Koma: 30 years after

Last October, I mulled a trip to the Koma Hills, Adamawa State, with the broad idea of doing just any news feature on the hilltop communities. I did not peg the news feature on any angle.   So, early last November, I travelled  to Adamawa State for the Hills.  A large population of the natives, […]

Last October, I mulled a trip to the Koma Hills, Adamawa State, with the broad idea of doing just any news feature on the hilltop communities. I did not peg the news feature on any angle.  

So, early last November, I travelled  to Adamawa State for the Hills. 

A large population of the natives, I discovered, was still ‘at home’ atop the hills. So, I pegged my story angle on the claimed resettlement programme of 1986, said to have been initiated by the late Col. Yohanna Madaki, the then governor of defunct Gongola State. 

It was a Wednesday.  

A few minutes after 6 am, my guide, Rabi Sule, and the Land Rover driver, Abdurrazak, picked me up at the gate of my hotel at Jimeta. The previous day, Tuesday, the lady and gentleman had impressed it on me that with the Hills locked up far in a frustratingly terrible terrain, the known routes down there – Yola-Cigari-Koma Hills, let alone the twice longer and windy Yola-Ngurore-Mayo-Jada-Ganye-Koma Hills – were some of the most deplorable I might have ever plied. So, we had to leave by 6 am, they advised.  

Scared by the uncertainty of the level of the deplorable nature of the route we had chosen to take – Yola-Cigari-Koma Hills – and the certainty that we might not return before evening, we took off.  

By 8am, after a brief stopover at Mbamba, a ward at the outskirts of ‘Yola, we proceeded to Mararrabar Cigari on the tarred Yola-Gurin road. 

Our merry ride terminated abruptly. We had reached Mararrabar Cigari. Abdurrazak turned right into the little-wider-than-a-cattle route bumpy road. 

Welcome to Koma Hills road!  

“Welcome to trouble!” my thumping heart would say. 

No one could tell me the exact distance to Koma Hills from Yola. Different people gave different approximations of the distance, ranging between 150 kilometers and 80 kilometers, observing that due to the deplorable state of the route, the length of time it would take one to cover the distance could be about thrice the time it would take one on a normal Nigerian road of that distance.  

However, from Mbamba through Mararrabar Cigari, Cigari, Wuro Marafa, a couple of hamlets, Karlahi to the ‘Welcome to Koma Hills’ signage at the junction of Nassarawa, we had spent three hours in the most grueling trip I have ever had. 

A motorcycle-riding escort led us from there to Tuli, a hamlet near Komni, one of the sizeable Koma wards in the vicinity of the vast still uninhabited ‘Koma Resettlement Area’ not far from the bottom of the hills. 

The area was said to have been allocated 30 years ago by the then Gongola State Governor, the late Col. Yohanna Madaki who, reportedly, ‘discovered’ the hilltop communities.  

From the adjoining hills towards the Cameroonian border, wards and hamlets were sparse across the expansive bushy province down to the foot of the hills, in a linear kind of settlement, suggesting either the larger population of the hilltop communities’ unwillingness to descend and ‘feel at home’ down on land, or the government’s repudiation of its ‘promise’ of resettling them on land over the last three decades. 

‘Koma’ is a Hausa word for ‘go back.’ 

The hilltop communities got this name since the pre-colonial times when the Fulani slave raiders frequented the vicinity of the hills for slaves. 

If an elder somewhere at the top of the hills beheld the horses of the raiders advancing from afar, unnoticed by his fellows, especially children and youth, who might be descending or attempting to traverse the land, he would shout at them: “Koma!” meaning: “Go back (to the hills)!”. That was how they would flee back to hide behind rocks atop the hills.  

Koma people are a conglomeration of several separate-dialects-speaking communities inhabiting sections of Fufore, Jada and Ganye local government areas of Adamawa State and the neighbouring Cameroon. 

They were reportedly exposed to global eyes for the first time when, in 1986, the then Governor Yohanna Madaki of the then Gongola State, who climbed to some of the settlements of the ‘ancients’ atop the hills, was said to have ‘discovered’ them, in the fashion of Mungo park discovering Quorra (River Niger). 

Their elites have always debunked this ‘discovery’ narrative, arguing that when the late Col. Madaki first set his eyes on them, one of their own, Buba Misawa, now a Professor in the United States of America, was  already a doctoral degree student there; and they had been mixing and mingling since time immemorial with other communities around them, especially for commercial dealings. The fact that Fulani slave raiders tormented them long before the colonial times was sufficient evidence that they were already known by numerous communities around, and they were conversant with modern civilization. 

After interacting with a substantial population of them, the late Col. Madaki was said to have pleaded with the hilltop population to come down, ‘promising’ that the government would resettle them on land to facilitate their proper integration into modernity. 

He was said to have allocated a vast expanse of land for that purpose and announced a ‘Koma Resettlement Programme’ for earnest implementation. 

Not long after, Col. Madaki was transferred out of Gongola State. 

It is 30 years now after Madaki’s initiative.  

A large population of the communities seems still atop the hills. The vast purportedly proposed resettlement land is virtually desolate, as though nothing of that sort was ever proposed there.  

“When Col. Yohanna Madaki climbed uphill he saw people wearing leaves and he pleaded with them to come downhill,” Amazalo Abba, the Santuraki of Ganye, the District Head of Koma, born and bred atop the hills, recalled, continuing, “They heeded, and came down. Those who came down pulled off the leaves they were wearing and began to wear clothes.  

“However,” he lamented, “all the promises made by Col. Madaki for resettlement have not been fulfilled. It was initially promised that the government would build houses at Wari (the resettlement site close to Komni near the foot of the hills) so that whoever went up to fend for livelihood would come down to relax. That has not come to fruition.  

“It was promised that a road would be built for them from Wari through Nassarawa to Karlahi. We have not seen that road yet. The natives, atop the hills or down, interact only through bush roads up to this day.  

“Yes! Madaki met people wearing leaves; but wearing leaves is our culture. Even presently, whenever we are observing our traditional festivals, even if a lady practices the modern civilization of wearing a wrapper, she will still have to wear the leaves on top and dance with them. It is our tradition.

“This happens, especially when we observe Nasari, Damisa and Togulori. People wear leaves during these festivals. Even if men wear knickers, they still have to wear leaves on top. The larger population of those atop the hills still wear  leaves only. 

“Koma are a conglomeration of smaller tribes, each with its own separate language. There are Koma-Manya, Koma-Verre, Koma-Chamba, and even the Fulani community herding their cattle atop the hills, living among these communities and speaking their languages, go by the name ‘Koma’. Tribal communities answering the name ‘Koma’ are about six. We are now in the process of moulding one single community with intermarriages among the separate tribes and between the tribes and the Fulani. We inhabit the Nigeria/Cameroon border. So we have kinsmen in Cameroon with whom we relate and with whom  we intermarry. 

“I want to stress these facts. All the promises made to us to lure majority of us atop the hills to come down have not been fulfilled. There is no iota of truth in the saying that Madaki discovered us. Those atop the hills descend to interact numerously with the communities on land. They were, therefore, known by the surrounding communities. He met our children attending schools. When he came, one of our children, Buba Misawa, was a doctoral degree student in the USA. He is now a professor there.” 

An anonymous government official of Koma extraction residing at Tuli spoke.  

“It is true that Madaki exposed us to global eyes, but he did not discover us. There were about five Christian Missionary schools at Nassarawa, Betti, Gawi, Samdo and Tuli even before Madaki came here. 

“Tribes going by the name ‘Koma’ include Koma-Vomni, Koma-Damti, Koma-Viya and Koma-Verre. But the differences among the separate dialects they speak are very slight,” he revealed. 

He lamented what he described as the government’s persistent failure to fulfill the promises made to them and kindred atop the hills to lure them down. 

“Madaki promised to resettle them among the smaller population of their kinsmen down, and he even allocated a large expanse of land for them. He envisioned the idea of a large township. He promised a hospital; access roads to link us with the outside; and schools for us. But when he left the state, he carried along with him all his promises. None of the promises he made has been fulfilled by government. The few amenities we have, even the  50 wells sparse among the villages and hamlets, were provided by the Christian Missionaries. Only the Christian Missionaries cater for us ever since. 

“During electioneering campaigns, they endure the pains of penetrating the terrible terrain down here to promise heaven and earth. We don’t see their faces again until the next round of electioneering campaigns. None of them has even attempted to climb to the shortest distance up the hills,” the government official decried. 

“Our ancestors lived atop the hills for hundreds of years to secure themselves against aggression and slave raids,” said elderly Marte Muanchina residing at Wari, revealing, “There are over 20 clans (this could imply tribes) in Koma, each having its own hill. Any clan that does not own a hill is not our own originally.  

“We constitute a very large population in our settlements sparse atop the hills. Majority of us are still not known. They are settling in nooks on their respective hills, nauseating at modern civilization and, so, disdain coming down. They feel so secure and peaceful up there. If we can all gather in one place, we will have the sufficient population to earn a local government of our own. 

“Madaki attempted to gather us in one place by luring the majority of us atop the hills to come down. He promised to provide us a hospital, police station and all other social amenities. He went away with his promises.  

Evangelist Samaila Bagenare, born and bred atop the hills, is the Ward Head of Komni and Chairman of Koma-Manya, a Koma Development Association. 

“Koma settlements down on land now are: Bausumanu, Bauwumse, Samlo-saddi, Wangi, Dali, Bainde, Buri, Komni-kanta, Tuli, Digi, Burzatau, Watarko, Jumbare, Komlo, Mani, Bagi, Suli, Wari and Oli. All of them came down from the hills.  

“These constitute only a small fraction of us. Majority of our people are still atop the hills. We have been pleading with them to come down. A little population of them heeded, and they have even cleared farms and built houses down here. They will come down, grow food and carry it up to the hills. We were all born on the hills. Our parents came down in search of farms, and they eventually settled down. 

“We have been attempting to make them realize the necessity to come out of their primitive lives and embrace modern civilization for their children to attend schools like the children of all other tribes. They are gradually heeding. This is how these villages, wards and hamlets, spring up. 

“But you should also know that the majority on the hills also farm, rear cattle and hunt for livelihood up there. When we plead with them to come down, they would retort by asking us to point at even one thing the government has done for us down here, and that they are even more contented than us,” the Christian evangelist said. 

“This Koma discovery thing was completely a fraud,” Alhaji Ahmed Sajo, Adamawa State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, stated, maintaining, “they were never discovered by anyone. When Madaki was said to have discovered them, a large population of the Koma communities, whether in settlements in the vicinity of the hills or on top of the hills, was already educated and the communities were mixing and mingling with communities around them. 

“You asked about the issue of their resettlement. It is not our responsibility to do so,” Alhaji Sajo argued, explaining, “when Col. Madaki said he ‘discovered’ them, he set up a committee under Timawus Mathias, who was not even an employee of the state government and could, therefore, not recommend any agency of government to handle the responsibility. Madaki did not assign the resettlement responsibility to any arm of the state government. There was no documentation at all with regard to the issue. 

“You should know that this thing happened in Gongola State 30 years ago; Adamawa State was created 25 years ago, ruled by numerous military and civilian governors. On which state government should the responsibility of the resettlement be placed? Certainly not on us. Look! The whole thing, whether discovery or resettlement, was a complete fraud,” he concluded.