PAUL ONONGO FINALLY SPEAK
You were a strong voice on issues affecting Benue State and the country as a whole, but recently, you have been relatively quiet, why?
Yes, I used to be very vocal on national issues, including controversial ones; and I stood by them very firmly. You also noticed that of late I became a bit quiet. First of all, I think you should reward age. I think age has given me the benefit of reflecting deeper on prevailing situations. I am still the same person.
Secondly, most of my comments were political. That is why some of us founded the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) when they declared that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was basically a socio-cultural organisation. Though we remained in the ACF, we declared from the onset that the NEF was political, having observed how politics and governance were practised by people other than northerners. We felt that those of us from the North were shortchanged and sidelined. Our total commitment was to work within the constitution and in the best and highest tenets of partisan political activities to bring back the presidency to the North. We worked hard and we achieved what we wanted.
General Muhammadu Buhari is from the North, and his coming into power was in accord with our declared simple policy. Be believed that we could find a true Nigerian unity through the unity of the North. We wanted to demonstrate to the international community and Nigeria that if the North was united they would always be able to determine the leadership of this country. Our aim has been achieved; maybe that is the second reason why you are not hearing me too much.
Our son has practised for one year now; we are observing him and interacting with him. I think there’s no need to continue shouting in the streets, especially at my age.
Aside the farmers/herders crisis, we are also bedeviled by other issues that are threatening the unity of Nigeria. For instance, there is the resurgence of the Biafra agitation in the South-East while the Niger Delta militants are back in the creeks blowing pipelines…?
That is one of the reasons I am here. I am hoping desperately that I would have an appointment with Mr. President and expose these things to him. I am hesitant to go to the press because I am not looking for publicity. But I want to agree with you that these are real problems and the people who think they will mislead the president if he doesn’t do something positive and definite are lying. The problems could get worse when you don’t attend to them. They look very difficult, but when you start attending to them with sincerity, you can discover that there are solutions. As far as I am concerned, and I told my colleagues and friends like Professor Ben Nwabueze, that people who think they can realise Biafra are not being fair to Nigeria. The schisms producing the Biafranisation of Nigeria were thrashed out by the mistakes of our leaders, then on the battleground.
I get angry when I see adults who saw the civil war talk as if it was a joke. You slaughtered three million people who were your friends, and people are talking as if we just had a picnic. This is the biggest mistake they are making. We care about Nigeria and we don’t want to fight another civil war. However, we have not forgotten the sacrifice we made. I had my study truncated and came back to this country and joined the war effort. During the war, people from the Middle Belt, particularly the Tiv, recorded the greatest casualty. Generally, our people had no job, so the army was the only place they could go to. That was the fate of the Tiv. We were caricatured by the colonialists and the government of Nigeria who treated us like mercenaries. When there is crisis you know that the Tiv people are important, but when there is no crisis you forget about them. Across the states of Nigeria there are over 12million Tiv people. We dominate three states, yet when Nigeria sits to discuss in the cabinet, there won’t be any Tiv man there. It is not right. We sacrificed over 700,000 people during the civil war and somebody is talking about it as if it was a joke.
We won’t allow Nigeria to break up; we have settled that on the battlefield. When I hear people agitate for restructuring I remember the fact that we went to war to stop confederation, Biafranism and the balkanisation of Nigeria. We went to war to reject any form of government that would not give us the benefit of being the biggest nation-state in Africa. Those who describe Nigeria as a mere geographical expression are completely wrong. The future of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was bought with a lot of blood, so breakup will never happen.
Can you share your personal experience during the civil war?
There was also a psychological warfare. We almost lost the war, not on the battlefield but in propaganda. There was a very effective propaganda from General Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was the head of state of Biafra. He almost got the West to recognise him. In fact, France, which was very close to Israel, thought that Biafra was a very developed modern state being clobbered by primitive Muslims from a place called the North. They would draw the map of Biafra and include Makurdi and Gboko. And their gimmick was succeeding. I almost had acid thrown in my face when I tried to counter this in Ottawa, Montreal and New York. A woman spat in my face. I had to run because the propaganda was effective. Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church were collecting arms and sending to Biafra. While presenting a lecture in the US, Bishop Murray, who was in Makurdi, said he was in Biafra because Makurdi was drawn as part of Biafra.
The federal government had no response. I think I did my best. Because of the nature of my work, I effectively created the possibilities that there could be another true explanation of the conflict in Nigeria. I created doubts in the minds of the Canadian prime minister and some big people. I also advised General Gowon on a few things. And I think I was proved right. Nigeria is important, and if Nigeria is important, I should be important. That is the kind of Nigeria I want.
People have been expecting the selection of another Tor Tiv since the last one passed on, but that has not happened. As a prominent Tiv son, what do you think is really happening?
There are two ways of answering that question. The question belongs to the government because it is the same colonial provision that was used to select the Tor Tiv in 1946. I think the politicians and the colonialists followed them into granting this centralised chiefdom. When the British gave us this centralised chiefdom, to some extent they accepted some of our traditions and custom in the selection process. When the military came, beginning with Obademi, they changed it to something like a political selection. They appointed their own representatives. Later on they even took over the selection by making them secretaries of the tribes and things like that. Progressively, people whittled down the traditional and cultural aspects of the Tor Tiv.
Basically, we have a problem. And as I suggested to the state House of Assembly during their public hearing, the easiest way to solve that problem is to use the same section of the law which was used to appoint the first Tor Tiv, the second one, the third and the one in question. It is becoming a scandal because long after the Tor Tiv died, the Ooni of Ife died and the greatest historic traditionalist in Nigeria, the Oba of Benin died. Both of these traditional rulers have already been replaced, yet like you rightly observed, the Tiv have not appointed theirs. It has become a political thing. Tiv political leaders are funny people; they like to control events around them.
Suswam passed a law creating numerous chiefs. The implication of this is that the Tor Tiv would be a first class king among 11 others, and there is no money. Benue State is finding it difficult to pay salaries, so it has become difficult to continue with the traditional institution. The institution of the Tor Tiv has become a political hot cake of sorts; that’s what I think is delaying the appointment.
In those days, there was a cordial relationship between the Tiv and the Fulani, but it is no longer so. Having come from a background of Tiv and Fulani parentage, what do you think led to the unhealthy situation that obtains today?
It is a shame! For some strange reasons Nigeria looks at certain people that could really make a contribution and decide that they are not important. The reality confronting us is that the workable unity of Nigeria as a political system depends on the unity of the North. And the unity of the North depends on a clear, deliberate understanding and unification of ideas and partnership between the Tiv and Fulani people. I have been working for that unity all my life. I am a Tiv person and my mother was a Fulani woman, so I can tell you that there was so much friendship between Fulani people and the Tiv such that they were called brothers from the same parents. The Fulani pitched tents in Tiv villages, just on the outskirts. They would get yams from the Tiv people and bring milk (nono) and mar shanu (butter) and exchange for the roasted yams the Tiv people gave them. This led to some form of cohesiveness and good feeling for one another. If cattle wandered into a farm, they would sit down and resolve it amicably. Sometimes there could be payment of compensations in cash or kind. Also, the Fulani herdsmen would not deliberately go into a Tiv man’s farm. That way, there was a very good relationship between them.
I think the problem is that the population of the Fulani and their cattle has increased. We also have the effects of climate change, perhaps with the Sahel region moving downward. The Tiv population also increased and they started having their own cattle; hence there is pressure. The very rich ones even had small ranches and they employed Fulani boys. I think this created pastoral competition for space. The issue of grazing became a serious business and nobody did anything to resolve the problem until it reached the present proportion where the Fulani started attacking farmers and accusing them of cattle rustling, while the farmers accuse them of destroying their farms. There is lack of understanding, but I think there is something we can do about it.
Some of us are worried because politics has come into it. Politicians are fuelling the disagreements. I am already seeking audience with Mr. President because this thing has political and security implications. He should intervene in this case, just as he sent soldiers to assist in stopping cattle rustling in the far North. If there is no cooperation between the Tiv and Fulani there will be no unity in Nigeria. That is why people like me insist that there must be dialogue in the North. We must tell ourselves the truth and not look for whom to blame. The consequences of disunity will not be good for us and our children.
What have you done at the level of the Northern Elders Forum to address this matter?
This is the same basic question that Tiv people are posing. However, the tragedy about them is that they complain but they don’t do creative thinking. I think Nigeria is strong enough to listen to the truth. There will be more action if people are told the truth about what is actually happening.
The situation in Benue is very bad and we cannot allow it to continue. Believe me, one of the reasons I came to Abuja now is to see Mr. President and tell him that the situation in Benue is indeed bad. Large communities have run away from their farms, and they go to a town and hear the rumour that the next settlement is experiencing the same thing. It is time to tell the president the truth. A president of a country should be fed with correct intelligence; he should be given the gory facts. Or are people waiting to see if Tiv people would get frustrated and decide to go to war? I believe we can still bring back the trust that existed between the Fulani and the Tiv people.
What were those things that shaped your life in your youthful days?
Basically, let me say I have been shaped by three influences: my parenthood and their differential teaching and control at early age, my education, and what I wanted my country to be. Those three things shaped my young age, middle age, adult age activities and participation.
I am very proud to be a Tiv man. Very early in life, I found out that Tiv people were always shortchanged and misunderstood. As a child I felt that the colonialists didn’t treat them well. At independence I was a 25-year-old young man, and I discovered that the Nigerian government viewed the Tiv person the same way the colonialists did. They were viewed as riotous people; the white man said they were cannibals and warlike people, war mongers and stuffs like that. Our own evolving government ended up treating them like people that were troublesome and couldn’t be trusted.
In my activities, I attempted to show people that the Tiv were misunderstood. I volunteered to speak for the Tiv nation though my mother was Fulani. My grandfather, Mallam Umaru, was also a Fulani man from Kano, so I felt the underdog was a Tiv person. That became my cardinal point. When I started fighting for the North, a lot of people were very surprised because I was very critical of the northern establishment. I could have easily joined the northern ruling class if I wanted. I had the advantage of becoming a Fulani man from Kano and nobody would have done anything about it.
I was never in government except for a short time after the war, because of what I did. I won elections twice; everybody knew I won, but I was denied the opportunity by the operating system, which said I was too critical to take power. But government should be seen as an opportunity to do well.
Again, I was influenced by the two dominant religions in Nigeria. My grandfather was a Muslim; hence I was a Muslim when I was growing up, till the time my father came and took me from him at six years of age. Then I became a very devoted and convinced Christian. I found the Christian story very close to what the Tiv people looked to me, and when I studied them more, I came to the conclusion that they must have come from the land of Israel. I felt quite proud that my own tribe could be seen as people chosen by God, yet I was not happy that they were seen as being unimportant in this country. So I said I would work to make them important; and I did it.
I also felt the white man presented the black man wrongly. I believed that given a chance, the black person would do better than the white man. That became almost like a religion to me. I pursued it, and within that context it also affected my politics, which became modified when I understood the interplay of togetherness.
I believed that Nigeria should stand tall but interface and interact with other nations of the world. That affected my politics as a student. I told myself very clearly that I was going to come back to Africa and serve my country. This affected and influenced my thoughts, actions, choice of associates and politics, and even religion. That is why I am what I am.
Source :Daily Trust
Yes, I used to be very vocal on national issues, including controversial ones; and I stood by them very firmly. You also noticed that of late I became a bit quiet. First of all, I think you should reward age. I think age has given me the benefit of reflecting deeper on prevailing situations. I am still the same person.
Secondly, most of my comments were political. That is why some of us founded the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) when they declared that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was basically a socio-cultural organisation. Though we remained in the ACF, we declared from the onset that the NEF was political, having observed how politics and governance were practised by people other than northerners. We felt that those of us from the North were shortchanged and sidelined. Our total commitment was to work within the constitution and in the best and highest tenets of partisan political activities to bring back the presidency to the North. We worked hard and we achieved what we wanted.
General Muhammadu Buhari is from the North, and his coming into power was in accord with our declared simple policy. Be believed that we could find a true Nigerian unity through the unity of the North. We wanted to demonstrate to the international community and Nigeria that if the North was united they would always be able to determine the leadership of this country. Our aim has been achieved; maybe that is the second reason why you are not hearing me too much.
Our son has practised for one year now; we are observing him and interacting with him. I think there’s no need to continue shouting in the streets, especially at my age.
Aside the farmers/herders crisis, we are also bedeviled by other issues that are threatening the unity of Nigeria. For instance, there is the resurgence of the Biafra agitation in the South-East while the Niger Delta militants are back in the creeks blowing pipelines…?
That is one of the reasons I am here. I am hoping desperately that I would have an appointment with Mr. President and expose these things to him. I am hesitant to go to the press because I am not looking for publicity. But I want to agree with you that these are real problems and the people who think they will mislead the president if he doesn’t do something positive and definite are lying. The problems could get worse when you don’t attend to them. They look very difficult, but when you start attending to them with sincerity, you can discover that there are solutions. As far as I am concerned, and I told my colleagues and friends like Professor Ben Nwabueze, that people who think they can realise Biafra are not being fair to Nigeria. The schisms producing the Biafranisation of Nigeria were thrashed out by the mistakes of our leaders, then on the battleground.
I get angry when I see adults who saw the civil war talk as if it was a joke. You slaughtered three million people who were your friends, and people are talking as if we just had a picnic. This is the biggest mistake they are making. We care about Nigeria and we don’t want to fight another civil war. However, we have not forgotten the sacrifice we made. I had my study truncated and came back to this country and joined the war effort. During the war, people from the Middle Belt, particularly the Tiv, recorded the greatest casualty. Generally, our people had no job, so the army was the only place they could go to. That was the fate of the Tiv. We were caricatured by the colonialists and the government of Nigeria who treated us like mercenaries. When there is crisis you know that the Tiv people are important, but when there is no crisis you forget about them. Across the states of Nigeria there are over 12million Tiv people. We dominate three states, yet when Nigeria sits to discuss in the cabinet, there won’t be any Tiv man there. It is not right. We sacrificed over 700,000 people during the civil war and somebody is talking about it as if it was a joke.
We won’t allow Nigeria to break up; we have settled that on the battlefield. When I hear people agitate for restructuring I remember the fact that we went to war to stop confederation, Biafranism and the balkanisation of Nigeria. We went to war to reject any form of government that would not give us the benefit of being the biggest nation-state in Africa. Those who describe Nigeria as a mere geographical expression are completely wrong. The future of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was bought with a lot of blood, so breakup will never happen.
Can you share your personal experience during the civil war?
There was also a psychological warfare. We almost lost the war, not on the battlefield but in propaganda. There was a very effective propaganda from General Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was the head of state of Biafra. He almost got the West to recognise him. In fact, France, which was very close to Israel, thought that Biafra was a very developed modern state being clobbered by primitive Muslims from a place called the North. They would draw the map of Biafra and include Makurdi and Gboko. And their gimmick was succeeding. I almost had acid thrown in my face when I tried to counter this in Ottawa, Montreal and New York. A woman spat in my face. I had to run because the propaganda was effective. Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church were collecting arms and sending to Biafra. While presenting a lecture in the US, Bishop Murray, who was in Makurdi, said he was in Biafra because Makurdi was drawn as part of Biafra.
The federal government had no response. I think I did my best. Because of the nature of my work, I effectively created the possibilities that there could be another true explanation of the conflict in Nigeria. I created doubts in the minds of the Canadian prime minister and some big people. I also advised General Gowon on a few things. And I think I was proved right. Nigeria is important, and if Nigeria is important, I should be important. That is the kind of Nigeria I want.
People have been expecting the selection of another Tor Tiv since the last one passed on, but that has not happened. As a prominent Tiv son, what do you think is really happening?
There are two ways of answering that question. The question belongs to the government because it is the same colonial provision that was used to select the Tor Tiv in 1946. I think the politicians and the colonialists followed them into granting this centralised chiefdom. When the British gave us this centralised chiefdom, to some extent they accepted some of our traditions and custom in the selection process. When the military came, beginning with Obademi, they changed it to something like a political selection. They appointed their own representatives. Later on they even took over the selection by making them secretaries of the tribes and things like that. Progressively, people whittled down the traditional and cultural aspects of the Tor Tiv.
Basically, we have a problem. And as I suggested to the state House of Assembly during their public hearing, the easiest way to solve that problem is to use the same section of the law which was used to appoint the first Tor Tiv, the second one, the third and the one in question. It is becoming a scandal because long after the Tor Tiv died, the Ooni of Ife died and the greatest historic traditionalist in Nigeria, the Oba of Benin died. Both of these traditional rulers have already been replaced, yet like you rightly observed, the Tiv have not appointed theirs. It has become a political thing. Tiv political leaders are funny people; they like to control events around them.
Suswam passed a law creating numerous chiefs. The implication of this is that the Tor Tiv would be a first class king among 11 others, and there is no money. Benue State is finding it difficult to pay salaries, so it has become difficult to continue with the traditional institution. The institution of the Tor Tiv has become a political hot cake of sorts; that’s what I think is delaying the appointment.
In those days, there was a cordial relationship between the Tiv and the Fulani, but it is no longer so. Having come from a background of Tiv and Fulani parentage, what do you think led to the unhealthy situation that obtains today?
It is a shame! For some strange reasons Nigeria looks at certain people that could really make a contribution and decide that they are not important. The reality confronting us is that the workable unity of Nigeria as a political system depends on the unity of the North. And the unity of the North depends on a clear, deliberate understanding and unification of ideas and partnership between the Tiv and Fulani people. I have been working for that unity all my life. I am a Tiv person and my mother was a Fulani woman, so I can tell you that there was so much friendship between Fulani people and the Tiv such that they were called brothers from the same parents. The Fulani pitched tents in Tiv villages, just on the outskirts. They would get yams from the Tiv people and bring milk (nono) and mar shanu (butter) and exchange for the roasted yams the Tiv people gave them. This led to some form of cohesiveness and good feeling for one another. If cattle wandered into a farm, they would sit down and resolve it amicably. Sometimes there could be payment of compensations in cash or kind. Also, the Fulani herdsmen would not deliberately go into a Tiv man’s farm. That way, there was a very good relationship between them.
I think the problem is that the population of the Fulani and their cattle has increased. We also have the effects of climate change, perhaps with the Sahel region moving downward. The Tiv population also increased and they started having their own cattle; hence there is pressure. The very rich ones even had small ranches and they employed Fulani boys. I think this created pastoral competition for space. The issue of grazing became a serious business and nobody did anything to resolve the problem until it reached the present proportion where the Fulani started attacking farmers and accusing them of cattle rustling, while the farmers accuse them of destroying their farms. There is lack of understanding, but I think there is something we can do about it.
Some of us are worried because politics has come into it. Politicians are fuelling the disagreements. I am already seeking audience with Mr. President because this thing has political and security implications. He should intervene in this case, just as he sent soldiers to assist in stopping cattle rustling in the far North. If there is no cooperation between the Tiv and Fulani there will be no unity in Nigeria. That is why people like me insist that there must be dialogue in the North. We must tell ourselves the truth and not look for whom to blame. The consequences of disunity will not be good for us and our children.
What have you done at the level of the Northern Elders Forum to address this matter?
This is the same basic question that Tiv people are posing. However, the tragedy about them is that they complain but they don’t do creative thinking. I think Nigeria is strong enough to listen to the truth. There will be more action if people are told the truth about what is actually happening.
The situation in Benue is very bad and we cannot allow it to continue. Believe me, one of the reasons I came to Abuja now is to see Mr. President and tell him that the situation in Benue is indeed bad. Large communities have run away from their farms, and they go to a town and hear the rumour that the next settlement is experiencing the same thing. It is time to tell the president the truth. A president of a country should be fed with correct intelligence; he should be given the gory facts. Or are people waiting to see if Tiv people would get frustrated and decide to go to war? I believe we can still bring back the trust that existed between the Fulani and the Tiv people.
What were those things that shaped your life in your youthful days?
Basically, let me say I have been shaped by three influences: my parenthood and their differential teaching and control at early age, my education, and what I wanted my country to be. Those three things shaped my young age, middle age, adult age activities and participation.
I am very proud to be a Tiv man. Very early in life, I found out that Tiv people were always shortchanged and misunderstood. As a child I felt that the colonialists didn’t treat them well. At independence I was a 25-year-old young man, and I discovered that the Nigerian government viewed the Tiv person the same way the colonialists did. They were viewed as riotous people; the white man said they were cannibals and warlike people, war mongers and stuffs like that. Our own evolving government ended up treating them like people that were troublesome and couldn’t be trusted.
In my activities, I attempted to show people that the Tiv were misunderstood. I volunteered to speak for the Tiv nation though my mother was Fulani. My grandfather, Mallam Umaru, was also a Fulani man from Kano, so I felt the underdog was a Tiv person. That became my cardinal point. When I started fighting for the North, a lot of people were very surprised because I was very critical of the northern establishment. I could have easily joined the northern ruling class if I wanted. I had the advantage of becoming a Fulani man from Kano and nobody would have done anything about it.
I was never in government except for a short time after the war, because of what I did. I won elections twice; everybody knew I won, but I was denied the opportunity by the operating system, which said I was too critical to take power. But government should be seen as an opportunity to do well.
Again, I was influenced by the two dominant religions in Nigeria. My grandfather was a Muslim; hence I was a Muslim when I was growing up, till the time my father came and took me from him at six years of age. Then I became a very devoted and convinced Christian. I found the Christian story very close to what the Tiv people looked to me, and when I studied them more, I came to the conclusion that they must have come from the land of Israel. I felt quite proud that my own tribe could be seen as people chosen by God, yet I was not happy that they were seen as being unimportant in this country. So I said I would work to make them important; and I did it.
I also felt the white man presented the black man wrongly. I believed that given a chance, the black person would do better than the white man. That became almost like a religion to me. I pursued it, and within that context it also affected my politics, which became modified when I understood the interplay of togetherness.
I believed that Nigeria should stand tall but interface and interact with other nations of the world. That affected my politics as a student. I told myself very clearly that I was going to come back to Africa and serve my country. This affected and influenced my thoughts, actions, choice of associates and politics, and even religion. That is why I am what I am.
Source :Daily Trust
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