The Eggons and ethnic politics in Nasarawa State

BY MUSA ZAKI

As part of efforts to curb insecurity in Nasarawa State, Governor Abdullahi Sule banned all forms of ethnic vigilante groups in the state, recently. He specifically mentioned Eggon Vigilante group, Bassa Vigilante group and Fulani Vigilante group as Vigilante groups affected by the ban.
Governor Sule took this decision following a security meeting held at Government House Lafia.
Following the ban, all Vigilante groups were directed to handover to the security agencies all weapons in their possession within two weeks.
Indeed one cannot help but commend Governor Sule for this decisive action. Ethnic vigilante groups are nothing but the military arm of these groups, which unleashes mayhem on their so-called enemies, both real and imaginary. The atrocities committed by these vigilante groups so far can only be imagined rather than described.
Trending news on our social media particularly in Nasarawa State, was none other than the stories of banditry and kidnappings committed
or aided by these so-called ethnic vigilante groups portraying Nasarawa as a lawless state.
One particular specie mentioned is Eggon ethnic vigilante, which goes by the name Ombatse. We in Nasarawa State cannot forget in a hurry the type of atrocities committed by the Ombatse militia, leading to the death of 150 security personnel at Alakyo as well as hundreds of ordinary civilians across the southern senatorial district.
Ombatse, which means our time has come’, is still in the minds of the Eggon ethnic group in Nasarawa State.
In the 2023 elections, we all witnessed how they went awry, insulting everybody, with some of them even saying they would send away anyone who is not an indigen of Nasarawa State. According to them Hausas, Fulanis, and Kanuris are not an indigenous tribes in Nasarawa State;- they claim that Hausas, Fulanis, and Kanursi are settlers. This is, in fact, very dangerous politics. The politics of indigenes and settlers is very awkward and capable of setting the whole state at war.
In Plateau State, it was this dangerous politics of indigenes and settlers that set the state on fire, such that hardly a year passes by without recording one form of ethnic conflict or the other claiming the lives of hundreds of people.
The fact of the matter remains that in contradiction to whatever claim they may desire to lay over lands and chiefdoms as it concerns Nasarawa State, the Eggons remain largely strangers and if so factor, settlers as corroborated by historical documents traced both to colonial and post-colonial sources.
According to these records, the Eggons were never an integral component of the administrative unit called Lafia Division then under Benue provinces which comprised precisely of Lafia Emirate, Doma district, Assakyo district and of course, Keana district. Going back to the pre-colonial era, the ethnic groups that established their independent Kingdoms were the Koro, Alago, Gwandara, Kanuri, Hausa/Fulani, in the 12th, 13th, 14th ,18th and 19th centuries respectfully.
It is a well-established fact that during the pre-colonial era, the ‘’Madan Dutse’’ (Eggons) were not part of the ethnic groups indigenous to this area. They were to be found only on top of the Wana hills, an independent territory totally unconnected to the above mentioned kingdoms.
Following the advent of the British Colonial rule, the then Nasarawa province was created, comprising the hitherto independent units of Doma, Keana, Lafia and Assakio constituted into the Lafia Emirate. During this period, the Eggons were still resisting the colonial administration.
By 1914, however, subsequent to their subjugation, the Eggons were constituted into independent Districts of Mada north, central and south with their headquarters at Wamba. Thus by the year 1914, the map of Nasarawa province clearly showed Lafia Emirate with its headquarters at Lafia as distinct from the independent district of Mada North, central and South, Mama and Nungu with its headquarters at Wamba.
This clearly demonstrates that before independence, Lafia Emirate as then constituted had no single settlement of Eggon tribe and of course, based on successive provincial annual reports, Eggons had never been listed among tribes existing in the old Lafia Division, now Lafia.
To further separate the people of Lafia Division, a provincial administration was created that excised the independent districts of Mada North, South, Mama and Nungu and integrated them into plateau province in 1929 while Lafia Emirate remains part and parcel of Benue province.
In a petition addressed to the Judicial Commission of enquiry appointed by the Umaru Tanko Al-makura administration to enquire into the immediate and remote causes of the outbreak of violence in Assakio of Lafia Local Government, an excerpt from a Colonial memo written to the Resident, Benue Province, in 1951 by D.L. Roberts who was the District Officer of Lafia Division to the effect that:
The earlier known inhabitants of Lafia Division were members of the Koro tribe who say they migrated here from near Kororofa (Adamawa province) “The next arrivals, which is said to be in the 15th century, were Alago.
“A number of Gwandara (a tribe who speak a primitive form of Hausa) settled among them.
“Beri Beri who had come from Borno via Kambari near Lau after two false starts at shabu and kwandara settled in 1777 under their Chief Dunama.”
Indeed, based on this colonial source, the memorandum submitted to the Judicial Commission concludes outrightly that the Eggons were not in any way indigenous to Lafia Division as it was then constituted under colonial rule.
In addition, further light is shaded concerning the circumstances under which the Eggons migrated into the former Lafia Division as reflected in a communication between the resident, former plateau province, and the resident former Benue province in a recent Memo No. D 48/31 dated 5th April, 1951 and a response No. 248 B/2 dated 15th April, 1951. In the Memo, the Resident Plateau Province, requested his Benue state counterpart for establishment of a Resettlement scheme in Lafia for the Eggons. In his response, the resident
Benue Province maintained that there was no need for such a scheme as the pattern of Eggon migration was largely based on individual house holders or in small parties as guest of such previously established occupiers. An excerpt from the memo reads:
“A considerable movement of population is taking place in the southern part of southern division where the Eggon people have for a number of years been moving out of the Wana Hills into the plains below.
Recently the Chief themselves have moved and it is likely that the rate of migration will now be greatly increased. In line with his submission and in response to the increased wave of Eggon migration into Lafia Division, the Late Emir of Lafia, Alhaji Yusuf Musa, in a bid to forestall friction ordered for a Land Tenancy Agreement called NOMANJIDA to be entered with Eggons under which they were allowed to come into the Area farm and move away with their produce and return on yearly basis provided they pay some royalty to the Emirate.”
The 2027 governorship battle in Nasarawa must be hinged on sound programmes of action, not on ethnicity or religion.
For the Eggon ethnic group to clinch the office of governor of Nasarawa State, they must build bridges across all the divides in the state. They must also stop believing that their votes alone can make a governor.