Not All Tiv People Are From Benue State — The Majority of Tiv People Are Not From Benue State

Not All Tiv People Are From Benue State — The Majority of Tiv People Are Not From Benue State

The phrase “Tiv from Benue State” has been promoted over the years to limit Tiv people to Benue State in order to discriminate against them and chase them out of other states in the Middle Belt.

BENUE VALLEY IS NOT ONLY BENUE STATE!

From available data collected during the documentation of “The Battle of Karagbe: The Forbidden History,” at least 70% of the entire Tiv population are not indigenes of Benue State, but of other states such as Taraba, Nasarawa, Cross River, Plateau, Adamawa, Abuja, Cameroon and others.

“Tiv from Benue” is propaganda cooked up by Northern elites and supported by the British-controlled Federal Government of Nigeria to break the wings of a tribe that stood in their way.

According to “The Battle of Karagbe,” it all started in 1914 when the British government forcefully amalgamated Nigeria without the consent of the people who occupied the largest part of the country — the Middle Belt. Together with their neighbors in present-day Central Nigeria (the Middle Belt), the Tiv people revolted and proceeded to demand either independence or recognition as an independent region.

Many tribes were not happy with the British arrangement of “Southern” and “Northern” Nigeria. This led to nationwide protests and struggles for independence by different tribes and regions.

The Biafrans succeeded and were recognized as Eastern Nigeria (South East). The Niger Delta, whose oil drove the independence negotiations, also succeeded and obtained recognition as South–South. The Yoruba, who initially represented Southern Nigeria, were granted recognition as the South West region.

However, when it was time for the Middle Belt to be recognized as an independent region, the British-controlled Nigerian government panicked.

The Fulanis, whom the British used to control Nigeria, could not allow this for several reasons:

1. Removing the Middle Belt and recognizing it as a region would make Northern Nigeria smaller and politically weakened. Much of the population credited to the North actually comes from the Middle Belt.
2. Recognition of the Middle Belt would make future separation easier if the people decided to demand an independent republic like Biafra, Oduduwa, or Arewa.

For these reasons, the British-controlled Nigerian government, led by Fulani elites, decided to abandon the regional structure and create states instead.

Gongola and Benue-Plateau states were then created to represent the people of the Middle Belt. However, the Tiv — who led the resistance against European invasions on several occasions from 1450–1900 — were the dominant tribe in both Gongola and Benue-Plateau states. These states were therefore seen as “the Middle Belt” under a new name.

More states were later created to separate tribes and create competition among them, because the Tiv people remained the single largest tribe in Gongola and Benue-Plateau. Even after these states were split, the Tiv continued to be the majority in most of Central Nigeria, which posed a greater political risk if Tiv communities across the states decided to unite.

To counter this, tribal conflicts and rivalries were encouraged in several Middle Belt states. For example, the Jukun sought control of a state, so the Fulani-controlled government offered them Taraba State. However, the Tiv population in Taraba was larger than that of the Jukun. The same was true in Nasarawa and other neighboring states.

The Tiv remained the largest ethnic group in many of these states despite all efforts to divide them. Even the “Northern” label was forced on the region to give political supremacy to Fulani elites, but reality remained unchanged — the Tiv continued to be the single largest tribe across several Middle Belt states.

This led to the creation and promotion of the phrase “Tiv from Benue” to deprive Tiv people of recognition as indigenes of other states.
Today, the Tiv remain the single largest indigenous ethnic group in Taraba, Nasarawa, and Benue States, with significant populations in Cross River, Plateau, Adamawa, Kogi, and the FCT.

Why do the Tiv remain the single largest indigenous ethnic group in the Middle Belt despite repeated attempts to erase them?

According to Ortamen Ayem Fela in The Battle of Karagbe: The Forbidden History, this is because the Tiv have lived in these areas since 6000 BC, when they discovered the head of Ifi i Karagbe — now known as River Benue — in Garoua. The Tiv traced the river to the confluence in present-day Lokoja and decided to settle on both sides of the river, spreading into present-day western Cameroon and Cross River State.

Read “The Battle Of Karagbe: The Forbidden History” To uncover the true and undiluted history of the Tiv people.