Garba Nadama

Garba Nadama (11 November 1938 – 4 May 2020) was a Nigerian politician who was the second civilian governor of Sokoto State, Nigeria, in the short-lived Nigerian Second Republic, holding office from January 1982 to November 1983. He succeeded Shehu Kangiwa, who had died in a polo accident. Quotes We are going to witness another milestone in the history and development of Nigeria. I happened to be an adult when Nigeria gained independence and I have experienced so many things between that time and now. The momentous growth in population and the way things have changed so much are amazing things that one could talk about. Before independence, the population was not as it is today. Again we didn’t have the resources we are having today. Oil money had not been anything at that time. But gradually, with the coming of more funds for the government, development started. The cost of doing things at that time and the cost of doing them now is puzzling. I could remember the cost of building estates, buying cars and so on… when you hear the cost today, you will be amazed. By then movement was by bicycles and the few cars. Motorcycles were few at that time; I could remember there were only two or three in the whole of Sokoto. At the time I started teaching, a bicycle was eight pounds and a car was 3,500. In fact up to the time I was governor of Sokoto State, we were buying cars at 3,500 to 4,000 naira. But there were very few people who could afford it. In terms of administration, we had a regional administration after independence, with the provision of secretary only as head of the regional service. The regions were not as many as the states we had later, and today. Over the years there has been population explosion. Besides this, enormous wealth from oil and other sources have found their way into the lives of the people, and this has influenced so many things. It has also expanded the market. Talk of anything from any nation, you can find it in Nigeria. Is it from China, Japan, India, England or America, name them. I don’t support that postulation. When the Europeans came and imposed themselves on the people, to rule us as one nation, it was a necessity for them because they didn’t have the manpower and the capacity to rule different parts of Nigeria as different entities. I could remember in the whole of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, we had one Resident; that was the most senior officer. We had about three District Officers who were Europeans. You can see the limit, the number of people in the administration. So the bulk of work was put in the hands of the people who were gradually coming out from primary and secondary schools. Secondary schools were very few then in the northern region and in the south there were much more educational centres, catholic schools and so on.