A Serious Discourse On The Deplorable Plight And Position of Tiv.
No doubt many of you do not know me and will be surprised to be receiving an open letter from me. I hope however, that you will nevertheless give my letter the serious and honest attention it deservesbecause I shall be engaging you in a hard-hitting blunt and frank discussion.
I am a young Nigerian who comes from the Tiv tribe. I have written and said quite a lot on Nigeria and the Nigerian war. I have engaged some of the best minds that our country has in numerous debates and have dared to challenge Nigerian genius to procure for our ailing country the kind of diagnosis and prognosis which will cure our country of its correct illness so completely and so permanently that long after we, present generation are gone, posterity will still benefit.
I have on a private basis, and on the official behalf of the Federal Military Government, challenged the wisdom of foreign friends, foreign meddlers, foreign apostles of doom and racial hate, and foreign corrupt organized churches who/which have from their “blameless” ivory towers, questioned and challenged our right, as a people, to make our own unique mistakes and so evolve our own unique experiences and answers to the unique and specific problems which confront us.
Throughout these numerous activities, in my humble way, the most satisfying attempt, has been the
gradual emergence of a definite pattern: - the honest attempt to bring upon the problem at hand, the
hard-nosed objective method of inquiry in which a problem is chewed and churned and thrown this
side up and that side, and then chewed up some more. The inevitable outcome has always been the
total exposure of the problem in its correct and truest form in all its facets and ramifications. Problems so exposed are much easier to solve, because correct and sincere answers can then be much more readily identified.
It is therefore, on this basis of this conviction that I wish to turn my searchlight, for the moment, away from the total Nigerian problem, which has preoccupied my mind for quite sometime, to the specific and particular problem of the Tiv people of Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria.
I have very little time to engage or answer to those who may question the wisdom of my decision to
spotlight the Tiv problem, neither am I really disturbed by the possibility of being called a tribal, by those who will choose to misunderstand my actions.
To these people, and those who may honestly be wondering, I wish to give the following brief facts:
(1) Nigeria, our beloved country, is a tribal society. The duty of true men of intellect is not to deny
the existence of these tribes with their strong, ethnic and idiosyncratic affinities. Their duty is
to study these tribes, understand them and on the basis of such knowledge, recommend the best
system which will foster the utilization of the immense tribal energy for [a} the rapid
procurement of improved social amenities to the greatest number possible and [b] the evolution
of a truer and more embracing national destiny to which all tribal destinies will be subservient.
To achieve these goals one does not have to become an Ostrich and deny that one is a
tribesman nor pretend that Nigeria is not made up of tribes. I confess most proudly that
patrilineally, I am a Tiv tribesman, but I am a most dedicated Nigerian nationalist and all my
tribesmen are fiercely sincere in their conviction and commitment to Nigeria, I find nothing
unhealthy, strange nor contradictory in this situation at all.
(2) Social mobility and technological advancement in our country are at a primordial level. This
fact (coupled with the fact that Nigeria is a tribal society) has pushed most Nigerians to
entrench their psychological, as well as their economic and social roots within the area
domiciled by their tribe. Thus, it is a fact that our Nigeria is basically a tribal society even by
physical settlement i.e. by habitation. My father and mother, brothers and sisters and so on
reside in Tiv division of Benue-Plateau State. Hence my true home (at least psychologically) is
back there. It seems therefore reasonable for me to yearn for social improvement in Tiv
Division where my home is. When I see all the hospitals in Lagos, the fantastic industrial
establishment which as well as providing jobs, has brought the people of this area in direct
contact with foreigners who have added to the advancement of Nigerians resident there, and
when I contemplate the simple social amenities which by and large, are taken for granted here,
such as pipe borne water, electricity, good roads, durable homes and so on; and when I meet
essentially similar such Government and Private amenities which are totally absent in Tiv
Division, in numerous other places in Nigeria, I am disturbed about “back home.” Sometimes I
become so confused that I wonder if the Tiv villages (including our headquarters Gboko), are
really places in the same country as towns such as Ibadan, Owo, Benin, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, or
even much smaller towns like Ikenne. Thus concern over this deplorable and totally
unacceptable social conditions has forced me to descend from my comfortable ivory tower in
Lagos and speak frankly with and to, the Tiv people by demanding that they face up to the
harsh reality of their miserable backwardness and do something about it. This is not an
academic problem to me. It couldn’t, because as a Tiv tribesman, I need must return home
periodically to visit the old folks back home. Thus even if I did not suffer the psychological
pain of the backwardness of the Tiv people, I would have suffered, willy-nilly, the physical tortures emanating from the deplorable state of affairs, “back home.” Thus if I appear too
serious and too specifically pre-occupied with Tiv, it is because I am tired of the silence about
the miserable backwardness and the undeniable neglect and exploitation of the “fatalistic” Tiv
in our beloved country, Nigeria, by both the Governments which ruled this country, the
civilizing do-gooders of various religious convictions and tragically enough, by most of those
Tiv who belonged to that unique and illusive group of false apostles-politicians of the First
Republic!
(3) I believe in earnest, that my open letter is in the direction of the overall interests of our great
country, Nigeria. This letter will actually complement and consolidate the efforts, which the
Federal Military Government is making to keep Nigeria one and to evolve a healthier and fairer
Nigeria. True and constructive discussions, in the long run, benefit humanity more than deceits.
It is a fact that a great number of the young Tiv – whether they be in the hot humid trenches of
the East Central State, making the ultimate sacrifice: the offering of their lives, in order to
consolidate multi-nationalism in the context of one sovereign Nigeria; or whether they are at
universities; or in jobs; or secondary schools; or anywhere else – are beginning to question,
seriously, what has happened to their land. Some have lost hope in procuring any improvement
in the status quo and are surmising publicly, just like Edward Kennedy, whether indeed the Tiv,
as a people, “are cursed” in Nigeria. These questions have arisen from the numerous
frustrations to which their land was subjected during the era of European rule and party politics
in Nigeria. Some of them are beginning to loose hope that even today, after three years of
military regime, their land has not seen and is not likely to see the minimum of those
transformations which will make them forget the excesses and injustices of the past era in
which social ills were perpetrated against them either by default and neglect, or as a form of
political punishment. These doubts and uncertainties tend to produce despondency. This letter
to all Tiv is designed to foster a new and more creative feeling than that of despondency. The
aim is to suggest new horizons, new attempts and new dreams for the Tiv to digest. Pessimism
is a negative philosophy, which will not help our backward social position in Nigeria. The Tiv
must reject pessimism because this negative effect could well frustrate the commendable
efforts which all of us Nigerians are making in order to create a more just and more honorable
country for all of us tribesmen and for posterity. What the Tiv must do is to take advantage of
the military intervention in government, and reorganize his home in a way, which will
maximize the rapid social development of his home through his personal effort, as well as the
effort of a government he supports, and helps to maintain in power. This, he should do now
before party politicians return to pick up once again their exploitation of the Tiv. Military rulers
are not party politicians and they cannot be hampered by political deals in which the interest of
the greatest number of ordinary people are sacrificed on the altar of personal aggrandizement
and party ideologies. Surely, the Military Government cannot refuse the Tiv, a just request for
more rapid social upliftment and direct participation in the benefits of Nigeria’s rising
standards of living.
In summary then, this letter is designed to channel the collective frustrations of the Tiv people –
soldiers alike, towards more creative and, constructive undertakings which of a necessity will forestall
any defeatists adventurism that though sterile, and non-productive, would seriously undermine the
efforts of the Federal Military Government and those of the rest of us Nigerians in our time of crises.
This seems to me, to be a worthy national service to be undertaken urgently.
Having established the rationale for my action, I wish to continue to address all my fellow Tiv now on our basic problems.The first problem is to get all of us to accept intellectually, the simple fact that the Tiv are backward within the Nigerian context. Next factors conceived as being responsible for our backwardness will be presented in a way, which shall also portray some of the reasonably just grievances of the Tiv people.
Finally, I shall offer suggestions for arresting the downward trend of the Tiv and then advance definite ad ministrant re-organizations, which I feel we should adopt. These suggestions will aim principally at rectifying the just grievances of Tiv and at procuring, for the greatest number of Tiv greater participation in the governmental decisions which have affected their lives in addition to improving their chances of becoming better informed and receiving more social amenities. Let us debate all these issues sincerely.
PLEASE WELL THINKING CONGRESS YOUTHS OF THE TIV NATION WHAT DO YOU THINK?
No comments:
Post a Comment