Intellectuals, ideologues and critical observers of the Idoma identity are scheduled to converge at Otukpo in Benue State for a crucial exercise in re-imagining of the cultural group. “In the constant re-drawing of the social and political maps of Nigeria, and the realignments consequent upon such shifts, it is ever more than urgent that the Idoma must constantly re-imagine itself so that it is not further marginalized in view of its being one of the so-called minority groups in the country”, said Professor Edward Abah of the Department of English of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria who signed the invitation circulating massively.
Chief Audu Ogbeh, the ageing Philosopher and orator
AVM Monday Morgan leading the case for Idoma governorship of Benue State, come 2023
It suggests that the conference is a high brow intellectual exercise beyond taken for granted meaning. It could not be confirmed before press time which specific intellectual heavyweights might have been lined up to attend and participate in the exercise.
This stands to be corrected but in the maiden conference in 2008, Prof Isawa Elaigwu, the ex-University of Jos Political Scientist gave the keynote address to an audience made of bigwigs such as former Chief of Air Staff, Brigadier-General Emmanuel Ebije Ikwue, Senator David Mark, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Senator Okpeh and a host of others.
This time, attendees would be stretching from the traditional institution, politicians, youth groups, women, scholars and academics as well as Idoma kith and kin from all the facets of Nigeria “as we all come together to converse and interrogate issues that concern us as a people both now and in the future”. Again, reference to kith and kin can hardly mean more than the Idoma in ‘Diaspora’ such as the Ette people in Enugu State, the Yalla people in Cross Rivers State, the Doma and Keana people in Nasarawa State and perhaps one or two more of such cases.
The conversation which is a sequel to the maiden edition in 2008 is holding from October 27th to 30th, 2021 and would be featuring issues of governance, education, the ‘Idoma Diaspora’, among other such issues in ordination and subordination, (imeli in the language) vis-à-vis Idoma in Nigerian politics.
The Idoma Forum, Zaria – the masterminds of the exercise – is saying it is all about three key objectives identified as follows:
- To facilitate a sense of identity of purpose and unity amongst the Idoma by identifying the imperatives and core elements that we possess as people.
- To tease out and construct a philosophical and pragmatic backcloth that helps us as a people to apprehend the notion of the Idoma past, history and cultural traditions in the face of a complex and continuously modernizing Nigeria and world.
- To painstaking interrogate, the overriding cultural, social, political and economic variables that daily and perennially impinge and influence on the Idoma identity and nation.
Issues for critical attention by paper presenters at the coming conference. The proceedings of the 2008 version is now a book
Set to go from Ojapo before 10 am on Sunday, Sept 26th, 2021. It is understood that no less than 14 of these leave daily from here
The conversation is coming at a time of severe, multiple tensions across Idomaland even as it counts its blessings here and there. Idomaland reckons with itself as the experimental ground for the current spaces of generalised insecurity when Agatu erupted in violence in early 2016. The Agatu area is a vast, super rich agricultural stretch being the bank of the River Benue and the question is whether such a vital resource will be taken away from those who live and till the land in an era of militant identity politics unrestrained by a unifying national figure. Similarly, this conference is coming at a time the Idoma is playing host to a specialized federal university – the Federal University of Health Sciences at Otukpo but the silent fear is whether the Idoma elite has got a blueprint for leveraging on being the host to raise the bar so that the university does not turn out to be another typical Nigerian university befuddled by excessive political considerations rather than research.
A third point of tension and progress is an emerging collective sensibility that power should, come 2023, shift from the Tiv ethnic group to an Idoma politician in terms of the Office of the Governor of Benue State which has not been held by the former. Again, the question is where is the Idoma politician whose tenure will raise the standards in a manner that cannot be reversed? Would it be Chief Steven Lawani or Engineer Benson Abounu, (the incumbent Dep-Gov to Gov Samuel Ortom) or Senator Abba Moro or Dr. Sam Odeh or some dark horse still in hiding?
The last of the list would be what some observers call the transition from the Yam to the Cassava Economy in Idomaland. How far the Cassava Economy claim is true of all parts of Idomaland is still open to debate but there is no argument that cassava has succeeded yam as the king of the crops. There has, for example, been a massive expansion of new buildings in all the communities across Idomaland, more than 75% of which comes from cassava.
It would not be unreasonable to say that this is truer for Edemoga District, with Ugbokolo and Ojapo markets in the upper and lower parts of the district than, say, Otukpo, Ugboju, Adoka, Utonkon, Igumale, Otukpa but whatever differences might not be more than a matter of details. The question is whether this is a good or negative development or combines each of the two extremes? If it is a good development, how might it be consolidated? If it is a more negative development, who has a model of how to change it to something less physically backbreaking? None of the politicians appear to have put a model on the table. Meanwhile, the processing of the cassava into garri before middlemen come to pick them up for the big cities is a backbreaking process.
The theme of the conference – “Idoma: Changing Times and Cultures” – appears fully mindful of these four key areas of positive and negative tensions. And even ‘smaller’ ones such as splits right down to clans and kindreds, collapse of education and criminality/cultism. It would be thus interesting to see what comes out of the conference.
The Idoma as a minority ethnic group in central Nigeria has remained a paradox. Accepted and respected across Nigeria and with a remarkable history of federal presence – from service chiefs to the Presidency of the Senate to national leadership of big national parties to commanding presence in the military, media, academia, business and music. Yet, there is nearly nothing at home in developmental terms corresponding to that acceptability and presence. Otukpo which is the cultural headquarters is still an unplanned dust bowel, with a General Hospital without a generating set for the morgue! Would this conference find the answer(s)?
