Our attention has been drawn to the press statement on the above caption issued today, Monday.., By the President General, Tiv Integrated Vision (TIV), Gbaden Atsu. AIGDU’s position on Yelwata being an Alago village in Nasarawa State is still unchanged based on historical, geographical, and legal evidences which are stronger than the TIV rebuttal.
1.Misrepresentation of Geographic Boundaries:
The first flaw in Mr. Atsu’s statement is the conflation of administrative location with ethnic ownership.Yelwata’s present-day official location is within Keana Local Government Area of Nasarawa State—a fact confirmed by the Nigerian constitution, state boundary demarcations, and INEC electoral maps.The colonial-era "Munchi Province" classification he referenced was not a permanent political boundary, but a loose administrative grouping for census convenience, often cutting across today’s state lines. It was dissolved in later administrative reorganisations, and its boundaries were never meant to determine modern-day land ownership.
2. Selective and Misapplied Colonial Records: The 1931 Colonial Census did not confer land ownership; it merely counted populations in zones defined for colonial administrative ease.The absence of “Alago” in certain records does not mean they were absent from the area. Many smaller or politically less dominant groups were recorded under larger regional or political entities, such as the Kwararafa confederation.Alago presence in the Yelwata axis predates colonial mapping. Oral histories and archaeological evidence show Alago settlements and trading posts in the area long before large Tiv migrations into the Benue-Nasarawa corridor in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
3. Historical Oversight Regarding Migration:
The Tiv are themselves migrants into the Benue Valley, arriving in waves from the south-east (Cameroon region) and displacing or assimilating earlier groups like the Udam, Jukun, and Alago.Multiple scholarly works—such as by M.C. Onwuejeogwu and R. N. N. Naanen—note that the Tiv pushed westward into what is now Keana LGA, establishing farming enclaves in areas previously under the political influence of Alago rulers.
The naming of a colonial “Munchi Province” after the Tiv only reflects the British administrative convenience, not primordial ownership or original settlement.
4. Dismissal of the Kwararafa Confederacy:
Mr. Atsu’s statement that the Kwararafa Kingdom “did not exist” is historically indefensible.
The Kwararafa polity is well-documented by early European explorers, Arab chroniclers, and oral traditions of Jukun, Alago, and even Tiv neighbours.Scholars like C.K. Meek, H.R. Palmer, and later Prof. Mahmud Modibbo Tukur record the Kwararafa confederation as an alliance of central Nigerian ethnic groups, including the Alago, which controlled territories extending into present-day Nasarawa and Benue.
5. Legal and Political Realities: Modern Nigerian law and administrative demarcations clearly place Yelwata in Keana LGA, Nasarawa State. This overrides colonial-era census demarcations or traditional claims.
Tiv political participation in Nasarawa does not make them the original owners of certain communities; it simply reflects settler integration under the cosmopolitan Alago people in democratic structures.
Land ownership and indigeneship are not determined by how long a group has farmed in an area, but by historical claims recognised by both tradition and legal instruments.
6. Misinterpretation of Tragedy as Proof of Jurisdiction:
The condolence visits by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and Nasarawa officials to Benue leaders after the condemnable killings in Yelwata were acts of political diplomacy and condolence, not legal affirmations that Yelwata belongs to Benue.
Such visits often cross state boundaries when lives are lost, and do not in any way redraw territorial lines.
7. Omission of Key Archival Counter-Evidence:
The AIGDU’s claim that Yelwata is an Alago village in Nasarawa is supported by:Pre-1914 Northern Nigeria Gazetteer entries showing Alago settlements stretching north of the Benue River, including parts of what is today Yelwata.Keana’s pre-colonial authority under the Osana, extended the present northbank of the Benue River before Tiv migration altered the demographic balance.Boundary Commission findings in past inter-state disputes affirmed Keana LGA’s current reach.
8. Inflated Authority of the Tiv Traditional Council:
While the Tiv Traditional Council (TTC) is the custodian of Tiv culture, it has no jurisdiction to determine the historical ownership of territories in Nasarawa State.
Questions of inter-ethnic land claims require neutral, scholarly, and legal arbitration, not unilateral declarations from an interested ethnic leader or body.
Conclusion:
The TIV President’s rebuttal rests heavily on colonial census categorisation, selective interpretation of migration history, and administrative nomenclature, while ignoring modern legal boundaries, pre-Tiv Alago settlement records, and archaeological-historical consensus on the Kwararafa legacy.
The weight of historical, legal, and geographical evidence supports AIGDU’s position: Yelwata is historically an Alago village within Keana LGA, Nasarawa State—Tiv presence there, though significant today, is a product of later migration and settlement.
