Leader of the three sociocultural groups Mdzough U Tiv Worldwide, Ochetoha K’Idoma and Omi Ny’Igede, in Benue State, retired Comptroller of Prisons, Iorbee Ihagh, in this interview with JOHNSON BABAJIDE, speaks on the raging debate over the propriety or otherwise of a Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket and other issues.
There has been talk concerning the APC presidential running mate, do you think that Muslim/Muslim ticket is good this time?
If the APC presidential candidate goes for a Muslim/Muslim ticket, it will be impossible for him to make it. The reason is that he needs to balance it. We don’t operate on an Islamic constitution; we have one constitution. Other political parties are already talk of balancing things.
The killings and maiming of people under the current government have indicated that a section of the country, precisely the Fulani have seen the country as their own. The leadership of Miyeitti Allah did not hide it and have been saying that Nigeria belongs to them and that other tribes, including Hausa, are slaves. The Hausa are not happy.
We cannot compare this time to the era of MKO Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe when both were Muslims and contested election and Nigerians voted them. Now, with the evil that characterised the Buhari administration where everyone knows the aspiration of the Fulani, it is not possible. We cannot allow Nigeria to be an Islamic nation.
And anytime you have 20 to 40 per cent of Muslims in a particular place, it doesn’t take them anything to take over the place. There are some European countries now suffering as a result of this and the Miyetti Allah has not hidden this agenda.
So, I’m saying it here that if APC goes ahead to settle for Muslim/Muslim ticket the bulk of Christian will not vote for the party because we need a balance ticket. But do you know that aside of manipulation, Christians are more in number in Nigeria. What gives that false census figure is that most of the houses in the North are ‘ba shiga’ which means you cannot enter. So, they hide under this to give outrageous figures of people living in the house. Christians are more than Muslim in this country. Even in Hausa land, we have many Christians there. There are Christians whose names look alike and you mistake them for Muslim.
But the argument in some quarters is that there are no Christian politicians in the North that have clout to pull crowd?
I don’t share that idea because there are lot of politicians who are Christians that have clout and can swing the tide in favour of Senator Bola Tinubu. There are people like the present Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; a former SGF, Babachir Lawal what of former Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara even in Middle Belt, we have George Akume, Audu Ogbe, Simon Lalong and many others. So, that argument is dead on arrival.
Look at PDP, many of us wanted Nyelsom Wike as vice presidential candidate after he lost the presidential ticket, but the party decided on Okowa, Delta State governor and the message there is that it reflects balancing.
I’m sure while they are insisting on that is that if something happens to Tinubu, God forbids, then Muslim from North will continue with the ticket because they are not ready to relinquish power with the belief that Nigeria belongs to them, where it belongs to all of us.
But now that the APC presidential candidate has submitted a nominee as a place holder while he continues to consult, what is your advice to Tinubu and Nigerians?
Let me start with advice to Tinubu. He should ignore all the calls for a Muslim/Muslim ticket. Then, to Christians, we need to come together now because we have not been united and that is the reason Muslims are treating us this way. Unfortunately, we Christians believe in prayer, but the scripture says prayer without work is dead. So, we need to come together, pray and take steps. We should know that the era of manna dropping from heaven has gone. Even Israelites in the Bible prayed and took steps. Prayer must be followed by action. To Nigerians, we are all witnesses to happenings in the country under the current administration. My advice is that we should meditate on this.
Unfortunately, most of our politicians are so selfish. If not, it has been the desire of Nigerians in which all the leaders of sociocultural groups from South-West, South-East, South-South and North-Central said that presidency at this time be zoned to the South and micro zone to South East. What is wrong for the Igbo to produce the president of Nigeria. If [Chief Odumegwu] Ojukwu was pardoned, why is it that an Igbo man cannot lead the country? We are all Nigerians.
Historically, the Tivs and Fulani used to have strong cord, but in recent times, it is like there is a gulf between the two ethnic groups. What is the problem?
The reason we have problem with Fulani is that it is we the Tiv people that stopped the Uthma Dan Fodio in 1804 Jihad at Ushongo hills currently in Ushongo Local Government Area of the state, their agenda then was to spread Islam to the southern part of the country, but we stopped it. If not, Nigeria would have been an Islamic nation since but they couldn’t spread to eastern part of the country that is today South-East and South-South.
The second one was during the First Republic, Tiv leaders, late Joseph Sawuan Tarka, refused to continue the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and joined others to establish United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) that was when their leader, Ahmadu Bello held sway and did not want the North divided whereas, he created Mid-Western region to whittle down the influence of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Mind you, people of that area (Mid-West) never requested a split. So, when Tarka and others formed UMBC and Tarka later went on to have an accord with Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
The third was the Gideon Orka’s aborted coup. As a student of history, you should remember that everything in Orka’s speech is coming to reality today. He failed because he was in a hurry to unveil his agenda.
So, the Tiv people had seen all what is happening today long time ago. The current administration seems to have come to actualise what they couldn’t achieve then. If not, why is it that all the service chiefs in this government are Fulani? And why is it that Buhari administration is using tactics to grab people’s land not only in Benue but throughout the 36 states, using different names such as: cattle colony, Ruga, Water Resources bill, grazing routes and so on. These are questions, Nigerians should ask and continue to ask, because having turned the Hausa to their slave, they want to extend it to other parts of the country.
When Atiku, now the presidential candidate of PDP visited Benue, he made it clear that the Fulani in Mauritania, Senegal, Niger and Nigeria are the ones advising Governor Samuel Ortom to stop profiling ethnic group. Now, he is a candidate. In the event he wins the 2023 election, is it not continuation of the Fulani in government? Well, I pity for Nigeria because one plus one is not two. The National Assembly is not doing anything, else Buhari would have been long ago impeached because he had committed so many impeachable offences.
So, to answer your question, first, only God knows who will win the coming presidential election. But I will advise Atiku who is Zege Mule U Tiv, meaning, protective shield of Tiv people, to borrow a leave from his predecessor, Aliyu Mohammed, who once held that chieftaincy title, he defended Tiv people very well and died in the defence of Tiv man. He came for the burial of a prominent Tiv man, but unfortunately died on his way back. He lived and died for Tiv people. He gave some of his children Tiv names.
Unfortunately, since the killing started in 2018, Atiku had yet to voice out that is the reason I was happy when Governor Ortom told him to his face that he did not show up during our trying times. I think our representatives at the National Assembly in the next dispensation should be made to sit up because whoever becomes the president should see that everybody in the country no matter your tribe belongs to him. Only God knows who is our next president, but if the PDP candidate wins, Nigerians should not allow him to continue the way of Buhari. .
Killings and kidnappings are yet to abate in the country, what is your take?
It is true that many Nigerians are being killed every day and several people being kidnapped and each time this happens, the Federal Government will only issue statement that it was on top of the situation.
And every day instead of abating it is increasing. To me, I will say that government is involved in some of these things. We should ask ourselves the pertinent question: who brought these Fulani mercenaries into the country? After all, we were told that they were brought in, in the build up to 2015 general election. They assisted them to accomplish what they wanted, now they are out of control.
Initially, Nigerians thought that it was Benue problem, but today every part of the country even Buhari’s place in Katsina State is feeling the heat. For instance in my council ward, Moon in Kwande Local Government Area, Fulani went there destroyed everything there both private and public establishments, personally, I lost my three buildings. For the past six years now, I cannot go to my village. It is that bad.
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