TOR TIV’S CHILDREN RUNNING IN THE BUSHES: 30 YEARS OF KUME DURA’S SONG
Stephen Kume Aôndo popularly known as Kume Dura was born to the family of Aôndo Dura Adagher Imbyor Aba from Mbayongo in what is today known as Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State. Gbajime Kon was his first singing partner whom he initiated into singing. Kume Dura was born 2nd October, 1962 and died 11th October, 2001. He was buried in his hometown in Mbayongo. On April 22, 1990, a Nigerian Military Officer Gideon Gwaza Orkar Chinyam Angbàgh Agi orchestrated a Coup against General Ibrahim Babangida’s government. The coup followed with the seizure of the FRCN Radio Station, various military posts in Lagos, and the Dodan Barracks, Lagos, which housed the military headquarters and the presidential Villa. Following the coup was the fear that emerged from Nigerian leaders and stakeholders about the Tiv People of Nigeria. This is what arose the acrimony from those in the bastion of the corridors of power against the Tiv across the country including those in the newly created Taraba State, thereby making the people vulnerable to insecurity.
The creation of Taraba State was greeted by ethnic crises engineered by sentiments, which heralded the perennial conflicts between the Tiv and Jukun. Incidentally, Jukun warlords fashioned their reign of terror over those innocent Tiv Aborigines who only wanted to live in peace, yearning for some security, stability, education for their children, a chance to continue their crop farming and a life without oppression. While this was happening and both the government and Tiv prominent personalities seemed not to be talking, Tiv Folksingers like Kume Dura became worried for such imbecility with which security of life and properties of the Taraba Indigenes like the Tiv were treaded, especially that it was the Agricultural Tiv Tribe from the state that were the most affected, creating food and social insecurity that was detrimental to life and living.
This is the reason for which the Singer burst into his lamentations when he noted that the entire Agnate has gathered and he would talk to them himself over three things with the first being that “When a person is beating your child, it is you who he is targeting”. Kume highlighted the Tiv and Jukun conflicts in Taraba and how the Jukuns spread the tentacles of the crises to Benue State by burning down Sai, Jootar and Abako in Tiv land; he alleged that the Idomas, on seen this, had blue-toothed the acrimony against the Tiv. The singer calls on Tor Tiv “Tor Tiv, Your Children are running in the Bushes.” In the song he lamented:
Ityô zua haa yô mo kpa me za / Tor Tiv à na’m ian me lam à ven he’ kwa ne iyol yam / Ityô yam ì kegh ato à mo ì ungwa Imo Wan / M tir ne me ôr akaa atar / kwagh ú hiihii je yô me or Tor Tiv Zaki Tor Alfred Akawe Torkula Ama / ka we à dondo à or nan à gbidyen we wan ka we nan hiin we ye / num ù Ujukum man Tiv ke’ Tar Taraba / iyange Jukum ve per ve nande Sai / ve per ve nande Jootar man Abako / lu ke’ Inya ì Tiv kpa kwagh er ga / Idoma shi nenge ve kar à min ve / Tor Tiv Ônov ou mba yevese ke’ Toho / Idoma mba zendan ve ke’ toho / Ke’ 88, Udam shaan á Kunav hang / ve kôr se Mbayev Utaan / ve yem á min, mô or zua ashe á Uwar ze ee / Ve á bur á bur kpa se fa ga / Ve kaa á kaa kpa se fa ga!
What bothered Kume Aôndo Dura also bothered Boiue Ortwav popularly known as Mtôpi; but on a different front. By the way, Mtôpi’s direction of worry confirmed the assertion and lamentations of Kume Dura. It was as a result of this that Boiue called on the then Tor Tiv, HRH Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula and informed him that the Idoma are provoking the Tiv and that he should tell HRH Ajene Okpabi to tell his Agnate the Idoma to withdraw from the conflict. In his words:
“Tor Tiv Torkula oo/ Idoma gba hiin / v ôron à Ajene Okpabi à yange Ityô na Idoma ve mem ayôôso…”
The return of democracy in Nigeria on 29th May 1999, which helmed General Olusegun Obasanjo into power as Nigeria’s President and Dr. George Akume Dajo as Benue’s Governor was jubilated dearly but was soon caught up by the Nigerian Military invasion that massacred Tiv civilians in Gbeji, Anyiin, Vaase, Sankera and Zaki Biam Ala in Benue State from 22nd to 23rd October, 2001. The Nigerian Army claimed being on a peacekeeping mission to broker peace between the warring Tiv and Jukuns. When the Obasanjo regime ended, it did not end the killings of the innocent Tiv people in Taraba and Benue. President Musa Yar Adua was at the national government, and died on 5th May, 2010 and Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan took over when Dr. Gabriel Torwua Suswam was the Governor of Benue State, and during this regime, the invasion of marauding herders emerged. In October 2014 during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting that was chaired by the Vice President Arc. Mohammed Namadi Sambo, the Federal Government of Nigeria decided to ban movement of cattle to proffer solution to the perennial or lingering crises between Farmers and Herders but this decision did not survive.
General Muhammadu Buhari came in as President of Nigeria and Dr. Samuel Ioraer Ortom as Governor of Benue State inaugurated on 29th May, 2015. Apparently, Ortom signed into law the Open Grazing Prohibition and Establishment of Ranches Law on 22nd May, 2022 to help curtail insecurity occasioned by the invasion of the marauding herders. This was on the heels of the attacks killing over 450 lives in the state. On 1st December, 2017, the leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, threatened legal action to challenge the anti-open grazing law in Benue, which led to killings that Benue State Government on 11th January, 2018 conducted a mass burial for 73 citizens in Makurdi. Essentially, Governor Ortom did not relent as he took other measures to end the Farmer-Herder crises; and on 26th October, 2019, the Fulani socio-cultural group, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore owned up or accepted responsibility for the wanton killings of the Tiv and other Benue Citizens and apologized to Governor Samuel Ortom for the herdsmen attacks and killings in Benue State. Saleh Alhassan who was the National Secretary of the Association tendered the apology to the Governor, Government and People of Benue State in Makurdi.
This is reminiscent of Yamuel Yashi’s earlier frown at unnecessary deaths in the Land noting in one of his song that while dry season has come and women are harvesting yams seedlings, the Mbaterem are digging graves in Bede’s house:
“Ngueren Tiôn Ala, Inyom av, Kasev mba timen Akôr yô Mbaterem mba timen Iwar ior óo, Hen ya ù Bede óo…”
This has practically happened to the Tiv and it is still happening at a time that bodies of innocent people mutilated by the Kalashnikov or AK-47 bullets or machetes are dragged hurriedly and thrown in uncompleted graves. When the government of Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia came in, it brought with it much hope of ending the Farmers and Herders crises so much that on 11th September, 2023 in a release titled “Security of Lives, Property, Return of IDPs Remains Our Priority” disseminated by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Benue State Sir Tersoo Kula stating that “The priority of the Governor is the resolve to check insecurity, thus ensuring that Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs return to their Ancestral homes; and that the Governor has taken deliberate steps to ensure that this hydra-headed monster of insecurity that has eaten deep into the fabric of the state is tackled once and for all.”
By the way, before the emergence of this present government, an audacious and marvelous Tiv Political song composer by his popular name Awambe à Tiv composed a song for the All Progressive Congress, APC aimed at heralding the campaigns of Rev. Fr. Dr. Alia and the party. In his song, the singer brings to us an agenda he noted that “It is what the People’s Democratic Party, PDP what the Tiv call Nima doesn’t like that we will do; for the sole reason that the party should be displeased.” The singer moved on to register a strong and pivotal warning in which he noted that “I have called the entire Tiv Agnate and shown them the Ark (Aleki), which Dajo has brought; behold it is, Kenneth Gyado if anyone touched the Ark, he will ‘go’ and I beg nobody should touch or redirect. I announce that Hyacinth Iormem Alia is the Ark that Dajo has brought.”
Ka kwagh ù Inima ì soo ga la me er ye/ ka u ì vihi ve óo/ Ka kwagh ú Inima í soo ga la se er ye/ ka u ì vihi ve éee/ M yila Ityô ì Tiv cica, M tese ne Aleki ù Dajo à tee van à mi yô, ngula óoo/ Kenneth Gyado óo, bende á mi nan á yem/ M zamber or á de kôôm ga/ M yer Hyacinth Iormem Alia ka Aleki, Dajo à za hide à min óo!
The minds of the Tiv people were bulging with erection of hopes but soon government started denying the existence of insecurity in the land. Whether the government of Benue State needs killings of the Tiv People by the marauding pastoralists to keep the security vote coming in from the Federal Government of Nigeria is something left to be understood. The marauding Herders killing of the Tiv Farmers is not a war; it is an agenda to take over the Tiv Nation by the Islamic Oligarchy. In the Ityôshin or Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State, the people are trapped in just three towns of Naka, Agagbe and Aôndona, trying to get out is as suicidal as staying, so much that the people cannot afford the opportunity of denying themselves fear, squalor and psycho-emotional depression. All the lukewarm efforts by the governments and politicians look much like trying to put out a forest fire by just spitting or pissing on it.
It is unfortunate that the Tiv and other Benue Citizens are living in a “Forgotten Land,” torn by years of lawless. Herders killings where the Farmer’s cassava is uprooted and thrown to the cows and any little provocation of asking why earns the farmer death by sword or merciless bullet of an AK-47. This is happening in a country bedeviled by religious imbecility and bigotry; a planet where the value of Tiv and other lives are measured in cows. When one cow dies in Tiv Land, a hundred lives are killed innocently by the purveyors of ethnic cleansing. When government post soldiers to the areas to help maintain peace and order, instead of saving lives, they help bury the dead. Locals pay them money to escort them bury their loved ones killed by the marauding herders; and misery of aborigines continue to hunt the peace of mind of helpless concerned citizens without inking an iota of mercy on the minds of privileged politicians and elite or rich class. Today, it appears that the Ark brought by George Akume Dajo is impossible to touch or direct but the land is under serious attacks amidst very classic road constructions and other developments.
Those who trumpeted or announced the coming of the Aleki may wish to remind it of the ‘gufenties of power’ it has, so much that the herders would also be careful not to touch or try to control it to their direction; but who knows if they are only watching or have even lost its location. Nevertheless, such poetic prophecy accounts for the sincere support the young singer lend to the party and government in power, and a simple reciprocation would not be an aberration too gross not to be forgiven. In any case, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Sen. Dr. Geiorge Akume seems to be quiet and whether it is for fear of 2027 pregnancies or anything else, no one could tell; but as such, the Tiv are turning to blame the Tor Tiv HRM Orchivirigh Prof. James Ortese Ayatse without caring to know his predicaments and silent struggles. Of course, the Traditional Sector laws in Nigeria are so poor that even a First-Class Chief like Tor Tiv is paid by the Governor and appointed by same and as such reading the body-language of governor might influence the decisions of some kings.
The marauding herders’ killings of the Tiv farmers seems to be beyond the State Governors in the affected states; President Bola Amed Tinubu has the prerogative to end this moreover, it is my very sincere view that in trying to figure out addressing the security concerns of the Tiv People as resounded in Kume Aôndo Dura’s lamentations, the Governor’s early promise to end the persistent herders and farmers crises needs to be reconsidered and prioritized by engaging with stakeholders such as Traditional leaders like the Tor Tiv, Tor Jerchira, Tor Lobi, Tor Kwande, Tor Jemgbagh and Tor Gwer; as well as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Former Governors, Senators, House of Representative Members, Assembly Members, Youths, Traditionalists, Christian Leaders and Prominent Tiv Sons and Daughters among others to develop and implement a strategic and intelligent solution to curb these conflicts. Moreover, rather than focusing on construction of township roads, the Makurdi-Naka Road, if constructed will help too; as well as strategic allocation of resources to indicatives that will directly benefit the affected communities including provision of security and supporting farmers to return to their Ancestral lands.
