By Chief Ngutor Anyam
The piece by one Ejoyi O. Ode, set in derogatory language, is unfortunately crafted to envenom Governor Ortom and the entire Tiv Nation. It is a display of trite prejudiced mentality, guile, and self-subjugation, bereft of reason. And, presumably intended to cause strife and pitch the Tiv against their Idoma brothers.
The Idoma ruler-ship tradition is over 600 years, many years older than the arrival of the Tiv in the Benue Valley. The cherished tradition has 22 clan heads, each with beads handed over by fore-bearers of the clan. These beaded chiefs have always formed the Electoral College for the selection of an Och’Idoma since 1947 when the revered institution was created.
It s banal that Idoma culture and tradition significantly differ from that of the Tiv. For instance, whereas every Tiv man is a prince, heir, and potential or future beaded chief (including Tor Tiv), the Idoma have royals from where ascendency to beaded leadership is selected by the people. Consequently, law-making in the state to address chieftaincy issues ought to take the various cultural dichotomy into consideration.
Therefore, when the Benue State House of Assembly: comprising the full compliment of Idoma members in the Assembly, and after the due process – including public hearing produced the Benue State Chieftaincy Law introducing unified new first-class, second-class and third-class chiefs in the land, concerned Idoma elite, like Mr. Ode should have complained and contested the law. The law was not the creation of Governor Ortom nor Tiv political machination designed to humiliate and subjugate the Idoma people.
Agabaidu Elias Ikoyi Obekpa, of blessed memory, before his hunting expedition, saw the amended chieftaincy law as an affront to Idoma ancestral entities and deities. There were no new beads handed over by tradition to be awarded the new chiefs created in Idoma land.
Agabaidu Obekpa could not directly challenge the vexing and abrasive law directly, however, Obekpa’s son made bold to challenge the law, and the matter is said to be under adjudication. It is to be recalled with nostalgia that Governor Ortom’s scheduled visit to Och’Idoma Palace in Otukpo was diverted by Idoma sons on the “security report” that Agabaidu Obekpa had set Aleku to kill Governor Ortom in order to stop the passage of the law.
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When it mattered most, the majority of the Idoma elite – including beneficiaries of the new chieftaincy law, kept mute or sided against their tradition to desecrate Alekwu without projecting the consequences of the emergence of Agabaidu John Elaigwu Odogbo, through the same law. The belated teeth-gnashing, the campaign of calumny, and prejudicial name-calling of the highest office in the land is completely unwarranted.
The entire Tiv Nation is being disparaged and castigated while some Idoma elite is again hailing the absurdity as if the Tiv constituted the kingmakers that elected the new Och’Idoma. Unfortunately, this is also coming at a time many Tiv sons and daughters are calling for a gubernatorial power shift to Zone C.
I hold no brief for Governor Ortom or the Tiv Nation. Suffice to conclude that the Idoma elite that choose to desecrate Aleku and side the chieftaincy law were convinced that no tradition is cast in iron, especially in an evolving democratic nation-state like Nigeria. I see no offense committed by Governor Ortom or any other Tiv man in this matter. It is a bad strategy and misdirected ventilation to attack Governor Ortom or the Tiv, instead of the law that produced Agabaidu John Elaigwu Odogbo.
I take this opportunity to wish all well-meaning Benue sons and daughters, a happy and prosperous 2022. NNL.
