Former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representing Yobe South constituency of Yobe State, Adamu Garba, on Tuesday, 26th April, 2022, has called for a change of name for Nigeria.
The former senator proposes that the country be called ‘Nigritia’, which, he says, was the original name, before it was changed to ’Nigeria’ by the colonial government.
According to Garba, many African countries altered their colonial names after independence, but Nigeria kept the name, despite its disadvantages. As a result, the 39-year-old asked the country to go back to being called Nigritia.
“If Ghana can change its name from the Colonial Gold Coast, Kenya from British East Africa, Benin from Dahomey, Togo from Togoland, etc, why would Nigeria maintain a colonially induced name?
“We should rename this country back to its pre-colonial NIGRITIA.
“Identity is everything”, Garba said in a Facebook post. Meanwhile, Garba recently announced his intention to join the presidential race, said the price tag is tantamount to buying political offices, condemning the APC’s price tag for its presidential nomination forms.
Nigritia, or Negroland is an archaic term in European mapping, referring to Europeans’ descriptions of West Africa as an area populated with negroes. The modern nation of Nigeria is in the center. The term is probably a direct translation of the Arabic term Bilad as-Sudan, meaning “Land of the Blacks”, corresponding to about the same area.
Story: Asma’u Sani
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