THE ILLOGICALITY OF ALAGO ASSERTION THAT THE TIV ARE A SETTER COLONY IN NASARAWA STATE

By Edward Akure.

I set out to correct the following wrong insinuations by by our Alago neighbours:

1. That the The Tiv are later or latest arrivals on the plains of Benue; and
2. That they are our hosts.
   First, earliest writers on Tiv including K.M. Buchanan & J.C. Pugh; P&L Bohannan; Akiga Said etc all clearly point to the fact that the Tiv started arriving the plains of Benue as early as early 18th century (i.e 1700-1799) and finished arriving within that century.
   Also, all these writers agree unanimously that at the time of Tiv arrival, the famous Kwarrafa kingdom was already in disarray having been overrun by other States and empires. The components tribes were all scattered to different places.
   On arrival, the Tiv simply occupied expanse of lands that had never been occupied, and history has it that some of these Kwarrarafa stock started started coming to settle side by side with the much more numerous Tiv with the hope of being safeguarded by the Tiv. And the Tiv are said to have always lived up to their expectations as on a number of times, they were said to have risen to rescue their Alago neighbours. The case of the Alago of Keana and the Kanuris (Kambari) in 19th Century is one case in point. The Tiv became bounded all such Kwarrarafa stock like the Chamba to the northeast; Udam (Ugoja) to the South; Alago/ Korro to the North; and the Idomas to the South-west. None of these groups can be said to be the host of the Tiv as known of them decided where and how the Tiv would settle and where and how they would not. These groups all settled in their nucleated clusters, strictly minding their businesses and even avoiding having any thing to do with the Tiv, probably out fear. We need to note that this was not the era of land cultivation, so there was actually no mad need for land claimng or grabing; it was the era of hunting and gathering.
   Talking about boundaries, there were no marked boundaries until the white men arrived the scene in the 19th century (100yrs after Tiv arrival). On arrival, the Colonialists started demarcating areas for ease of administration. These boundaries were never based on tribal lineages as different tribes were at various times, merged, separated and remerged at different times to suite the colonialist’s purposes, and they did this alignments and realignments without even seeking the opinion or consent of these groups. This alignments of the different tribes by the colonialists ultimately culminated to merging different hitherto independent states, empires and kingdoms in 1914 to form what’s today known Nigeria (Niger Area)
   For a group to wake up from a dreaming sleep and begin to lay claim to unspecified expanse of land out side their own immediate surrounding is to say the least, laughable. The earlier every one realises that no one sprouted out of any particular ground, the better.
   —-Edward Akure writes from Akwanga, Nas. State.