagagi since he took over as Commissioner at the Ministry was the idea of the Ramadan Trade Fair, the first of its kind that brought the business community in the commodity market and traders across the major markets together to sell their products at largely discounted cost.

The gesture came timely enough to offer succour and intervention to a large number of middle and low-class earners to provide for their families. The initiative was timely when prices of foods were hitting the ceiling.

Still in the days under review, Alh. Shehu Sagagi engaged market leadership and settled disputes as well as embarking on a solidarity visit to the business environment.

The Ministry was able to, under the government Economic Policy Initiative, introduce policies for hiring local workers against exploitation. The government had also approved the setting up of an IT unit in the ministry.

In the interim, Goni Sagagi has concluded necessary plans to upgrade infrastructure in local marketplaces like Tarauni, Sheka, Gyadi-Gyadi, and others. The Ministry is also committed to elevating the Danbatta, Wudil, and Kura weekly market to bi-weekly spending to upscale trade volumes.

Nevertheless, Goni Sagagi has repositioned the mission and strategies on how to monitor and broaden the scope of business opportunities and committed to attracting investors.

With the opportunity afforded by Governor Abba Yusuf to serve the good people of Kano, the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce has renewed vigour to go the extra mile to build a conducive atmosphere for the Kano economy to flourish.

Abubakar Musa Umar

Kano State is blessed with a wealth of individuals with diverse experiences, skills, and contacts across many spheres of life, including religious, cultural, and educational spaces. The likes of Dr. Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu, Sheikh Nasir Kabara, and Sheikh Jaafar Mahmoud Adam are among the few figures to mention, possessing vast Islamic knowledge appreciated worldwide. Recently, Kano State has been blessed with three educational experts with extensive knowledge of education, from its foundational levels to the peak positions of management and decision-making.

Malam Yusuf Kabir was a civil servant for 35 years, retiring in 2014 as Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics at the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Kano. He started as a classroom teacher and later became an education secretary in different local governments. Since 2015, he has worked with development partners and achieved remarkable success with the Education Sector Support Program in Nigeria (ESSPIN), the Department for International Development (DFID), PLANE-DAI, and many others. He is currently the Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Kano.

In the last seventeen months, Malam Yusuf has brought significant changes to basic education in the state. He initiated the first induction training for newly recruited teachers to prepare them for the job. He transformed both the staff and facilities to enhance services and improve job satisfaction.

Malam Haladu Mohammed, an international development expert, started his career as a classroom teacher and later transitioned to higher education, where he rose to the level of senior lecturer in the Department of Geography at the College of Arts, Science, and Remedial Studies (CAS), Kano. Malam Haladu created several educational programs and projects, working as a Team Lead with DFID, OTL, and, most recently, as Chief of Party at USAID Liberia. He is currently the Technical Advisor on Education Reforms to the Executive Governor of Kano State.

Dr. Yakubu Muhammad Anas, a development expert with more than two decades of track records of accomplishment, was a classroom teacher for years, rising to the rank of Head Teacher before resigning to join development work. He has supported many programs and projects within and outside the country, working with ESSPIN, DFID, KaLMA, and Sesame Square Nigeria. He provides technical support to the Kano State Education Emergency Conference and is currently assisting the Ministry of Education and its agencies in achieving their target goals and objectives.

The three stars worked on the same projects and recorded remarkable success in their respective areas. The stars have now blended again, working with the Kano State Government to revive the education sector.

The recent appointment of Malam Haladu as Technical Advisor to the Executive Governor of Kano, the transformation of basic education under the leadership of Malam Yusuf Kabir, and the technical support provided by Dr. Yakubu Anas to the Ministry of Education and its agencies testify to the government’s commitment to real educational reforms.

Education is currently in the hands of experts whose experience and contributions to the development of education are recognized and appreciated worldwide.

May Almighty Allah (SWT) grant them the wisdom to devise solutions to existing challenges and transform education in Kano State.

Long Live, Kano State

Abubakar Musa Umar is an educationist and a development expert writes this from Kano

The promotion of Wamban Kano Munir Sanusi as Galadiman Kano today, May 2, 2025, marks an important moment in the history of Kano’s sarauta institution. More than a ceremonial installment, it is the continuation of a title whose symbolic and administrative significance has long anchored the cohesion of Kano; first as a kingdom, and since the nineteenth century, as an emirate. This moment is charged with expectation, arriving at a time Kano Emirate is caught in a vortex of political contestation, juridical uncertainty, and generational transition. It will be the day a man who is both brother and foster son to a former Galadima, and son-in-law to another, assumes such an important office.

The title of Galadima, derived from the Kanuri galdi-ma, meaning “chief of the western front,” emerged during the administrative reforms of Kano’s second Hausa ruler, Sarki Warisi dan Bagauda, in the 11th century. Over time, it evolved into one of the most powerful and most senior princely offices across Hausa land. Until Emir Abdullahi Maje Karofi (1855-1882) appointed his son Yusufu as Galadima, the title had traditionally been reserved for the king’s/emir’s uncle, eldest brother or closest male kin: typically someone older and therefore unlikely to succeed to the throne.

Elsewhere, I have argued that Maje Karofi’s deviation from this established custom was one of the remote causes of the Kano Civil War of 1893. In essence, the appointment of a son to such a crucial position, naturally altered the institutional role of the Galadima, who historically functioned as a check on the emir’s authority. This explains Maje Karofi’s decision to depose his brother Abdulkadir, for expressing growing concern over certain decisions and practices at court the latter deemed inappropriate.

As demonstrated by the reigns of Galadiman Kano Daudu, Atuma, and the Fulani-era Galadimas Maje Karofi and Tijjani Hashim, the office has often wielded influence that paralleled or even eclipsed that of the king/emir. Until the 19th century, titles like Dan Ruwatan Kano were accorded to the kinsman or son of the galadima, while Dan Darman Kano was reserved for his cognatic kinsman. Traditionally, the Galadima served as vizier, head of civil administration, and head of his own mini-palace, independent of the Emir’s court. Court praise-singers aptly describe bearers of the title as Daudu rakumin Kano, the camel that bears the city’s burden; Daudu gatan birni, the protector of the city; and Rumfa sha shirgi, the palace’s dust heap where disputes are deposited and resolved. In recent times, no one embodied such praise and fuction as the late Galadiman Kano Tijjani Hashim.

Widely regarded as the archetype of the modern Galadima, Tijjani Hashim redefined the office in an era when the sarauta was stripped of formal political power. He transformed it into a bastion of accessible influence, strategic mediation, and public service. His residence functioned as a daily court of appeals, open to aristocrats, commoners, and royal slaves alike. He was the man to whom a poor student could turn for a scholarship, a merchant for capital, a civil servant for promotion, a politician for sponsorship, and a broken family for reconciliation.

Tijjani Hashim died in 2014 and was succeeded by the charismatic Abbas Sanusi, whose reign as Galadima was cut short by a protracted illness. Abbas Sanusi was a disciplined and astute administrator, widely respected for his command of the emirate’s bureaucratic machinery. Yet his tenure was constrained by declining health, which limited his capacity to perform some of Galadima’s traditional roles, particularly inter-familial diplomacy. It is from Abbas Sanusi that the title now transitions to his younger brother, Alhaji Munir Sanusi, marking a rare case of intergenerational and intra-familial continuity, even by the standards of Kano’s dynastic politics. Their relationship was not merely fraternal, it was paternal. Abbas raised Munir from infancy, shaping his worldview and instilling in him the refined fadanci he has mastered and discreetly used to his advantage. Adding further symbolic weight is the fact that Munir is married to Hajiya Mariya Tijjani Hashim, daughter of the very man whose name has become synonymous with the Galadima title in recent memory. Thus, the new Galadima stands at the confluence of two great legacies—bound by blood to Abbas, and by marriage to Tijjani.

Born on January 12, 1962, Munir Sanusi Bayero was the last son of Emir Sir Muhammad Sanusi I to be born in the Kano palace. Raised by his late brother, Galadima Abbas Sanusi, he later married his second cousin, Hajiya Mariya, a union that has continued to epitomize royal love and companionship. Alhaji Munir Sanusi received his primary education at Gidan Makama Primary School, and his secondary education at Government Secondary School Dambatta from 1976 to 1981. He later obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi.

Galadima Munir Sanusi’s career commenced in the Kano State Ministry of Social Welfare, Youth, and Sports, where he served as a Transport Officer from 1989 to 1991. He later joined Daula Enterprises Co. Ltd, Kano, from 1991 to 1993. He currently sits on the board of several companies, including Tri-C3 and Unique Leather Finishing Co. Ltd, the second-largest exporter of leather in West Africa.

In 2014, the Emir of Kano Khalifa Muhammad Sanusi II appointed him as Dan Majen Kano and pioneer Chief of Staff to the Emir in Kano Emirate, He was elevated to the position of Danburam Kano in 2016 and Wamban Kano and district head of Bichi in 2024. Today, he assumes the prestigious title of Galadiman Kano.

Galadima Munir’s loyalty to Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II has earned him considerable admiration within and beyond Kano. When the Emir was deposed in March 2020 and exiled to Loko in Nasarawa State, Munir not only followed him into banishment but remained by his side through Lagos and back to Kano. Now that the Emir has rewarded that loyalty with the emirate’s highest princely office, Munir faces a challenge no less noble than the title he inherits.

For one, loyalty is only one pillar of what I call, “the burdens of the Galadima”. The office demands generosity, accessibility, discretion, and the ability to shoulder the hopes of a people whose faith in the sarauta system is repeatedly tested. Here lies the Galadima’s greatest trial. Like his predecessors, he must cultivate a public image as a patron of the weak, a reconciler of royal, noble amd common feuds, and a figure of last resort to both the high and the low. He must embody _rumfa sha shirgi_ in practice: bearing the burdens of others, not just out of obligation, but with discernment, sincerity, and grace. His word must be his bond, for _zancen Galadima kamar zancen Sarki ne_: the word of the Galadima is expected to be final, unwavering, and free of bitterness.

The task becomes all the more urgent against the backdrop of Kano’s current emirship crisis. While Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II’s return has been celebrated in many quarters, it remains the subject of intense legal and political contestation. In this precarious climate, the Galadima must go beyond ceremonial visibility. He must be the Emirate’s anchor, bridging palace factions and translating the noble project of restoring the sarauta back to its sense to the wider public. Galadima Munir’s early efforts at reconciling estranged branches of the royal family and diffusing internal tensions suggest a promising political instinct. But history demands more than instinct; it demands an ethic of honor and sustained human investment.

To become Galadiman Kano today is not merely to wear a turban. It is to accept a lifetime project of prioritizing the interest of the Sarauta and the talakawa over one’s. It is knowing that one’s home inevitably becomes a revolving court and one’s influence becomes public trust. Any failure to wield it generously, the memory of that failure will linger far longer than any quiet success.

Alhaji Munir Sanusi ascends the title of Galadima with the wind of history at his back and the shadows of giants before him. He is son and brother to a Galadima, and son-in-law to the most revered of them. If he can merge these legacies with his quiet resolve and proven loyalty, he may yet restore the Galadima as the most vital conduit between the emirate and its people.

As the title awaits its meaning, Kano welcomes its new Galadima.

Allah ya kama, Raba musu rana da hazo

Allah ya taya riko, Daudu kwatangwalon giye.

Allah ya taimaki, tomo jiniyar gari

Huzaifa Dokaji writes from New York and can be reached via huzaifadokaji@gmail.com