Kano is hot, especially during the day. Here, every day is a hot day. Fridays are hotter. If you step out during the day, except if it’s harmattan, believe me, you’ll have a story to tell.
One certain Friday around 1:30 pm, I was at the Juma’at Mosque in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) Old Site to witness a wedding ceremony of a friend. On Fridays, it isn’t unusual to have more than one wedding in the same mosque, conducted by the same Imam. This Friday was no different. It happened that, apart from the wedding I was there to attend, there were others. Because the one I was there to witness was the last, I found myself, in the blazing sun, witnessing weddings I never knew any of the couples.I found the nearest shade and hid from the sun.
There, I met some acquaintances and we started discussing different sides of life when a learned friend came to me and said, ‘Allah mana Maikyau.’ The clause is a prayer in Hausa which simply means, ‘May the Lord bless us with the best.’ I however use it to express my support for Y.C Maikyau, SAN.
‘Maikyau alheri ne,’ I answered in Hausa that Maikyau is a blessing. Amidst the gathering, someone from a group of gentlemen, not too far away from us, approached and asked me whether I know Yakubu Maikyau. I answered him, yes and went ahead to mention how good and inspiring YC is.
‘Maikyau may be a good senior lawyer you admire in Abuja,’ a hefty man with a penetrating voice said, ‘We’re happy to hear that. But Maikyau is much more than that to us. He’s an embodiment of success and an example of a river that never forgets its source.’
What the man said didn’t move me as much as the way he said it. I could hear the conviction and satisfaction in his voice as he said it. That was when I realised that YC Maikyau, SAN means something to his people, lawyers and non-lawyers alike. I was intrigued to know more.
‘How do you mean?’ I asked. They all looked at me and laughed. I laughed back too.
‘Yakubu is a household name in the entire Zuru Emirate Council,’ another man added, ‘he is the son of the soil that always comes back to us. His status may change, but it does not change him. You can ask anyone in Zuru. Yakubu is a good ambassador.’ As he’d said that and before I’d ask a further question, a man in his mid 40’s came to them.
‘Our friend here wants to know about Yakubu Maikyau,’ the man who’d just finished speaking said to the man who’s just arrived.
‘I have known Yakubu Maikyau for more than 20 years,’ the man said, ‘Since when he was doing his lawyer work in Sokoto and now that he is in Abuja. Whenever he is in town, he eats masa with us at Asabe’s place.’
Asabe mai waina or masa, as I later learnt, is an elderly woman who is a veteran in masa business. She’s been selling masa for decades at Zangon Zuru. Whenever Y.C. Maikyau, SAN goes home, he visits her masa joint, buys all the masa and invites people to come and eat with him. I was wowed by this revelation.
‘To us,’ another man chipped in, ‘Maikyau is an example of what success should be. He always remembers us. He does all he can to uplift us, and he considers our success as his success. This is not something he has started recently. He has been doing this since when he was in Sokoto.’ I was thrilled.
‘What Maikyau is doing to us, God can reward him,’ another man said, ‘each year, Maikyau organises a medical outreach for the people of Zuru Emirate and Kebbi State. He brings in medical doctors from the UK and US. They diagonise people for various ailments, conduct surgeries for those that need are in need of them, and give them medications to those whose sickness don’t require surgery, free of charge. He has been doing this for years.’
‘Just last year, Maikyau helped to equip all hospitals in Zuru Emirate and other parts of the State during the COVID-19 lockdown.
These remarks stayed with me for long. YC Maikyau, SAN isn’t just a good lawyer. He’s a river that never forgets its source. He listens to his people, helps them and does whatever he can to uplift them. It doesn’t come to us as a surprise that under his chairmanship of the Welfare Committee, the NBA is, for the first time in its history, providing free medical insurance scheme to its members.
As William J. Bennett said, ‘a kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.’ YC Maikyau, SAN is somewhere in Abuja, but his townspeople are there praying for him and being proud of him.
Allah mana Maikyau.
My name is Sani Ammani It pleases me to read, comforts me to write and delights me to talk.
