Nigeria's Minorities:
The Quest for Equity...(Part 3)
"When we can't dream any longer, we die."-- Emma Goldman
Louis Achi
According to the Mafia grandmaster Al Capone, a more effective method of persuasion is with gentle words and a gun, instead of gentle words alone. For so many years now, the dream of Nigeria's minorities for more political space, if not ascendancy has remained a project firmly and stiflingly hemmed in by their unrepentant majority peers. Even if they had previously deployed guns to complement their customary gentle-worded pleas, these have apparently proven not big enough. But the larger dilemma for the minorities is that they dare not stop dreaming, as the consequence, succinctly captured by the poet Emma Goldman, would be (political) death!
What to do? Our previous foci (part 1 and 2) on this subject highligted a common thread that runs through the phenomenom of subsisting political domination of what has come to be loosely termed 'minorities' by the 'majorities'. The inability of minorities in some states to generate a power synergy by forming alliances that could have enabled them upstage their numerically superior tribal peers is an issue we have dealt with extensively in many states of the federation. Then of course there is the uncanny ability of the 'majors' to exploit superficial or significant differences in the 'minors' camps to sustain division, a scenario more commonly termed 'divide and rule'. Factor in the element of religious differences and consequences of its 'creative' manipulation in sustaining the extant power monopolisation and the picture is fairly complete.
Using Benue State as an example, the Tivs, often said to be Nigeria's fifth largest tribe after the Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo and Ijaw, make up 75 per cent (?) population of the Middle Belt state. Though, since the creation of Taraba State the demographic data on extant Tiv population would need to be updated. The Idoma and Igede constitute the remaining 25 per cent. Not unexpectedly, in the two previous democratic regimes the Tiv have produced the governors: Aper Aku (1979-83); Rev. Moses Adasu (1992-93); and of course currently George Akume. How could an Idoma/Igede alliance, if such exists in reality, and could be sustained, upstage the Tiv cosy population superiority? From all indications, the Idoma/Igede ambition to produce Benue's next governor would appear to lie in the realm of dreams except certain fundamental factors are redressed.
Plateau State presents an interesting reversal of the conventional rule here. Plateau's biggest single tribe, the Berom in the Northern Senatorial zone (Air Commodore Jonah Jang's tribe) has not produced a governor up till now.
To date, the state's Southern Senatorial zone which hosts the famous 'Langtang Mafia' (a preponderance of retired and serving military brass) has produced two governors: Chief Solomon Lar (Langtang North) and Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun (Shendam). Plateau Central has produced the suspended Governor Joshua Dariye (Bokkos). Conspiracy theorists locate the Berom woes in the fear of domination by the state's largest tribe as perceived by other tribes. With new political developments emerging in the state and a speculated post-emergency rule scenario factoring in the repositioning of Jang from top echelon of the ruling PDP, it may be Uhuru at last for the Berom. But these are just mere speculations.
Jigawa, Nasarawa, Edo and others follow the usual Senatorial zones' tectonic faultlines as the battle lines. In all, the chemistry of accommodation by demographically superior tribes or Senatorial zones of their minority peers is still at an embryonic stage. This a very delicate scenario and cannot safely remain indefinite. Not a few schools of thought hold that enlightened self-interest should dictate the rotation of the plum political offices in these states. In this connection and instructively, if helplessly, Senator Tunde Ogbeha (PDP Kogi West) observed that "fundamentally, human rights give every Nigerian equal opportunity and equall access to power though it behoves on that majority to create an environment for peaceful co-existence" However, beyond these, some feel that a documented consensual charter, or arrangement of power rotation would be it. But for Nigeria's minorities right now, it is apparently - yet morning on creation day...
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