Alia vs Akume: Tor Tiv’s angle, by Iorliam Shija

Alia vs Akume: Tor Tiv’s angle, by Iorliam Shija

The first Tor Tiv , His Royal Majesty, Makir Dzakpe, 1946 to 1956, had a very cozy relationship which the emerging political class . For example, in 1951 , when Tiv people were to be involved in an electoral process, all Tiv elites gave the Tor Tiv the opportunity to take the lead . Has it been the same with his successors?

In 1965 , a year before the two military coups that struck to change the course of Nigerian history happened in 1966, the then Tor Tiv, HRM Gondu Aluor and the then leading Benue political icon, Senator JS Tarkaa , had reconciled . They promised to work for the development of Tivland as a team .

Their conflicts for most of the latter part of the 1950s and the years from 1960-1964 gave rise to two major political crisis in Tivland , the Nande Nande and Atemityough, known popularly as the Tiv Riots . The then Hausa/Fulani controlled NPC was not comfortable with Tarkaa’s romance with the south , especially his UMBC’s alliance with Obafemi Awolowo’s AG. So the then leader of the big north, Sir Ahmadu Bello was threatened by this Awolowo/Tarkaa alliance.

After seducing Tarkaa and his members to drop the alliance idea with beautiful promises to no avail, Bello decided to use the government machineries, the police , civil servants and the traditional institutions to humble Tarkaa in Tivland , his main turf, by force . The result was Tarkas’s supporters decision to burn down houses and smashed heads of his opponents.

After the two major events, The Tor Tiv Aluor and Tarkaa saw that these conflicts had not benefitted the people so they held a meeting in Gboko and reconciled. Tivland became happy. Although the army struck and ended the First Republic, Tarkaa continued to rise in Nigeria and he had the support of the Tor Tiv until Paul Unongo once again came on the stage to review The Tarkaa Years.

In 1969, Unongo , a former Tarkaa disciple rebelled. He looked at the Benue society and the consequences of the major upheavals and asked , where do we go from here? Gathering the young recently educated and widely travelled men and women , Unongo challenged Tarkaa .

As long as he lived , Tor Tiv , Aluor could not reconcile the two. He died in 1978 and after two years, Tarkaa too died in 1980. All the attempts of HRM Akperan Orshi, who succeeded Aluor to reconcile Unongo and the political allies of Tarkaa failed. Orshi wanted to use Mzough U Tiv, which he founded to do this , but Unongo scorned it.

After those earliest political conflicts, the next major ones experienced in Tiv land have been The Chief Barnabas Gemade vs Dr Iyorchia Ayu conflicts , from 1999- 2003, George Akume vs Unongo tussles from 2003-2006 and Suswam vs Akume challenges as from 2010 till date ? HRM Alfred Akawe Torkula, Tor Tiv from 1992-2015 , inspite of his efforts, was unable to solve all the above conflicts, so as a result, Benue suffered the consequences that came with them .

Apart from the major crises highlighted above between Akume vs Suswam which started in 2010, another one was added to this in 2015; The Samuel Ortom vs Gabriel Suswam crisis. There was also the Akume vs Samuel Ortom crisis as from 2018.

HRM Prof James Ayatse, Tor Tiv was selected on 20th December, 2016 and intalled in office on 4th March , 2017. How has he been handling these political complexities ? The Tor Tiv was helpful for a record response to solving the major political crisis he met on assumption of the throne . In a peace he brokered in Gboko , Tor Tiv had asked Ortom and Suswam , to bury their differences and work together for the development of Tivland and that of Benue.

Barely a few days after the peace talks, positive signs started emerging. Suswam who had in the past shunned Benue State stakholders meetings, stormed Benue Government House, Makurdi sitting with Ortom and posing for the cameras. This was good for Tiv land and Benue State.

In their separate speeches, both Ortom and Suswam clearly stated that the Tor Tiv was not interested in their politics , but development of Tivland and Benue State.

At the moment, the thorny political issue at hand is between the governor of Benue State, His Excellency Rev Father Dr Hyacint Iormem Alia and the SGF, Dr George Akume. Last year , the Tor Tiv publicly mediated between then, but it appears another meeting would suffice.

Tomorrow, 4th March, 2025 , it would be the 8th anniversary of the installation of our Tor Tiv, may this anniversary cause our active political actors to shield their swords, and look for the development of Benue and Tiv nation. May the Tor Tiv and his peace initiatives be respected and honoured.

Let our leading political actors learn the lessons of the 1965 peace meeting between Tarkaa and Tor Aluor. It came quite late because it was after Nande Nande and Atemityough which had caused irreparable losses in Tivland.