Baba Adamu Iyam (born September 5, 1948, in

Otukpo Otukpo is a town in Benue State, Nigeria located in the North Central (Nigeria), Middle Belt Region of Nigeria. It is also the eponymous name of a subgroup of the Idoma people. Otukpo is the headquarters of the Otukpo Local Government Area. It i ...

Benue state Benue is a State in the North Central Nigeria, North Central region of Nigeria. It is popularly referred to as part of the Middle belt. It has an estimated population of about 4,253,641 in List of Nigerian states by population, the 2006 census. ...

) was a Nigerian soldier who served as Military Administrator of

Kwara State Kwara () is a state in Western Nigeria, bordered to the east by Kogi State, to the north by Niger State, and to the south by Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo states, while its western border makes up part of the international border with Benin. Its ca ...

between September 1994 and August 1996, and then

Edo State Edo State, Edo, officially known as Edo State, is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South, South-South Geopolitical zones of Nigeria, geopolitical zone of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As of 2024, the state was ranked as the List of Ni ...

from August 1996 to August 1998, during the military regime of General

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (; (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist as military head of state from 1993 following a palace coup d'état until his death in 1998. Abacha's seiz ...

. Group Captain Iyam reportedly sacked 8,000 Edo state workers, most of them the teachers that Prof Ambrose Alli had painstakingly groomed, invested in and nurtured. In February 1997, he halted all grants to the

Edo State University Edo University, Iyamho (abbreviated EDI) is a state government-owned tertiary institution founded in 2016. Formerly known as Edo State University, Uzairue, it is located in Iyamho, a town in Etsako West local government area of Edo State, N ...

since he considered that government ought not fund universities, and appointed a Sole Administrator for the university which will report directly to him alone, which he have a very good reason for.

Tenure

Group Captain Baba Adamu Iyam, served as Governor of

from August 1994 to August 1996, oversaw a period of mass mobilization for self-help development. The administration engaged private developers to complete Kwara House in

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

, which would generate revenue for the government and reduce the cost of hotel accommodation for state officials in the federal capital. The administration also constructed boreholes and functional latrines across the state, in partnership with

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

and DFRRI. The Stadium Shopping Complex was also built to improve revenue generation. However, Iyam's administration will most likely be remembered for its reclassification of Kwara State as an "educationally disadvantaged state," which would help attract more attention and investment from the Federal Government for educational development.

References

1948 births Living people Nigerian Air Force officers Governors of Kwara State Governors of Edo State {{edoNG-politician-stub