Mallam Lamido Sanusi Lamido, immediate past governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and others are in the race to succeed Alhaji Ado Bayero, Emir of Kano who died yesterday.

The late Emir was born to the family of Hajiya Hasiya and Abdullahi Bayero and into the Fulani Sullubawa clan that has presided over the emirate of Kano since 1819.

He was the 11th child of his father and the second of his mother. At the age of seven, he was sent to live with Maikano Zagi.

He studied the Qur’an and later attended the Kano Middle School, and School for Arabic Studies, Kano.

He started his working career in 1947 at the then British Bank for West Africa, now First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

In 1949, Bayero joined the services of the Kano Native Authority (NA), and attended courses at the Clerical Training Centre, Zaria; and the United Kingdom, and rose to the rank of Chief Clerk at the Kano Town Council.

He later joined partisan politics and contested and won election into the Northern Regional House of Assembly in 1954 on the platform of the defunct Northern People’s Congress (NPC).

In 1957, he resigned his membership of the House and took up the appointment of Wakilin Doka, Chief of Kano Native Authority Police.

He was appointed Nigeria’s Ambassador to Senegal five years later, and became the Emir of Kano in 1963 while studying French in Switzerland.

Bayero was the Chancellor of various Nigerian universities, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; the University of Ibadan, and University of Maiduguri.

He was the longest serving Emir of Kano, and spearheaded the construction of many mosques and Islamic schools in the emirate.

Others in the race to the throne are the Galadiman Kano, Alhaji Tijjani Hashim. There is also Alhaji Ciroma  Lamido Ado Bayero (the eldest son of the late emir) who is also the district head of Gwale local government area of Kano.

He is highly regarded as Bayero’s heir apparent given historical foundations of majority of previous emirs who succeeded their fathers.

Another candidate being spoken of is Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, the district head of Dala local government area of the state,  a graduate of  Mass Communication.

Yet, there are talks also of Alhaji Nasiru Ado Bayero, said to have been positioned by his father, the late monarch for the position

But the former CBN governor has never hidden his ambition to be Emir of Kano after Ado Bayero.

Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, governor of Kano state will however play a major role in the emergence of the new monarch as the kingmakers are to nominate three persons for him to pick .

And if the cold blood between the Presidency in Abuja and the Kano State government is anything to go by, Sanusi may be the likely beneficiary and the next Emir of Kano.