Taraba Wars: Mid-1900s to the present

We also said that Taraba is (and should be considered by the authorities) of vital or strategic interest to Nigeria because it is a melting pot for Nigerians of all tribes and tongues who are engaged in agribusiness and that it is the number one food basket of the nation. We are making a case […]

We also said that Taraba is (and should be considered by the authorities) of vital or strategic interest to Nigeria because it is a melting pot for Nigerians of all tribes and tongues who are engaged in agribusiness and that it is the number one food basket of the nation. We are making a case for a special attention to be paid to Taraba because we know that many serious minded nations on earth do not joke with any major source of their food security for hunger constitutes a major threat to national security! For us especially at this level of development, such places should be regarded as our economic nerve centres and given the type of attention they rightly deserve.
This week, we wish to draw specific attention to the Tiv people of Taraba, for reasons which will soon become clear. In a country where, as someone jocularly said recently, there is no respect for Arithmetic, because we seem to hate to keep and use figures for our own growth and development, it may be controversial to make the point I intend to make presently but I will go ahead to make it nevertheless. And the point is that the Tiv people of Taraba contribute a substantial portion of the food that makes Taraba the number one food supplier for the nation. They could account for about 30 per cent. This figure may not be correct but the fact remains that they contribute a substantial portion because their commitment to the soil is almost total.
It is therefore unfortunate that for such a people who are engaged in such a vital ‘national service’, the Tivs are the worst victims of Taraba’s perennial wars. In most parts of the farming communities of the state where some of these unending wars break out from time to time, the Tivs usually come out the worst affected. They are about the first to be killed; the first to be dislocated; the first to be dispossessed of their substances and the first to be deprived of their means of livelihood. And when hostility ceases, they are inevitably required to go back and start from ground zero in rebuilding their damaged property and their damaged lives.
 That has essentially been the story of the Tiv people of Taraba in the past 25 years.
How do I know? They are my neighbours. When the Tiv people are being dealt with by any of their numerous antagonists in the Taraba Wars, everyone in the country catches cold but not many seem to know this. Their usually massive dislocation and flight to the various villages in the Benue mainland to seek safety, succour and security creates reverberation that reaches as far as many states of the South-South. The ripple effect, I also hear, reaches as far as many states of the North West. Whenever the Tivs suffer any reverses, traders from Kano will not have sufficient grains to buy and stock for resale during the off season when prices are better. Any year there is a war in Taraba, food will be scarce and prices will go up and hunger will increase in my own part of Cross River State which borders Tivland.
This is because the refugees of the war which will include the Tivs and people of other ethnic groups who are food producers will be forced to become parasites on whatever little food is available. That year stomachs will be grumbling loudly because they have not been properly recharged with nutrients.
Given the pivotal role which the Tivs of Taraba and elsewhere play in the food supply chain in Nigeria, I am disappointed by a remark said to have been made by the Acting Governor of the State, Alhaji Garba Umar, when the Tivs appealed to him to help put an end to their current trouble with Fulani herdsmen. The governor is said to have replied that the Tivs should put pressure on the Government of Benue State so that the Tivs of Benue can lift their ‘ban’ on Fulani herdsmen dwelling in or traversing their land before he can do something for them that are in Taraba.
This sounds absurd because poor Tiv farmers in Taraba have no influence on the government in Benue. Even if they do, it is certainly not their place to negotiate a quid pro quo for their existence in Taraba which is their homeland. The governor’s remark is most unfortunate because it subtly re-opens the issue of settler-indigene controversy which has done such terrible damage to neighbouring Plateau. It also creates the impression that he knows what to do but is unwilling to do it unless the Tivs are ready to play a ball that is not in their court. That is a most disingenuous shirking of gubernatorial responsibility.
One is not interested in who is right or who is wrong in Taraba’s many wars. My concern is that something ought to be done to bring about peace in that place. Peace is sine qua non for progress. There is need for a comprehensive peace plan that will guarantee the harmonious coexistence of all the tribes earning their living in Taraba. Taraba should be treated like a special agricultural zone of Nigeria and everything done to ensure that farmers there improve their output each year.
The Taraba State Govern-ment, either alone or in association with the Federal Government, should seek the services of the Hernando de Soto Foundation on how to empower the poor and unorganized agricultural people of Taraba who depend largely on the land for their livelihood. In case they have not heard of this man they should Google it and will be told that Hernando de Soto Polar is a Peruvian economist known for his work on the informal economy and on the importance of business and property rights. Between 1988 and 1995, he and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) were responsible for some four hundred initiatives, laws, and regulations that changed Peru’s economic system.
What is urgently needed in Taraba is that the place should be recognized and organised as a special food producing area. The farming belt should be divided into two main areas for livestock production and food crops cultivation and then parcelled out to the various stakeholders. This will help a great deal to minimize, if not completely eliminate, the rather frequent conflicts between farmers and herdsmen.
Ownership rights should be bestowed on those who are given the lands. This will make the lands become good bankable assets. The result is that Taraba will be transformed from a land of perennial conflict into an abode of wealth and riches and a show place of peaceful coexistence among Nigeria’s tribes. The expertise of the De Soto Foundation is needed to make this happen.
(Concluded)