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The Benue Governorship Race-Power Shift By Oioi-Onoja Odo
Mr. Francis Ottah Agbo, in the December 5Th issue of The News Magazine attempted an insight into the ongoing jostling for the Benue state Governorship seat soon to be vacated by Dr. George Akume,. the incumbent Governor who has occupied the seat since the restoration of Democratic rule in 1999. Mr. Agbo's analysis and the useful comments made by Chief Mike Onoja are commendable. However, those comments appear to dwell on the one side of the coin and have overlooked the realities of Benue politics since 1976 when the State was created.
In 1975/76 when the late Justice Ayo Irikefe's Panel on creation of States went round Nigeria, the only place on record in what is today Benue state which demanded the creation of Benue State was the Idoma speaking area. The memorandum submitted in Otukpo to the Panel wa s signed by the late Hon. (Chief) Ameh Odo, MP, late Barrister J. Omakwu, late Major (rtd) Paul Dickson, late Barrister M. Ogbole, etc. Whoever is in doubt about this should verify from the available records in the archives. When the Panel went to Gboko, no request for the creation of Benue State was received as none was submitted by the Tiv speaking people. Curiously, as soon as the state was created, the Idoma people who were at the forefront for the agitation of the creation of the state began to be consigned to the periphery of power in the scheme of things. Thus, in the second republic which began in 1979, the first indigenous civilian Governor was from the Tiv area and his Deputy was picked from amongst the Igala, even though the Tiv and Idoma had been together during the colonial administration of old Benue Province and subsequently in the defunct Benue-Plateau State. Notwithstanding this long period of common association and exper ience of marginalisation, the Tiv did not consider the Idoma for the number two position in the State. Even the short lived dispensation of 1983 did not witness any concessions being made to the Idoma.
The Tiv people through their numerical strength have not relented in their determination to continue the emasculation of the Idoma people. It will be recalled that sometimes in 1993, just before General Babangida stepped aside, the Benue State House of Assembly had passed a motion urging the Federal Government to excise the Idoma people from Benue state and assign them to any other State. This is an unprecedented step in the annals of the political history of Nigeria. The subsequent treatment of the Idoma has continued to follow this trend. The Idoma are nothing more than third class citizens in a State that they struggled for. Even in the current dispensation, the Tiv people having taken the Governorship pos ition did not consider it wise or fair to assign the deputy to the Idoma. Rather they went for a very insignificant minority - the Igedes -who until recently were considered as part of Idoma. Even the number three position of the Speaker of the House of Assembly did not go the Idoma people. The point here is that the Idoma people have not had a fair deal and are not likely to have in the nearest future within Benue State as it is known today.
In the light of this history, I consider it a fantasy on the part of the Idoma elites or politicians who are looking up to their Tiv brothers to be given a chance to rule the State. It is fantasy because this is unrealistic and unattainable. Nobody gives power to another on the platter of gold. The aspirants are counting on the good will of Dr. George Akume and Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. These are enlightened, urbane and fair minded individuals and if left to them an Idoma might emerge the Governor in 2007. Sadly and realistically, the Tiv nation is not populated by the Ayus and Akumes. Hence the dream is nothing but a dream. When the chips are down the reality would dawn on the Idoma people. Instead of wasting their resources and generating intra-group conflict over who should be Governor they should team up together and renew their struggle for the emancipation of the Idoma people. They should clamour to exercise their inalienable rights to self determination as enshrined in the U.N. Charter. It therefore follows that the likes of Chiefs Mike Onoja, Steve Lawani, Abba Moro and Generals Lawrence Onoja, and G. Ejiga must come to the painful conclusion that neither themselves nor their children or grand children can ever aspire to rule Benue State as long as the Idoma remain third class citizens. Their destiny how ever is in their own hands. The only way to free themselves fr om this humiliating position is to renew the struggle for the creation of Apa State where the Idoma like any other ethnic nationality in Nigeria can within the laws of Nigeria exercise their rights to self determination, to rule themselves, to manage their own affairs or mis-manage them as other groups such as the Ibos, Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, Ijaw, Bini and all other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria have been empowered to do through the creation of States.
In doing this, they should not mind the spurious argument of population. The Idoma currently numbered well over 1 million which is the same as or bigger than some countries in West Africa, egg. The Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, etc. These countries being members of the United Nations have equal vote in the General Assembly as the U.S.A., India, China, or even Nigeria.
The old Idoma politicians who fought so hard within the old Northern Region for the emancipation of the Idoma must be weeping in their graves as they look down and see how the Idoma are being treated today. In the first Republic, there were at least five Federal Constituencies at the Federal House of Representatives. Some 45 years later, they no longer have such numbers, but those who seek to lead the Idoma nation see nothing wrong with this. As William Shakespeare once said, the fault is not in the greed or generosity of the Tivs but in the Idomas themselves. They must learn to speak for themselves and articulate their demands. No body else would do that for them.
Thank you.
Oioi-Onoja Odo
Shagamu Street Garki Abuja
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