- We’re not second class citizens
- We deserve equal share in distribution of key appointments
- Tiv people don’t have a single minister in Buhari’s cabinet
Engineer Edward Ujege, the President General of Mzough U, a socio-cultural organisation of the Tiv people in Benue State is not happy with what he described as the marginalisation of his people by the Muhammadu Buhari Administration. In this encounter with HENRY IYORKASE in Makurdi, the state capital, Ujege also commended the state governor, Samuel Ortom, for what he called ‘an excellent job’ in resolving the herdsmen/farmers clashes in the state.
According to Ujege, the Tiv people have been deprived of their share in the distribution of key appointments by the current All Progressives Congress – led administration of President Buhari.
“As I am talking to you, there are other ethnic groups holding key appointments in the present dispensation while our people, the Tiv people, don’t have a single minister. Nobody is close to the president where they sit and take decisions on behalf of Benue State,” he lamented.
We are suffering a lot. I have given you instances of when they are employing people at the federal level or institutions and our boys are not there. When we are looking for contracts, we cannot get because Benue is marked as a bad State.
He maintained that the position of the Tiv man in the Nigerian project was
simple.
“Our position is simple. We are Nigerians and like every other Nigerians, we are not second class citizens. So, we should be allowed to participate in the government. Anybody aspiring to any post should be taken on equal terms; that is where we are. The constitution says one man one vote and every other facilities as spelt out in the constitution as an individual and collectively should be allowed without hindrance like any other person, like the Idoma person, Igede people, Etulo people, just name it, Yoruba, Hausa people. We all have equal rights before the constitution; same equal rights before God. We shouldn’t be considered second class citizens,” Ujege said.
He however blamed the elected representatives of his people for being selfish in their demands for the Tiv nation, saying they have failed to make the necessary
sacrifice.
“I retired in 2002 and I am here doing this Mzo u Tiv work. It is a lot of sacrifice. I am not being paid and I often travel here. To go to Gboko, I have to drive my car on my own, I have to fuel it. I went to America two times, I went to Britain three times, I wasn’t paid anything, and nobody gave me a dime,” he disclosed.
On the fate of his people in the aftermath of the herdsmen/farmers clashes, Ujege said: “I wish to say that our people in Benue State have suffered a lot, this became apparent in the year 2010 when a lot of people were killed in Logo, Guma Gwe-West, Agatu, Katsina-Ala, Ukum, Kwande and several other places. It became protracted, the herdsmen were very well armed and they had sophisticated weapons as they attacked people who were un-armed and unprepared for the onslaught .”
According to the president-general of Mzough U,” Over the years, we have lived peacefully with them, we believed that we could co-exist, but they used to ravage our homes, rape our children, our wives and they did quite a number of things. They burnt houses, they were actually like an army of occupation and they became much for us to bear. In the year 2014 when the Exco of Mzo u Tiv came to being, we united and held meetings with Idoma Nation forum, and the Igede socio-cultural national body, and we met and came out with two resolutions.
“One was that the government should find a way of separating the cows from the farms and secondly that our languages should be taught in our schools and that laws should be made to that effect. We took these to the then
governor, Gabriel Suswam, and he had a lot of sympathy for it. We took it to the then Benue State 7th Assembly and they too helped us to look at it and they also had sympathy for it. Unfortunately, by the time we took it there, that government was out-going, so they did what they could but not much. Today, we are very happy to have Gov. Ortom, who has done an excellent job.”
Explaining what the governor had done, Ujege said: “He has been able to take the issue to the Benue State House of Assembly and they came up with what we now have as the law against open grazing . This law is quite good and it allows people to co-exist in ranches. The cattle are put in enclosure and the farmers now have their farms, which is the main source of income, been secured.”
He however lamented that the law has since been misinterpreted.
“Unfortunately, Miyetti Allah came up immediately this law was made.They didn’t evaluate the values of the law, they went straight to say that they would not obey the law and that they were going to call all the Fulanis around the world and also assemble all their arsenals to attack Benue State. As a result, we see what has been happening, they come in trucks, look like they have a militia, a very well armed militia. The federal government came with operation “Cat Race” but that didn’t work and now they have come with “Operation Whirl Stroke,” to keep those people away. They have had a high degree of success with regards to that operation.”
On the success of the anti-open gazing law, Ujege said that the law has received more than 80 per cent success because most of their lands are secured, stressing that the state government was still open to negotiation.
“The state government is still open to negotiations on lands for those who want to rear animals in Benue State. The only thing s that if you are interested, even the herdsmen or any other individual who is interested needs to meet the Benue State Government that will arrange and make sure that the land is acquired according to
the law of Benue State,” he stated.
He however confessed that the crisis has had negative impacts on the Benue community.
“The impact is negative; I will leave it at that. We are suffering a lot. I have given you instances of when they are employing people at the federal level or institutions and our boys are not there. When we are looking for contracts, we cannot get because Benue is marked as a bad State. Our neighbours don’t like us . Nassarawa State, for example, will go out and collaborate with the invaders in order to attack us. All these things are extremely negative, uncalled-for,” Ujege said. “Education has been affected, the economy is being affected, food supply is being affected, almost everything, there is no stability, there is so much impoverishment in Benue State.”
