Galadima
Operating from Nguru, the officer acted as an independent vassal of the Mai ('ruler') and was responsible for the western marches of the empire.
Ashamed to acknowledge his son, the Mai sent the mother and child to the house of the Makinta, a palace slave, where the boy was raised.
[2]: 17 [3]: 25–26 By the late 18th-century, the Galadima was responsible for overseeing the easternmost areas of Hausaland, including Shira, Teshena, Hadejia, and Auyo.
[2]: 25 When the Sokoto jihad erupted in Bornu in the early 1800s, it began in the Fulani settlements under the administration of the Galadima, Dunama.
In 1807, after several successive defeats, Dunama was eventually killed by the Fulani jihadists, who went on to establish emirates, such as Katagum, Misau, Hadejia, and Jemaare, from portions of the region he had previously administered.
[2]: 28 The successors of Dunama were in constant conflict with the Mais and the Shehu, Muhammad al-Kanemi, resulting in the execution of one and the flight of another.
When the Shehu decided to administer Gumel directly, an angry Umar killed the deposed ruler placed under his protection.
He established himself at Bundi (today in Nguru, Yobe State) in western Bornu, but his power had 'sunk to great insignificance', according to Dr Heinrich Barth, a German explorer who visited the kingdom in the 1850s.
[5] The Galadima title was imported from Bornu during the period where the empire had extended its influence across most of the Hausa Kingdoms in the 16th-century.
[6] In many of the Hausa states, the office of Galadima acted as a sort of vizier, and was sometimes assigned to the heir apparent.
[11]: 250 Under colonial Nigeria, the Galadima was a member of the Native Authority Council and was in charge of central departments like police, works, health, and the city of Kano.
They were part of the electoral college responsible for selecting new kings and served on the Council of State, which governed the kingdom alongside the Sarki.
The state's ousted rulers (masu sarauta) fled south and, in 1828, founded the town of Abuja, named after its founder, Abu Ja.
Assisted by two other senior eunuchs (rukuni), Wombai and Dallatu, the Galadima was responsible for civil administration, which included overseeing the police, prisons, markets, and supplies to the capital and the army.
Each governed half of the capital as a fief, a system designed to neutralise their influence within the state, preventing either from seizing power through a coup without the consent of the other.
[15]: 45 [16]: 274 The first Galadima of Sokoto was Doshero bin Mujakka, a Fulani mallam (Islamic scholar) from Katsina.
