The longest serving Emir, Alhaji Ado Abdullahi Bayero was born on 25 July 1930 in a royal family of the Fulani Sullubawa, the clan that has ruled over the Emirate of Kano since 1819.
Born in Kano by Abdullahi Bayero and Hajiya Hasiya, Abdullahi Bayero was the eleventh child of his father and the second of his mother.
He had is education at Kano Middle School and attended Islamic school after. Alhaji Bayero, in 1947 graduated from the School of Arabic Studies and started working as a clerk He then worked as a clerk at the Bank of British West Africa till 1949 before joining the Kano Native Authority.
In 1952, he attended Zaria Clerical College before winning a seat for the Northern regional House of Assembly in 1954. In 1957 he became the head of the Kano Native Authority police division till 1962. He was later made the Nigerian Ambassador to Senegal.
Following the death of his father, his half brother, Muhammadu Sanusi assumed the throne in 1953 till 1963 which he was dethroned before Muhammadu Inuwa was crowned the Emir but died within three months of his leadership before Abdullahi Bayero was installed as the Emir of Kano on October 22, 1963, making him the 13th Fulani Emir of Kano and the 56th ruler of Kano.
Alhaji Ado Bayero became the leader of Muslim groups in Nigeria. He fought hard in bringing Kano at the national and global stage.
His contributions towards settling ethnic and religious conflicts was among what made him one of the most influential Muslim leaders in the world.
Before his reign there was only buy one Juma’at Mosque, Abdullahi Bayero built the second one which he commissioned in 1971, after then he had commissioned over two hundred Mosques but in Kano and other states in Kano, and legacy which no other leader has ever achieved.
Ado Bayero’s activeness fo his support to the Local Government Reforms and his effort in making people to accept free education by the Federal Government, Kano became highest public primary school with the highest enrollment of over 1.9 millions pupils.
He was made the patron of the Islamic schools. Being a supporter of Islamiyya Schools, he has commissioned over hundreds of them which he was attacked in January 2013 after he commissioned the last school at Murtala Muhammad Mosque.
Also known for his influence in boosting the socioeconomic development, he recently established the Ado Bayero shopping mall which became the first Ultra modern shopping mall in any Northern state which brought it many investors to Kano.
He was the only Emir to have appointed as much as 120 Hakimai since history. He kept a legacy of being the one that revived Jobawa and Sullubawan Tuta that were left of of the Emirate Electoral College and the other out of the entire Sarauta from 1959 – 1984 and 1915 – 2007.
Alhaji Ado Bayero died after 51 years as an Emir in 6th of June 2014, in his palace, Gidan Rumfa. A struggle on whom to be crowned the Emir came up. Former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was crowned the Emir on 8th June 2014 contrary to the initial reports that Ado Bayero’s eldest son, Sanusi Ado Bayero, in which he protested and left Kano. His titles were Al’s taken from him as he failed to pledge allegiance to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.