He says the name change will be part of the reforms he will pursue if he wins elections.

Nigerian presidential election will be held in February 2023.

"How about we rebrand this country, properly federalize it and rename it to “The Nigritian Federation” or simply NIGRITIA. After all, Nigritia is our ancient name before Lady Lugard renamed it Nigeria," Mr Garba tweeted.

"It is high time to clean ourselves from negative stereotypes, reorganize ourselves and reclaim our country away from our colonial identities and divisions to our own definitions of unity, integration, tolerance and cohesion," he added,

He cited other African countries like Ghana, Kenya, Benin and Togo that changed their "colonially induced" names on independence, arguing that "Identity is everything".

Mr Garba has also posted a video demonstrating the right way of pronouncing the proposed new name.

https://twitter.com/adamugarba/status/1518959855918329856