By Patrick Anum
The early 50s, produced one of the greatest generations of Middle Beltan nationalists Nigeria had ever seen. The likes of Joseph Tarka, Akase Dowgo, David Lot, Patrick Dokotri, Solomon Lar and D. Dimka
They championed the cause of the ethnic minorities in the Middle Belt. The earliest Middle Beltan struggle lead to rise in the consciousness of the Middle belt people and subsequently led to the creation of the Benue-Plateau State which captured areas in the Middle Belt although excluding major areas that fall outside the North central to this day
At the time, the Northern Regional Government defined the Middle Belt region in terms of its geography as
“The whole of Ilorin, Kabba, Benue and Plateau Provinces, the Southern parts of Bauchi and Zaria Provinces, the whole of Niger Province except for the area north of Kontagora town and the whole of the Numan Division of Adamawa Province together with the districts of Muri and Wurkun in the Muri division of the same province.
It was an attempt to detach themselves from the core North that led to these early agitations. Decades later, ideologies and motives that led to the formation of the (Action Group -UMBC Alliance) would be at play in the 2023 Presidential elections where there seems to be a common ground between parts of the South South, South East, Middle Belt and even parts of the South West (despite the popularity of the All Progressives Congress in the region) regarding the candidature of the Labour Party Presidential candidate Peter Obi.
However, before the Peter Obi movement became wide spread, there was another movement calling for reform of the Nigerian police called EndSARS.
EndSARS was a largely decentralized movement calling for the reform of a unit of the Nigerian police force known as the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) with a long record of abuse of Nigerian citizens mostly occurring in the Southern parts of the country.
Despite the Middle Belt regions not having that lived experience of Endsars, large parts of the Middle Belt, most notably Benue, Nassarawa, Taraba, Plateau and parts of Southern Kaduna all came out in large numbers in solidary protests along side their counterparts from Southern Nigeria. This was the first notable instance of Middle Belt – Southern Solidary in the 4th Republic.
The earliest case of Southern/Middle Belt alliance was in the first republic was in 1958, when the Middle Belt movement found solid ground in a political alliance between the UMBC (United Middle Belt Congress) led by Joseph Tarkaa and the Action Group (AG) led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the dominant party in the Western region of Nigeria’s Southern province.
Scholarly analysis of the coalition between the two groups by Andrew Barnes was that both of these groups came together because of their shared a similar ideology at the time. At the time, the Middle Belt pre occupied itself with creating an identity for themselves away from the North. It was said that the AG offered them the perfect ideological platform/coalition to develop their ideologies, culture and goals in the first republic.
The UMBCs goal were in 3 fold. (i) To fight against political domination and systematic exploitation of the peoples of the Middle Belt in the old Northern region (ii) To fight against forced Islamization of the entire peoples of the Middle Belt due to Ahmadu Bellos forced conversion policies at the time (iii)To stop socio-economic discrimination of the peoples of the Middle belt.
It is ironic that this time again, the peoples of the Middle Belt and South would align to fight the infamous “Muslim-Muslim” ticket, similar to what the peoples of the Middle belt fought against in the 50s which was Ahmadu Bello’s forced conversion campaigns.
On the successes of the UMBC, they would later go on to clinch seats in the federal elections making them a stakeholder at national politics.
The second case of Southern and Middle Belt alliance would be in the second Republic when the Late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwes party Nigeria’s Peoples Party won in Plateau State (Now Plateau and Nasarawa States) in the 1979 election beating the eventual winner Shehu Shagari of the NPN, National Party of Nigeria.
Although Obafemi Awolowo, who also came Second in the election did not win any state in the region, he got a decent 21% in the old Gongola States (Now Adamawa and Taraba States)
Fastforward to the start of the 4th republic in 1999 and there were no clear signs of the alliance because of the two party dominant nature till the year 2020 – after a video went viral of a man allegedly being killed by the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars), sparking what became known as the #EndSars demonstrations where tens of thousands of young Nigerians took to the streets to protest against police brutality after a video from the Southern part and the Middle belt.
The demonstrations rocked the country for two weeks – and led to the government agreeing to disband Sars and set up judicial panels of inquiry to investigate the widespread allegations of abuse by officers.
The government ordered each of Nigeria’s 36 states, along with the capital, to look into the abuses. Seven states did not comply – Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara – and there were no protests in these parts and other regions of the core North to the fury of people from the South.
On the other hand, youths in the Middle belt organized protests, Notably in Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Nassarawa and Southern Kaduna. Infact these caught the attention of the govenrments in their states and increased pressure on the central government.
In Jalingo, Taraba State, Kenneth Jande who was one of the leaders organizing the protests in the Middle Belt spoke to Sahara reporters where he advocated for thorough reforms from the police to address the security issues rather than a change of nomenclature from the Special Anti Robbery Squad to Special Weapons and Tactics team as the Nigerian police had attempted to do at the time.
Another Middle Belt protestor in Benue Ukan Kurkugh told Vanguard that in solidary with the youths in other parts of the country, they in the region had declared to have the police disbanded and to have police reformed to ensure security of lives and property.
These examples and many more were part of events in the Middle Belt.
Scenes like this brought to mind the UMBC (United Middle Belt Movement) in the 50s with a young Joseph Tarkaa who was just 25 years old at the time of being elected leader of the party in 1957 and leading the historic merger and fight for the peoples of the Middle Belt.
Seeing so many young people from the Middle belt advocating for their interests and debating about the possiblity to demand for more changes in their region brought those memories from reading those books on the struggle of Middle Belt leaders in the 40/50s
These scenes would morph as the 2023 elections drew nearer. The EndSARS generation of young Nigerians would play a big role in promoting the candidature of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour party in Nigeria as well as him being seen as renewed hope for the “Sorosoke” generation (a yoruba word meaning to speak up).
Peter Obi would be projected to win most States of the Middle Belt such as Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Nassarawa and the FCT. He is also piped to win 25% in other parts of the Middle Belt like Gombe, Adamawa States, Kogi and Kwara.
Youths in the Middle Belt are mobilizing and going into their communities to support Peter Obi using their own resources.
There are many office spaces that have been rented and mobilization has begun in all the aforementioned areas.
The question that will be answered in the coming months is if this is the beginning of a continuous alliance between both groups and if future movements can demand for the much needed restructuring, resource control, autonomy for each region and land reform especially for the Middle Belt in the spate of land grabbing issues and genocide happening in the region
