Idomas are not happy with their Tiv brothers and sisters. According to them, Tiv people in Benue State have marginalised them. But Tiv people are also victims of marginalisation. The Tiv sons and daughters, who are in the positions of authority, power and leadership, have marginalised their fellow Tiv brothers and sisters. The same thing is replicated upon the Idomas by their people in positions of authority, power and leadership. Marginalisation is to make certain people feel as if they are not important and cannot influence decisions or events. I see marginalisation as an act of taking over other people’s positions and their belongings by the few influential people in the society to further enrich and develop themselves and their environment but making the larger members of the society feel inferior, suffer from poverty, unemployment and lack every good thing of life. It means treating them like slaves and making their dreams of becoming great remain unrealistic or impossible. That’s exactly what our leaders in Benue State and the nation at large are doing to us.
I would like to state that Tiv people did not marginalize the state or Idomas. The simple reality is that our leaders in Benue State, comprising Tiv and Idoma politicians, have marginalised the rest of us. What happened in South Africa during the apartheid policy is a good example of marginalisation. The whites took over the country and turned the original inhabitants to slaves. The whites took over the good jobs in the country and made South Africans to work as gardeners, cleaners, guards, messengers and so on. They were not attending the same schools with the blacks; they did not eat on the same table with the blacks, their areas were developed but those of the blacks were underdeveloped. They didn’t operate the same bank with the blacks, they don’t commute in the same vehicle and so on. There were a lot of segregations and disparities.
Back home here in Nigeria and Benue, where my Idoma brothers and sisters are complaining that Tiv people have marginalized them, are the Tiv people not suffering from poverty? The whites that marginalised the blacks in South Africa, were they poor or suffering from poverty? When the whites marginalised the blacks in South Africa, was there no development in places occupied by the whites? If you take the statistics of the unemployed people in the state, the Tiv people would have the highest figure, yet they have supposedly marginalised the state and its ethnic groups. What kind of marginalisation is that? Some Idoma people that cry of marginalisation are even living better than some Tiv people in the state.
The point here is that, the Tiv people, the Idoma people and other ethnic groups in the state have people representing them in various offices, both political and non-political, but these representatives are not after the interest of their people but their selfish interests. That is why we are still lagging far behind in development. We don’t have good roads, no healthcare facilities and other social amenities that we all deserv.
The Ochi Idoma should let his people know that we are all suffering of marginalization from our leaders and there is the need for collaboration to fight our corrupt and selfish leaders, who are supposed to represent our interests but are rather after their personal gains. Both Tiv and Idoma people are victims of marginalisation and we need help. Our leaders have failed us and we have to do something now for our good and for the good of those coming after us.
Awunah Pius Terwase
Mpape Abuja.
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