The Eggons represents in terms of demography, the most widely spread ethnic group in Nasarawa State, a phenomenon which also forms the basis of an existing notion shared not only amongst them but by also a reasonable percentage of members of other ethnic groups, that they (the Eggons) also constitute a preponderant percentage of the almost Three Million total population of the state. Though Nasarawa Eggon Local Government constitutes their largest single settlement, pockets of Eggon tribe are located in almost all the remaining twelve Local Governments in varying proportions.
This peculiar dispersement in terms of population settlement that defines the Eggon tribe vis-visa other ethnic groupings in Nasarawa State, derives largely from two factors: their relatively late arrival and settlement in the state as well as their major pre occupation, which is agriculture; all of which dictate that they keep, on perpetual basis, grabbing additional lands in response to population explosion and challenges related to agricultural production.
The implications of these two factors suggest that in a bid to continuously push for additional lands, the Eggons would eventually and inevitably come into confrontation with other ethnic groups whose legitimate lands they might be attempting to encroach. This means that from the word go, there already exists potential seed of discord between the Eggons on one hand and their neighboring tribes on the other.
Yet, another dimension to the ethnic equation in Nasarawa State, is the relative advantage the Eggons enjoy in terms of western education which dictates that, first, they dominate the state civil service structure and that, second, they also dominate in each local government where they resides, the Local Government service most especially at the middle and lower cadres.
It was, of course, majorly in response to this phenomenon that in the year 2000 the administration of the former governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, enacted a law that restricted civil servants under the employment of the Local Government Service Board, strictly to the confines of their various indigenous Local Governments. This in effect, implied that all the Eggons, who were serving in local governments other than their own i.e. Nasarawa Eggon Local Government, had to be redeployed to their original Local Government Service. This initiative which the Abdullahi Adamu led administration had seized, of course, profoundly and negatively impacted the Eggons ethnic extraction; as their Local Government Service became heavily over bloated, leading to a massive retrenchment exercise which has remain to date a cause for bitter resentment amongst members of the tribe.
As with the issue of state and Local government services, where the Eggons had once enjoyed a position of relative hegemony and later suffered a serious setback, so was also the issue of land ownership and related matters which has remain a recurring decimal in defining the relationship between the Eggon Nation, on one hand and the remaining ethnic groupings constituting Nasarawa State on the other. In a bid to secure a solid and adequate settlement for itself and keep on expanding relentlessly in almost all directions, majorly in response to the dictates of agricultural production, which to date remains the major preoccupation of the preponderant majority of its natives, the Eggons have inexorably and inevitably driven themselves into perpetual conflict with about every other ethnic group one can imagine.
These were the circumstances which obviously propelled the Eggons political and business elites to consider as strategic acquisition of political power as a necessary precondition for pushing through its agenda. It informed largely, the conception as well as execution of the OMBATSE Campaign that swept like a wild fire, across the various communities in Nasarawa state, claiming thousands of innocent lives and destroying inestimable quantum of property, besides the tremendous pains and psychological trauma it inflicted on almost every soul in the state.
However, realizing the crudity, unviability and unsustainability of deployment of force as an option in its overall political strategy to achieve power as a means to an end, the Eggon Nation ruling class, apparently, leveraging on its alleged demographic superiority, decided to change tactics as exemplified in its sponsorship of a credible candidate in both the 2019 and 2023 governorship elections albeit without success.
The Eggons narrative in Nasarawa state is in more ways than one analogous to and of course, reminiscent of the challenges confronted by the Igbo ethnic group in the wider context of Nigerian polity and how they (the Indigbo) allegedly responded violently to such specific structures and institutions as federalism and quota system, which in view of their relative educational and economic advantage they construed as constituting a veritable hindrance to their collective progress within the context of the Nigerian nation-state. The Igbo’s reaction to the status-quo then was what many believed led to the 1966 military coup and the subsequent chain of violence tanta mounting to a state of interregnum which accompanied it. The promulgation of the decree No. 2 by the Ironsi administration, immediately upon assumption of power, which abolished the federal system of government then in place and its replacement by a unitary system no doubt lend more credence to this assertion.
Now given the existing state of affairs, it seems the most contemporary and relevant issue confronting Nasarawa state revolves around how to decisively address the challenge of intermittent or rather perennial circle of inter-ethnic violence centered around the Eggon tribe on one hand and the remaining ethnic groups on the other. Indeed it remains to be seen whether the Eggon tribe will, based on its bitter experience concerning the futility of violence as a mechanism for conflict resolution, wisely retrace its steps or will persist to a point where it will, for certain, constitute itself into a veritable existential threat that needs to be contained by all means neccessary.
The issue of whether the Eggons have learnt their lesson and are currently poised to dance to the dictates of reality is of overriding significance, judging from a document which surfaced admit the 2023 governorship election and the protracted legal litigation that trailed it. Excerpts from the document which allegedly emanated from the Eggon think tank speaks coherently about what seems to be a grand design to not only rewrite history but also redefine the existing status-quo through creation of an Eggon chiefdom in each of the thirteen Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State; a scheme that apparently and perfectly tallies with the overall agenda of the Eggon Nation.
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 ifso factor, settlers as corroborated by historical documents traced both to colonial and post-colonial sources.
According to these records, the Eggons were never an intergral 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 of the hitherto independent units of Doma, Keana, lafia and Assakio constituted into 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.
BY AMINU IBRAHIM
