The Russo-Ukrainian war that began on February 24, 2022, has taken away attention from other issues of global and local importance. And this is not totally unexpected, given the anarchical bent of the contemporary international system and its thematic preoccupation with high voltage realpolitik and politicking around issues of balance of power, world order and international political economy. What is more, the claim that globalisation has made the world a global village is belied by the consignment of issues of the global south to the dustbin of the global hamlet.
The current communal conflict in Ikpayongo township and its environs in Benue State is a classic case. The conflict had originally begun as an inter-family feud in the last quarter of 2021. From this small beginning, it has undergone intense communal sedimentation in depth and reach that it has burst forth in flames of communal conflagration. No one is spared in this Dantean inferno, brother or sister, husband or wife, natives or non-natives, alike. The conflict has also undergone a baptismal metamorphosis. First, it was christened TseNor-Mbakough conflict; then rechristened Mbakume-Mbasombo conflict; and now Mbaivur-Mbasombo conflict. Each of these baptismal categories comes done with its panoply of conceptual nuances.
Where exactly is Ikpayongo? Ikpayongo is a suburb of Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State. It is about 20 minutes drive from Makurdi on the ever-busy Makurdi-Aliade-Otukpo-Enugu federal highway. It is one of the three major urban centres in Gwer-East Local Government Area and by far the most commercially prosperous, demographically mobile and culturally cosmopolitan amongst its peers; partly on account of its contiguous neighborhood to the state capital and the warmness and hospitality of its people. The Ikpayongo market, which falls every four days is arguably the biggest Akpu and groundnut market in Nigeria. It draws in marketers from far afield as Enugu, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Warri, Lagos in the south; Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto in the north. Ikpayongo, is, therefore, not only commercially strategic to the Benue economy; it is crucially central in the political economy calculations of Nigeria.
Ikpayongo and its environs are blessed with vast swatches of arable land that have been major sources of support to successive governmental agricultural development policies. It is rich in flora and fauna, rich in vegetation; indeed, it has an awesomely magnificent botanical heritage that has been central to Tiv’s medicinal practice. In times when the gains and value of traditional medicine are increasingly being rolled away because of ecological genocide, the importance of this botanical heritage can hardly be gainsaid. At a personal level, Ikpayongo is at the centre of my intellectual imagination. Let me illustrate this point with an instance.
In 2012, I undertook an anthropological study of the Tiv market system with the view of understanding the Tiv people’s notion and social construction of space, power and knowledge in their markets. Ikpayongo market served as both my theoretical and cultural laboratory. I also used the opportunity to analyse the place of mentally challenged persons in traditional Tiv market settings. Mentally challenged persons that inhabit Tiv market squares and their environs are historically reputed to possess proverbial prowess; and lately, this has been a theme that is the stuff of some contemporary Tiv fiction. Ikpayongo gives me that serenity of spirit and tranquility of thought that underscores my intellectual productions.
Like me, like others, all these amenities that make Ikpayongo the go-to area for social and economic repair, for intellectual and cultural conviviality, and for communal camaraderie are cast in a dark pall. Ikpayongo must be rescued from the hands of the multitude of blood-baying barbarians that have amassed in their legions at its city-gate. TseNor, Mbakough, Mbasombo, Mbaivur, and all the disputants in this conflict are one and the same and are all sired from the Yonov family tree. It is time to let bygones be bygones and return to the old ways of doing things and collectively drinking from one communal calabash without let or hindrance. Peace is the most central and critical pillar that supports the development of any society.
We commend the timely intervention of the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom and all the attempts and measures he has put in place to put paid to the conflict; the state Security Adviser, Col. Paul Hemba (retd); and the Benue State Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass. The Benue State government must double efforts, especially in her peace building and community diplomacy strategies so that warring combatants will sheath their swords and all displaced persons return to their deserted abodes.
Finally, I will appeal to the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, to award a contract for the construction of the Ikpayongo-Mbakaha-Mbaazu-Ikpaagure road. This is an old road that Catholic missionaries had as far back as the early 1940’s trod to go and open the Saint John’s Catholic Primary School, Pine. My late father, Cornelius Pine, graduated from this school in 1949. This road was surveyed, I guess, sometimes in 2014 and till date nothing has been done about it. Governor Samuel Ortom should gift the people this road as his parting gift in 2023. Even though the Mbaivur people have two gigantic council wards and are numerically sizeable, there is no tarred road that cuts through and links them to civilisation. Opening up this road to vehicular and human traffic would in considerable measure speed-up the development process within Ikpayongo and its environs.
Atah Pine writes from Ikpayongo, Benue State
