Mixed Signals From The Tiv Natien

It was only a matter of time before the unguarded utterances by Wantareuh Paul Unongu against Biafra would draw the ire of IPOB (see press release down below) and drag the Tiv nation by default into this debate and identity crises all tribes have about Tiv people. 

Besides self-aggrandizement and self-elevation, it is difficult to understand why Unongu was elected or appointed chairman of the Northern Elders Forum in light of the slaughter of innocents in Benue State and it is equally conflicting that Unongu has not resigned his position after these massacres. 

Was Unongu allowed to emerge as chairman of the Northern Elders forum in his personal capacity, or as an agreeable Tiv man, better still, whose interests does he represent, is it for a unified Arewa or does he speak for Tiv people, or is he chairman to weather the storm of reactionary statements that would have been more incendiary if there were a Fulani man in his stead instead? 

Equally more confusing are statements attributed to Senator Waku that Kanu be arrested immediately. 

Why did they both feel compelled to publicly criticize the activities of IPOB when even Buhari is very careful about his utterances when it comes to the issues of rampaging Fulani herdsmen? Could he have not decided this was an issue he as a Tiv man should tactically decline to talk about as by his leadership position it confuses minorities who see a tiv man speaking for Arewa instead of on Tiv Issues? 

Are munchin and hausa Fulani now they same Why is Unongu, a former top politician who rose to prominence on an Igbo platform and who got appointed Minister from an alliance between NPP/NPN now at the forefront of advocating against IPOB and by default the struggle of Igbo people to break away from the stranglehold of Arewa domination. How has friendship with the north benefitted either Waku or Unongu personally? 

Waku was a one term Senator and Unongu rising profile in politics was crushed by the return of the Arewa military in 1984 and he has failed to secure the governorship or senatorship in Benue state in previous elections and missed out on federal appointments until his appointment to chair an MDA recently. 

 Why are two of some of the most respected elders of Tiv land speaking out against IPOB when there are larger and pressing Tiv issues that need their leadership advocacy, some of these immediate issues include: 

1) Payment of compensation to not only the victims of Zaki Biam but the current victims of the Fulani militia's ongoing onslaught. 

2) Condemnation of the position and lawsuit by the miyatti against Benue's states anti-grazing law or 

3) The exclusion of the Tiv, the 4/5 largest group in Nigeria, from Buhari Cabinet. While IPOB's message has been lost in all the hate speech disseminated by Kanu, one has to wonder whether the positions of IPOB and the Tiv nation in Nigeria are really that different. 

If you examine the issues raised by IPOB it is difficult not to see that the core common ground they share with the Tiv nation is the domination and marginalization by Arewa of the rest of Nigeria and its devastating consequences on the infrastructural development of both regions. 

The dovish attitude of these leaders about Tiv issues makes one realize that Tiv nationalism that was on the rise under the late JS Tarka and on equal par with the ideology of IPOB in its quest to not be dominated by Arewa is dead or dying a very slow death. 

That stark reality can be ascertained by reading posts by some ignorant Tiv people who claim Tiv people have never sought self-determination or that it has never sought to carve out its identity from Arewa and within Nigeria. 

In retrospect, it was the same JS Tarka that drove the nail into the rise of Tiv nationalism by aligning the Tiv with the NPN instead of joining Solomon Lar to break Benue away from Arewa a struggle previously championed by Unongu as NPP gubernatorial candidate. 

It is very difficult not to view Waku and Unongu as representing the old generation of Tiv men still beholden and mentally subordinated to being controlled by Arewa. 

Presently Tiv people do not understand that the have a distinct identity separate from Arewa and that they have a right to protest, secede or break completely with Arewa over the killing of Tiv people and the destruction of farms and property, what better reason don’t Tiv people have. 

It is time for a new generation of Tiv nationalists to break away from frenemy Arewa and forge new alliances. Tiv and Igbo people have never had any issues and the seeming enmity that some Tiv feel against Igbo people is from the civil war alliance that saw Arewa unify the minorities of the north to punish the east and by commission extend the control of Arewa to the Atlantic ocean to dip the Koran. 

So complete is the mental conquest in the minds of Arewa that Tiv nationalists were shocked when the miyatti or Fulani claimed to have lived in the Benue valley before the Tiv, madness. Benue needs to break away from Arewa, an outdated anachronistic organization that does not unite the group, as the Muslim north is as fanatical about Islam as the Tiv are about the Catholic Church and NKST and pig meat is as taboo in the north as it is a staple in the Tiv land. M’sugh ne chi 

By Terhemba Osuji 

 ****** IPOB Press Release 28 August 2017 

 We Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu condemn in its entirety the statement credited to the clueless and uninformed Arewa Consultative Forum and their decorative happy-slave chairman Chief Paul Unongo for daring to attack Ohaneze Ndigbo Chairman Chief John Nnia Nwodo for rising up in defence of the truth. 

This truth is that IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has not committed any crime to known to the laws of Nigeria to warrant his rearrest. If Nigeria ever had a case against our leader, why have the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) not commenced the trial since October 2015 when our leader was first arrested? 

Instead the Arewa North thought they could intimidate this present Ohaneze Ndigbo as they did to previous executives, into allowing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to be arrested. They miscalculated miserably because all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria today including some of the most ardent critics of our leader have conceded privately that IPOB has given enslaved ethnic nationalities in Nigeria the impetus to rise up and question their slave status. 

The Fulani/Arewa born to rule mentality has been broken by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. People are no longer intimidated by the disproportionate number of Arewa sons in the military and other armed forces who are in essence the foot soldiers of the Caliphate and not Nigeria. The idea of wanting to use baseless trumped up charges to justify the extra judicial detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will be resisted by all men and women of good conscience. 

After all it was Buhari himself that disobeyed court order after court order directing the unconditional release of the our leader in 2015. If anyone deserves to be arrested, it is Buhari. Paul Unongo and his caliphate handlers should also call for the arrest of the Director General of DSS and AGF for flagrant and serial disobedience to court orders. 

Whilst they are at it, they should not fail to add their beloved Arewa Youths, who actually committed the treasonable act of incitement to genocide, which is a far more serious crime than attempted coup d'etat. 

What Arewa Consultative Forum through their Arewa Youths did was nothing short of a call to mass murder and appropriation of properties that does not belong to them. Arewa Elders that incited the youths, provided them finance and logistics must also be arrested. 

It's a pity that Chief Paul Unongo who appear not to know his roots, have consistently failed to raise his voice against Fulani herdsmen slaughtering and raping their way through swathes of Benue land where he comes from. That he found the courage to challenge the stance of Ohaneze Ndigbo publicly confirms what we have always known, that he's suffering from what psychologists call the Stockholm syndrome. 

A man who could not rise in defence of his own people being slaughtered by the same Fulani cattle interest, shamelessly had the temerity to call for the arrest of the only person who had the guts to say no to Fulani herdsmen. Paul Unongo should in actual fact be grateful to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for seeking to protect his people from Fulani annihilation and conquest. 

We commend this act of Ohaneze Ndigbo for standing firm to demonstrate that they are different from past Ohaneze administrations. 

By refusing to be browbeaten by the mob mentality often deployed by the hegemonic Arewa North in times of crisis, they deserve our collective commendation. Fulani caliphate are not the owners of the constituent parts that make up the British contraption Nigeria and we IPOB are here to prove it to them.

The Fulani cabal that run the Nigerian Government are busy deploying instruments of governance to terrorise the masses into accepting the rearrest of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who committed no crime crime known to law. 

We promise Chief Paul Unongo and his collaborators in the Arewa North that Nigeria will never be the same after this encounter. Arewa North should concentrate on alleviating the long suffering poor masses of the core North and leave Biafra, IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu alone. 

 COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL 

MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

Compiled and written By Terhemba Osuji | August 29, 2017