THE MINORITY’S THORNY ROAD TO PARADISE

Joseph Ode highlights the plight of the Idoma and Igede minorities in Benue State

“Everybody wants to go to Heaven but none wants to die.” – Peter Tosh

To give practical effect to these famous lyrics of the legendary reggae musician, Peter Tosh, a Reverend Father put this question to his congregation one Sunday as introduction to his sermon: “How many of you want to go to Heaven?” All hands were up. He followed up with another question: “How many of you want to die?” Virtually no hands were raised; even those few that attempted to raise their hands up brought them down, apparently, in order not to look odd.

What has brought to mind this message of conflict between desire and reality is the forthcoming 2023 general election and the permutations by various groups, tendencies, interests and individuals about who gets what. It is a sort of a nightmare scenario for the minorities of the Benue South Senatorial District of Benue State, made up mainly of Idoma and Igede, the second and third major ethnic groups, after the Tiv majority of Benue Northeast and Benue Northwest. The Idoma and Igede are faced with the grim realities of their minority status that require tough decisions and painful sacrifices to be able to actualize their quest to produce the state’s governor for the first time since the creation of the state in 1976.

But the Kwande and Jechira Intermediate Areas of Zone A want to produce the state governor, again, for the third and second time, respectively. Both the Igede people of Oju and Obi Local Government Areas (Old Oju) and the Idoma who occupy seven of the nine Local Government Areas of Benue South (aka. zone C), are eyeing the positions of Governor, Deputy Governor and Senator. The Igede are expected to meet soon to settle for one, which they will present as their common position to Zone C, and the rest of Benue State, depending on their choice.

Now to Peter Tosh’s message. When an eminent son of Igede, Barrister Jacob Ajene, recently publicly declared his aspiration to contest for the position of Senate, almost everybody on the platform rushed to be the first to congratulate him for his courage and wish him victory. However, a few days later, following observations about the omission of Igede colours in the attire in which Governor Ortom was dressed, how many Igede vs Idoma were seated at the high table, spoke or said what, etc, during the recent BRM-led Zone C delegation’s advocacy visit to the governor, all hell was let loose on the same platform. The reactions reignited a simmering argument about how Idoma hate Igede and the Tiv love Igede more, and which of them the Igede should align or work with to achieve its 2023 aspirations. In the heat and passion of the intemperate reactions, those of us, the Igede people, working actively with Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM), the organization leading Zone C’s agitation for Governorship in 2023, were personally attacked and variously dubbed as “part of the problem of Igede,” “Idoma apologists,” “sell-outs,” etc., who the doma call, when it suits them, to do the dirty job of undermining Igede interests. The “applause” which these reactions attracted, mainly from the youths, emboldened the attackers to call on the Igede to pull out, not only from BRM but also from any political engagement with the Idoma altogether and align with the Tiv and/or chart an independent course for the Igede. This position was championed by the same people who congratulated Ajene only few days ago.

Now, the question is: Can Jacob Ajene, whose aspiration for the Senate has been popularly acclaimed in Igede, or for that matter, any other Igede aspirant for the positions of Governor, Deputy Governor, or Senate gain victory without the support of the Idoma or the rest of zone C? The practical and realistic answer is no, just like you cannot go to Heaven unless you die. Our politics in Nigeria is dependent on geopolitical structures, ethnic sentiments, selfish interests, numerical strength, zoning, incumbency factor, fin ancial muscle, etc, none of which confers any comparative advantage on the Igede at the moment. Igede has only two out of nine local government areas in the senatorial district and I am not sure if the voting population of Old Oju is more than one-third of zone C’s voting total population. In the case of the Senate, the Tiv people of Zones A and B have no hand or voice in this at all, or in tilting any of the aforementioned factors in favour of an Igede aspirant, except, maybe, financial support, for which the Tiv as a group may not have any compelling reason to give. Even the zoning of the Senate to Old Oju cannot be expected to be automatic. If it was that simple, an Igede man would have become Senator before now. There are always contentious issues to thrash out, which experienced politicians are so well aware of.

Even the position of Deputy Governor, which some proponents of Igede-Tiv alliance erroneously believe a Tiv candidate would prefer to give to an Igede person over Idoma, could even be as complicated, if not more so than the position of Senator. Let me use the emergence of Ogiri Ajene as Deputy Governor in 1999 as an illustration, through the account of a key player in the process, General Geoffrey Ejiga (rtd):

“After Mr. George Akume had been nominated as the PDP Gubernatorial candidate, the Idoma Senatorial constituency was requested to nominate Deputy Governorship candidate, the post having been zoned to Idoma land…Four persons were interested in the post. They were Benson Abounu, Enyi Obande, Dan Agbese and Ogiri Ajene…The zoning system adopted by PDP… was based on the three original local governments created out of the Idoma Native Authority: Otukpo…Okpokwu…and Oju…Political offices allocated to the Senatorial zone were to be equally distributed: Senator, Deputy Governor and State Party Chairman. John Igomu from Okpokwu zone was the state chairman of the party, Brig-Gen. David Mark from Otukpo zone was for the Senate. It would only be fair if the Deputy Governor went to Oju zone…”

To Gen. Ejiga, then a new comer in politics, the position was clear as both Okpokwu and Otukpo were already adequately represented and should be out of contention. A panel of PDP Zone C caucus went into the upper reception room of Gen Ejiga’s Otukpo house where Mark, Prof. Ochapa Onazi, Chief David Attah, Mr. Andrew Agom, Chief Reuben Ade and Gen Ejiga were to select the Deputy Governorshp candidate. The process which I thought was going to be simple and straightforward became protracted.

“After interviewing the contestants, two rounds of elections in which the panel Chairman, Gen. Ejiga, did not vote, Agbese dropped out, leaving the final votes tally at 2,2,1 for Abounu, Enyi and Ogiri, respectively; Igomu announced the results without declaring a winner and proceeded to Makurdi to report to Akume and other state party leaders. The selection of Prince Ogiri Ajene became the watershed and the subsequent problems of PDP in our Senatorial zone. David Mark was not happy about it. He laid the blame on Agada Igomu and he organized and subsequently removed Igomu as party chairman.” (More details in: An autobiography of Gen. G.O. Ejiga: The measure of my days; 2014).

This account proves that no Igede man can bypass the rest of zone C to get selected as Deputy Governorship candidate. No serious Tiv Governorship candidate of a serious political party will risk victory by picking a running mate that will bring votes from only two local government areas of zone C and sacrificing the remaining seven simply because he wants to balance the so-called ethnic equation. It is also worthy of note that it was Idoma people of good conscience that stood behind Ogiri Ajene, in spite of his solitary vote which he got only from Chief Reuben Ade, up to when he was finally picked in Makurdi. Even now, in spite of the erosion of values in the country generally, there are still people of good conscience everywhere, including among the Idoma and Tiv, who could stand for equity and fairness if they are engaged constructively. Ogiri Ajene could not have been in contention if he hadn’t participated in the zone C process.

The story is told of a Governorship aspirant from Konshisha Local Government who came to seek the support of a prominent Idoma leader recently. When he was reminded that it was the turn of zone C to produce the Governor in 2023, he retorted by saying the Idoma aspirants lacked the pedigree to be governor. And when he was told point blank that the Idoma aspirants were better qualified than him, the Konshisha man pulled out what he considered to be his joker: “If you, the Idoma, are serious about being Governor, why don’t you give the Senate seat to our bothers, the Igede?” His host asked him back: “If the Igede are your brothers, why then are you fighting them in Bonta?” Unable to give any credible answer, the aspirant reportedly confessed that sometimes in politics, you need to apply the tactics of divide-and-rule. This story is food for thought for both Idoma and Igede, considering our political configuration, nature of politics, the account of Ogiri Ajene’s emergence as Deputy Governor as narrated above, the prevailing atmosphere of ethnic relations in the state as well as our fate in the hands of whoever becomes the next Governor of the state.

As we engage each other in Zone C and with the rest of the state, it is advisable to apply wisdom rather than anger in pursuit of our agenda. This is particularly important because, at each level, it is an engagement between the majority and the minority, the oppressor vs the oppressed, with both bringing different, I dare say, opposing mentalities, to the table. The majority fears the imminent loss of its existing advantages or privileges and try to resist any changes being demanded by the minority. On the other hand, the minority is composed of those that will become the new majority and the new minority if and when the struggle succeeds. While the prospective new majority pursues the struggle with single-minded vigour, crushing any obstacles on its way to the envisaged elevated status, the prospective new majority approaches the process with a measure of ambivalence. Will the new order being sought make them better off or worse off than their current situation? Therefore, they become very sensitive to anything or search for any signs, in words or actions by the prospective majority that points to what the coming dispensation holds for them. In other words, while they generally welcome the prospect of better days ahead, they try to avoid the Rehoboam scenario that portends more trouble ahead. “The new king ignored the old men’s advice and followed that of the young men and told the people ‘If you think my father was hard on you, well, I will be harder; yes, my father was harsh, I will even be harsher; my father used whips on you, but I will use scorpions.’ ” (1Kings 12: 10-11).

It is the failure of the Biafran agitators to address similar fears that made the minorities of the Niger Delta to refuse to join the proposed Biafran Republic, according to a document purportedly authored by former President Goodluck Jonathan, which has been circulating widely in the social media.

As zone C, under BRM, leads the way to a new Benue State, a new Heaven, where the foundation of fairness, equity and integrity would prevail, bounded by love, oneness, brotherliness, compassion and empathy to ensure peace, development and creative growth, it behoves on all stakeholders to get involved in managing our relationships and sensibilities with utmost responsibility. But we cannot get there until we let our prejudices, anger, overzealousness, emotions, boastfulness, pride, among others, die.

Ode is the Media Relations Officer of Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM)