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The ordinary Benue man (or woman) thinks the world is coming to an end. Yes, they witnessed (or heard) of the Biafra or the Nigerian Civil War that raged between 1967 and 1970; yes, they have witnessed several inter-communal clashes that took lives; and yes, they have had skirmishes with Fulani herdsmen that even led to bloodshed, but never in their existence have they faced such massive invasion and such level of fighting on their soil.
Look, the Benue man is pro-centre, and pro-North, and pro-Army. They have demonstrated this severally over the years. They have always demonstrated this in politics and even if they found themselves in the opposition, they would ‘correct’ that in the subsequent election. So, they had no reason to fear the North, to fear the centre, or to fear the Army. They pride themselves as people of the Army, a people with military heritage. They say, each time they find themselves against the Army, that people should ask questions. The Tiv people will never forget the likes of Joe Akaghan and Victor Malu (all chiefs of staff) of blessed memory; Mark Inienger, John Atom Kpera, Joseph Akaageger, Gideon Orkar, and many more. They have a proud military heritage. Their Idoma brothers also want to outshine them with Army Generals such as Geofrey Ejiga, Lawrence Onoja, and David Mark.
Ordinarily, the Tiv man would side with the Nigerian Army. What went wrong? Why is the Tiv man now scared of men in uniform? Three reasons seem to account for this. The Gideon Orkar coup! The Tiv felt targeted after that episode and felt purged out of the Army thereafter. They also felt they deserved some grace and not that size of reprisals. Next was the October 2001 military invasion of Zaki-Biam in Tongov area, the hometown of a then serving Army General, the former Chief of Army Staff, Victor Malu, allegedly killing 100 persons. This was in retaliation for the killing of about 19 ‘soldiers’ during inter-communal clashes. This was due to prolonged fighting between the Tiv people of Benue State and the Jukuns of Taraba. The Tiv people felt that the Army was partial. They claimed that the fighters they killed were enemies that turned out to be soldiers. They felt that those fighting the Tiv were no longer civilian enemies but soldiers. The straw that may have broken the camel’s back seems to be the present fighting between the Tiv and Fulani or herdsmen. The Benue people say soldiers were also fighting or killing the Tiv. The Nigerian Army has denied this, saying they only went in to make arrests or quell fighting. This piece is about the thinking of the ordinary Benue people. Right now, what they think is that soldiers are killing them. So, that long tradition of love and trust between the Tiv and the Nigerian Army has been stained. The Tiv man now flees the moment he sees soldiers. Not just that, the Tiv man runs away when he sees those he used to run to; Army, North, FG. What is not clear is where they now run to.
A perilous time!
The Tiv may now be running to Aondo. Aondo is God and they love God deeply. They do not have ‘Young Alhajis’ but they have pastors young or old; they have bishops and reverend fathers. Just recently, two of those reverend fathers were attacked and killed right in the church, in fact, at the altar, along with morning mass goers. This means, ardent Catholics were massacred. The Tiv repulsed at this, saying Fulani herdsmen have done the worst. Now, silence greets the latest development, which is about the accusation against a Tiv man who goes by Hausa name. The Army is resolving that, but do the Tiv trust the Army anymore?
This singular massacre, the killing of revered and reverend fathers with their loyal parishioners, has caused cold and when the Tivs are cold, the nation catches fever. The danger is that their cold causes anger and their anger wears ‘anger’ cloth and this scenario once caused ‘Aten Tio’ or operation kill the enemy which snowballed into Nigeria’s bloody civil war. (Aten Tio is like Wetie of the Western Region. The two violent rebellions in 1965 forced the Army to strike in 1966 and the matter degenerated into a civil war). Now, we have got to the point of Operation Akpetuma or Cat Race launched by the Army, and anger is subduing ‘anger’. (Many Nigerians immediately point out a Tiv person through dominant black & white hand woven cloth. That cloth is called ‘anger’)
The Tivs have dropped the ‘anger’ and put on anger. Now, Makurdi, the state capital, is at the verge of war. Every other night, families will run away from home, and later return. Tiv habours anger, Hausa habours fear, and Fulani have disappeared in the state. Those that reside in the heart of the state capital such as High Level or Barracks Road still sleep with both eyes closed but those in North Bank area keep vigil while those at Ankpa Quarters, Wadatta, Apir, etc, are in perpetual fear. Shops are more closed than open; businesses are in peril, while the 1966 feeling is back.
The latest but most gruesome killing is the massacre of Morning Mass goers at Saint Ignatius parish in Ayar, near Ikpayongo area, in Gwer West LGA, not far from the Seminary School at Apir, on the road to Aliade, where you get another famous missionary school, the Saint Michael’s. Look, there is this linear Catholic High Education axis: There is the reigning Mount Saint Gabriel’s Makurdi, Saint James Seminary Apir, and Michael’s Aliade. These great institutions of secondary learning have over the years helped to put Benue State far ahead of all other northern states, academically, such that Benue is the first northern state to get a state university. It now boasts of the foremost University of Agriculture, to add to a private university in Mkar and a strong polytechnic in Ugbokolo that may become Apa University. This is why Benue is no longer an academically disadvantaged state though it is in the north. Its admission cut off point into federal unity schools is 111 for both boys and girls, as high as any in the south. Bauchi is 35. It was in this Catholic parish soon after the Seminary school that killers went early in the morning to kill almost 20 ardent worshippers; being that Morning Mass goers are often the most ardent Catholics.
While the masses were wailing and hurting, a Tiv man, Teshaku Aliyu, was arrested by the Nigerian Army, accused of being the mastermind of that slaughter. Could the Tiv have turned on the Tiv? This has opened inquiry into the personality and character of Teshaku. The state governor washed his hands off this man. The Army knew him as Aminu Yaminu. He was once arrested and accused of being a Boko Haram commander. He came out to become an aide to a governor. He headed the Cattle Guards for Benue State. The Fulani union, Miyetti Allah, hates him much, and always accused him of being a Tiv militant leader killing the Fulani and being a supplier of arms to their killers. Now, it gets scary! Could Teshaku Aliyu Aminu Yaminu be Tiv, Hausa, Boko Haram, Tiv Militant, or Herdsman, all at the same time? Investigations will answer these questions, if he lived to the end.
The governor said last week that only three local council areas of the state were so far unaffected by attacks or invasion. Gboko may be one of them. Gboko is the traditional capital of Tiv ethnic nationality. The Tiv control two senatorial zones. It is also the seat of the Tor Tiv. What puzzles the Tiv nation is that Fulani ravaging is most in the MINDA or Makurdi zone of Tiv land including Makurdi, Guma, Gwer and Gwer West. Some sources say many saboteurs have compromised in this zone. Tales abound about persons believed to have betrayed the cause or collected money to reveal things against the state. For instance, it is believed that it is money that makes some persons to reveal the antidote of the fighting charms possessed by some Tiv fighters. It is believed that it is money that makes some persons to hide arms and assets for the herdsmen but when the invaders arrive, they allegedly wipe out their collaborators first and then move into operation to kill all. This is the greater danger with such wars; the rumours that kill more than guns.
Tales also abound of how the killers move from community to community and wipe out anything in sight. Refugees say these invaders turn the yam barns to cows to feed and feast on; they slaughter stray goats and fowls to make a feast. Almost everybody in Tiv land is now a refugee; and those not on the run are habouring relations fleeing from the rural areas. Makurdi and Gboko are brimming with people.
Gboko, the Tiv stronghold, seems impregnable to attackers. They are said to be fiercely angry, looking for any provocation to go to war. It was in Gboko that a car load of travellers was wiped out. This led to the arrest of the DPO there. It was gathered that the driver conveying the travellers squealed on his passengers and next, they met death.
What is reigning on social and traditional media is attack by herdsmen. It is not true that the Benue people or the Tiv are innocent. It could not be that herdsmen are killing the Tiv and herdsmen are not being killed. Between the Fulani and the Tiv, there is no innocent tribe in this matter at the moment. It’s just that the herdsmen do not do social media. They do not post their losses. The killing is two-sided; the outcry seems to be one-sided.
Role of the Army questioned
What is not clear to the ordinary Benue man is the role of the Army. T Y Danjuma seemed to have provided a working theory, but there is more to this. When the Army invaded Tondov (Victor Malu’s) area in 2001, the Army said the Tiv fighters killed 19 soldiers sent to stop the fighting. The Tiv made an important explanation; that the Tiv ex-soldiers fighting to defend Tiv land believed they killed Jukun opponents. They said they met these opponents right in the thick of fighting in the jungle. They were surprised to hear they were soldiers. They wondered if the ‘soldiers’ were fighting for the Jukun in military uniforms. That time, the Tiv openly accused the Army of helping Danjuma’s Jukuns to fight the Tiv. Now, it is Danjuma accusing the Army of helping the Fulani to kill Jukuns. Now also, the Tiv are accusing the Army of helping the Fulani to kill everyone else. There must therefore, be something strange about the role of the Army in these inter-ethnic fighting or about the way the Army engages in intervention such that the losers usually see the hand of the Army in the killings.
Many bizarre but unverified accounts abound in Benue of how ‘soldiers’ were caught posing as herdsmen or how herdsmen posed as soldiers. What is verifiable is that a soldier was killed in Naka and this led to storming of the area by soldiers, leaving a trail of death and blood. The agony was going on when the massacre in Ayer (priests) took place. Sense of siege took over.
Back to history
Dispute or violence between the Tiv and the Fulani did not start today; what has changed is its frequency, consistency and intensity. In 1983, the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) launched its national election campaigns in Gboko, Benue State, called ‘Gboko ‘83’. JS Tarka, the longest and strongest political leader of the Tiv, did something that says a lot. He presented a cow to Shehu Shagari (then president). He said by that, the Tiv had repaid the debt of a cow their tribe owed the Fulani, a debt that was believed to be the cause of endless skirmishes between the two ethnic groups to that time (or to this time). The story was that in the beginning, a Fulani herdsman was grazing across Tiv land and at a point gave a cow to his Tiv friend to rear for some years. On his return journey, the Fulani man had asked for an account, hoping that it had multiplied to a herd. The Tiv man was said to have replied ‘Munchi’, meaning that he had eaten it. This created perpetual enmity, and Tarka wanted it to come to an end. Shagari played a quick one. He said if such a matter existed, it was between the two monarchs, meaning Tor Tiv and Sultan of Sokoto, not by two political leaders. So, the cow has not been repaid to this day.
This story sounds funny but it has deeper meanings. The cow-refund and the rejection that followed it gave a seal of authenticity to what was merely a fable. Two, it means a debt still remains. Three, it means that the bitterness between the two tribes did not start today and has not ended. It also shows that it cannot be solved by political people who only see exploitation in the whole episode. It shows that, as Shagari advised, the traditional leaders both the Tiv and Fulani know the key to any meaningful resolution. Dialogue is important; politics is an anathema in this matter.
To buttress this point, a highly respected federal minister once hinted while in Port Harcourt in 2016 in a private chat that the problem in the Benue matter was that the Fulani had already shared kola nut. This was later understood to mean that when the Fulani pastoralists meet serious harm in any place. They would report at home. If considered unpardonable, the elders would share kola nut in baskets to their various hamlets across West Africa. This would trigger a mobilisation process and eventual war. It is usually bloody. So, it is like the shared kola nut is speaking. The only way to stop it could be a traditional approach of finding out how to ‘unshare’ the kola. It could mean secret negotiations and payment of compensation to all losers in both ethnicities. The other option is for the FG to fight it out.
The power to fight by the FG can only be backed by higher fire power such as procurement of air fighters of the latest grade equipped to see at night and take out sneaking elements. The belief of the ordinary Benue man is that the president is their enemy and would not fight the Fulani. This is where the FG has a big propaganda battle because their opponents seem miles ahead. Here too, the political class will never be united in fighting problem in Benue because Buhari’s opponents need the crisis a lot for 2019.
By focusing on the political side, the real enemy is free to hide. By 2014, a journalist in Makurdi, Hope Abah, did extensive investigations for Daily Trust and interviewed many IDPs from Tse-Ucenda, a Tiv settlement in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, who said they had been on the run for six months and that the attacks began two years earlier. They, as at 2014, wondered why the herdsmen attacks were too much and consistent. They said they had lived with the Fulani for ages and did not understand this new surge. It was not Buhari or Fulani that was president then. It is left for the presidency to figure out why this time around, it is vociferously stated that because a Fulani man is president, herdsmen attacks have come. It is thus made out to appear that immediately a non-Fulani or non-Buhari becomes president, the herdsmen worry would disappear in Nigeria or in Benue.
Miyetti Allah’s utterances
Again, the group called Miyetti Allah seems to be enigmatic. They speak as if they were doing the presidency a favour but their utterances and activities cause more harm to the presidency than anyone else. They openly laid claim to ownership of the Benue Valley, saying they were the original settlers and that Tiv people should go to Congo. This automatically casts all Fulani especially Buhari in deadly light. They also persistently shriek about the grazing law in Benue as their sole grievance but the killings in Kogi that did not enact grazing law and even openly accepted Cattle Colony betrays that fact. It is clear that the grazing law is not the real reason. So, what has Miyetti Allah done to show that they could create peace where their people were allowed to graze?
What actually is happening to Benue?
For the Benue people and other political activists who insist that there is a specific agenda to destroy Benue and install a Fulani reign, how can they explain the killings in other northern states? Is Benue still an isolated case? Does this not give hint that there is something bigger looming behind all this? For now, the political gimmick seems to be working. None of my contacts across Benue State wants to hear about the governor or the president. There is total anger in the land. Some blame the governor for introducing the anti-grazing law which has brought this trouble but say he has not fought hard enough to implement it. Some think the MINDA zone has not been strong enough to protect the Tiv ethnic nationalities and thus may end the zoning formula. This may mean that those eyeing the governorship seat from the other Tiv zones may use this as excuse, just as they found the right excuse to deny the Idoma (zone C) of the seat. Samuel Ortom is the first real Makurdi (MINDA) man to sit there. George Akume is from Zone B but is not from the first son of Tiv.
Ortom’s headache
The governor however, seems more preoccupied with how to save his people from this menace than how to return, because there may be no throne to return to, if this threat is not stopped, now. Can anybody even conduct elections in all the wards in the state as it is today?
Islamic terrorists on the prowl?
Is it not time to consider the theory that the international Islamic terrorists have entered Nigeria and are using different strategies in different regions? They used ‘no to education’ in the North East; they are using herdsmen to enter the Middle Belt. Who knows what they will use to enter the East or the West. The study of this group globally is that they plan for many years before they strike in phases. They merge into the environment of the region they want to take over. In the absence of caves and crevices and boulders (as in Afghanistan and Pakistan) they have found herdsmen as moving targets and have merged into them. Libya has endless land areas or desert; this was put to use by the terrorists who now rule the area abducting Nigerians travelling to Libya. The East and West have forest canopies; let the people there take note. There is an obvious route from Benue to Kogi, to Edo, to Delta. From there, East and South-South are easy. Another route is Kaduna, Kwara, to Oyo, Osun, Lagos. When will we think beyond politics? There is something called ISWA (Isis West Africa). This project is hugely funded globally in a bigger project called the ‘Rise of the Caliphate’. This project was predicted many years ago by US experts, the same time they predicted the ‘Rise of the Dragon’ to signify the likely overthrow of the US economy by China. Are these not happening now?
Collective survival
Fighting the Islamic Terrorists takes money and sophisticated weaponry, and none is easily available in Nigeria. We are quarreling over $1billion; we may beg to spend $10billion. The FG in the past was not allowed to purchase weapons and armoured helicopters (under Jonathan). The present FG has had to first break that unseen ceiling to start getting fighting choppers. Special training is just coming on stream because the terrorists are very tactical. Everybody or every political party has erred in the past. Everybody and every political party have to help this time around; else, everybody and every political party would sink. It’s about collective survival. When the Muslims hailed as Christians perished in Borno years ago, they never knew the original plan had them and their mosques in mind. Today, it is obvious. When the APP/ANPP/APC laughed in Maiduguri years ago, they never knew that both PDP and APP would fall to Boko Haram.
Division is the first weakness of the opponents and victims of the Islamic terrorists. Understanding them early and taking positions is usually the best defence. In Nigeria, this is hardly the case.
Saving Benue
Back to Benue, my Benue! The war at hand is heavy. This one is bigger. When the killers enter Makurdi, they cause segregation; Fulani, Hausa on one side; Tiv and all others on the other side. The ordinary Benue man thinks the killers are not afraid. It is believed that they take off from Nasarrawa and enter Agatu route and to Kyena and Torkura communities in the Benue side. They overrun Lokobi and Guma, up to the fringes of Makurdi the state capital. In many instances, they move in over 250 motor bikes and carry up to four persons each with ak-47s.
The day they were encountered, the security agencies seized over 200 motor bikes. The ordinary man thinks there were no arrests but bikes, wondering what happened to the owners of the bikes. The killers were said to be celebrating their successes when the security agencies arrived. This fuels a conspiracy theory in the minds of the ordinary Benue people. In fact, they mentioned genocide. Makurdi shut down last the other Friday and the following Monday. That is the new Makurdi, the capital in panic; the city where run breaks out any time; mothers go looking for their kids at school.
The attack in Okpokwu and death of between 26 and 40 persons, an Idoma enclave, is still a surprise to many. Many wonder if the Fulani now want to take on their former traditional ally. The elders said in a press conference they did not believe the FG had plans to protect them. This may show that the ISWA is the one at work, not just Fulani. Besides, we would need 198 million people to protect a populace of 198 million.
Way forward?
The ordinary Benue person sees no way forward, but only a way backward. They look forward to when herdsmen carried only sticks and sometimes knives. They say so because, they would tell you that the government was helpless. They even hope for change of government, just as they hoped in 2015. Only few persons point to the fact that the herdsmen menace defies such hopes and goes beyond regime change because it is older than the regime and deeper than those we think are the issue. On the other hand, if herdsmen now carry guns, could they be reacting to something we do not know; threat, attacks on them and their docile flock?
A section from the intellectual side fears that the Dino Melaye syndrome was possible in Benue State. Thus, they fear that any important Benue man that takes up the matter could be framed up and broken up, just like Melaye. That, too, seems to be a dangerous logic, borne out by political thinking only.
This article is on the mindset of the ordinary people in the state, not a news report of incidents that would require official reactions and clarifications. This commentary is expected to educate the officialdom on the real thinking of the ordinary people so the government could address their fears. Ignoring these fears (not facts) would be to the peril of this country because history shows what happened once when this region’s mass violence was ignored or mismanaged.
Ignatius Chukwu
(Who covered Makurdi for 22 years)
