X-Raying Indigenous Igbo Communities In Benue State

Did you know that there is an indigenous Igbo community in Benue State? No, this is not the right way to put it. To reword, did you know that there are Indigenous Igbo communities in Benue State? If you didn’t know, you should: There are Igbo communities in Benue State and we are not talking about a couple of them; there are about 300 communities spread across four local government areas. These Benue Igbos are found in  Ado, Oju, Okpoku, and Obi local government areas in Benue South Senatorial Constituency which was famously represented by a certain David Mark and held the senate presidency for eight years.

These Igbos do not own the whole local government areas. They are not even a majority in any of these local government areas. They can be said to be a respectable minority in these areas. While these Benue Igbos known as Umuezeokoha or Ezza have links to the people in the neighboring Ebonyi State, they are not of Ebonyi. They have called Ado, Oju, etc., home long before Lord Lugard was conceived.

Benue Igbos in the Nigerian State from 1914 to date

When in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the British conquered or tricked Niger-area tribes into protectorates, these people found themselves in the Northern Protectorate. In 1914, Lord Lugard merged the Northern and Southern Protectorate into one colonial country and paid little heed about tribes, otherwise, Kwara State and Kabba, and Benue Igbos (and maybe Igala) would be in the South.

In 1946, Arthur Richards, the Governor-General of Nigeria divided southern Nigeria into the West and East. The North was not touched nor did the Northern Igbos made to join their larger kiths in the East. In 1966, to spite Awolowo, the government of Tafawa Balewa created the Mid-west region from the Western region. The North remained untouched.

In 1967, Ojukwu declared the East an independent country. To counter this, Gowon divided the country into 12 states. The Igbos in the North found themselves in Benue-Plateau State with their capital in Jos.

The regime of Murtala/Obasanjo created 7 additional states in 1976. Benue-Plateau was broken into Benue and Plateau States. The Igbos became part of Benue State. Benue State was never split and the many border adjustments of the federal government, military and civilian, never touched the communities in Benue State.

Igbos In Benue State – What do they want?

They want what a normal human what, they want what the average Nigerian would want – to be able to end their kids to school, to have their crops undestroyed by cattle, to have clean water, some sort of electricity, etc. But because of their peculiar nature of having their souls in the Southeast and their bodies in the North-central, Benue Igbos want more.

Indigenous Igbos Of Benue

Representation

We do not know for sure the population of Benue Igbos but their spokespeople gave the figure to the Nation Newspaper to be over one million in 2014. Even if they are only half of this population, or even a quarter of it or even one-tenth of this number, they deserve a representative. But they have none.

“No designated political ward, no councillorship representative at the local government level nor at the state government level despite their voting population,” The Nation reported. More than this, none of their people were considered for employment in the civil service.

Development

Benue Igbos suffer what many Nigerians endure, poor health care,  terrible roads, zero to epileptic electricity, unhealthy water supply, etc. But it seems like the issues facing this group are the worst. According to Mr. Nweke Cedrick Ifeanyi, the president of Benue Igbo Union, they sometimes trekked as far as 30 kilometres just to get clean water.

“Sometimes we do lament whether we are different from other human beings created by God. Some of them that claim to be natives of the state mock us by telling us to wait to benefit from the government only  when the Biafran nation which we fought for comes into reality.”

He made these comments in 2015 but not a lot has changed since then.

Recognition

Benue Igbos want to be recognized by Benue State as Benue indigenes. Of the three governors that Benue State has produced, none of them have shown the people any recognition. In fact, they tried to meet with Gabriel Suswam (2007 to 2015) who for his first term “campaigned vigorously in the areas and even toured around our communities on a motorcycle” and David Mark, their senator from 1999 to 2019, to no avail.

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”But in all these places, we have been facing a lot of deprivation of our fundamental human rights to the extent that we do not have any project attracted by the government, be it local, state, or federal.”

If this is the only issue, it might be forgiven but it goes beyond that. “In fact,” Nweke added, “we have become the rejected part of the country because local government identification letters are not given to us any longer.”

How Benue Igbos can be helped

1. You can start by sharing this post, talk to someone about them, talk to another, then another, generally ensuring that their story gets more attention. A problem that is not talked about is a problem that may never be addressed.

2. Igbo groups from the general Ohaneze Ndigbo to the Youth Wing and the diaspora wing should recognize Benue Igbos. They should include Benue Igbos in the zoning of their principal officers, they should host some of their events in Benue Igboland, and the Ohaneze excos should tour the area and make a stop in Makurdi to talk to the governor about his forgotten indigenes.

3. Southeast governments, universities, corporations, philanthropists, NGOs, etc should set up scholarship schemes and funds that would target Benue Igbos and provide them with healthcare, education, food, and other necessary amenities.

4. Generally, Igbo influencers, media, clergymen, missionaries, celebrities, and NGOs, etc. should mount pressures on Benue State governments at the state and local levels to recognize a forgotten part of their state and make them feel the impact of governance.

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