More on the history of the Igede people of Benue....

According to oral tradition, the Igede people are said to have migrated from somewhere around the Niger Delta. They live in their present location in Oju and Obi Local Government Areas of Benue State. The Igede is one of the ethnic nationalities that make up the Middle Belt of Nigeria. The other ethnic nationalities include Idoma, Igala, Etulo, Tiv, Rindere, Ngas, Eggon, Zagon Katarf, Alogo, Berom, Mada, Izere, Ibira, among others.

Igede Agba masquerade The Igede people share common boundaries with the Idoma, Tiv, the Ogoja people of Cross River State and the Izzis of Anambra State. The Igede people are predominantly farmers.

Traditional institution The traditional head of the Igede people used to be called Ad’Utuuntil the passing of Chief Ikande Idikwu. After his death, there was crisis over the succession to the throne. At a point, state government, as of restoring peace in the land and temporarily solve the dispute over the seat, created the Ad’Oju and Ad’Obichieftaincy stools. These stools are neither classified as First Class nor Second Class, but the occupants merely assist the Och’Idoma, who is the paramount ruler of all Idoma people, including the Igede. Currently, Augustine Egbere Ogbu is the Ad’Oju, while the Ad’Obi is Chief Cyril Okwute. However, there is an ongoing agitation for a First Class Igede Chieftaincy stool and the people are gearing up to mount pressure on the incoming state administration for the upgrading of Igede chieftaincy stool to a First Class Chief.

New Yam Festival Like the Igbo, Igede people celebrate the annual New Yam festival, called Igede Agba. For its significance, Igede Agba is a cultural event, which comes up every first week of September. It marks the end of one planting season, when the people in very rich cultural displaying activities, give thanks to the gods for good harvest, and welcome a new planting season. Traditional dancing and masquerades are also featured to add cultural value to the festival and every Igede son and daughter takes part in this ceremony. Burials One notable aspect of the people’s tradition strongly held onto this day has to do with the burial of indigenes’ corpses in a special forest. Corpses of people who are killed in accidents or during a war are regarded as special and are never buried anywhere near the home, but in an evil forest. After or before burial of such a corpse, certain rites are performed to appease the gods of the ancestors. People of questionable characters are also buries in the evil forest. Warding off witches and wizards Igede people have what is called the Akpan. It is a kind of men’s society, ostensibly organised culturally to ward off witches and wizards from their homes. Before a new yam is deemed to have matured for harvest or ever eaten, members of the Akpansociety must first perform their rites. Until that is done, any one or family who prematurely harvests or eats the new yam or buys it from another tribe’s market and brings it home, is deemed to have committed a taboo and is usually made to pay the fine of a goat, and such items. Failure to pay the fines attracts indescribable sorts of sickness and misfortune upon the offenders.

Marriage The Igede people practice both traditional and church wedding. Sometimes, traditional marriage supersedes in cases when couples are not rich enough to afford the luxury of white wedding. Thus, traditional marriage is essentials. The process can begin either when a male child, who feels he is mature for marriage, sites a girl or woman he likes. The process can also begin when the man’s father or any of their relatives, friends, or neither think they have found a young woman they like for the man to take home as wife. If the man likes the girl, his parents immediately go formally with kolanuts to the girl’s parents to seek their child’s hands in marriage. If the girl consents to it, negotiation as to the bride price to be paid is made. In Igede, once the bride price is named and agreed to by the suitor, marriage preparations follows. It does not matter whether bride price is completely paid at or not paid at all, the couple are allowed to go ahead and get married and the suitor has the leeway under the tradition. Interview with Chief Ode Ochi The Chairman of the Middle Belt Traditional Council (MBTC) in the South West Nigeria, Amb. Ochi Emmanuel Ode, the Ojikpururu 1 of Ibilla, Oju, Benue State, is a prominent Igede man. From his base in Lagos, he oversees the affairs of people of Middle Belt in the South West states. An Igede High Chief, he holds the people’s customs and tradition in high esteem, as he shows in this encounter with this reporter.

On core values Ochi Ode said: “Igede as a people, their core value is integrity. Igede is the third ethnic nationality in Benue State. We also have the Tivs, Idoma and Etulo. Among the tribes that constitute Benue State, ask what they consider the core value of an Igede person, they will not waste time to mention integrity. That is why in Igede today, if you misplace you handset and a typical Igede man finds it, he will not take it for use. He will announce to all that he found a misplaced handset, or even money, for the owner to claim it. “In Igede we don’t celebrate success that has no roots. That is why we don’t honour riches that do not have a clear bearing. People celebrate your success when the source is clearly ascertained. No matter how infuential you are, you are not recongised if people do not know your source of success.”

On celebration of death: Ochi Ode stated: “Death is celebrated in Igede with a lot honour, especially if you lived clean and your life is based on integrity. That cannot be said of a pewrson whose wealth has question mark. “Such a person’s death is treated with ignominy. There is no gun shots, no singing, no dancing, no celebration. Such a person is buried in a forest designated for such people. Such a death and burial is not announced.” On the notion that Igede youths serve as house helps: The High Chief said it is true. But he said that the practice has something to do with what he said about integrity. “Like in the western world, between 20 and years, you hardly have money. You are regarded as a man under the tutelage of parents. But, with civilisation, people go out to make money any how. “But a typical Igede man does not easily go out to work under people make a living. So, people go out to make a living. An Igede man cannot sacrifice a child or relation for money ritual. So, a typical Igede man is a peasant farmer and depends on his sweat and does not live on easy money. “Holding to this core value of integrity seems to be a disadvantage to an Igede man. But, it is a disadvantage with honour. That is why you see many of them as house helps. “But now, things are changing. People are now helping others to succeed. For instance, I have a Foundation which assists Igede sons and daughters, sponsoring people up to tertiary institutions. Some other people too are helping indigent students. When they come up, they will help others. “My advice to some well-to-do Igede sons and daughters, who have not been helping others, should wake up and take it upon themselves to help others. Those who are helping are not doing it for personal gains or even for rewards from God, but to ensure that our people develop and improve.” The Ibilla Town Hall Meeting As a High Chief of Ibilla in Igede, Chief Ode hosts a periodic Ibilla Town Hall meeting during which socio-political issues affecting the people and communities and area are resolved. What is the state of the that Forum? His response: “This is an issue of leadership. Issues of leadership are involving ones that are seen to be done on daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis. If a leadership is stagnant, there will not be growth. A leader must have dreams of how to improve. “Leadership is a continues process of doing things, rebranding and reinvigorating. Today, you call a town hall meeting. If the method used attracts continues followership, you continue to apply that system. But, if not, you change to another method. “When we started the town hall meeting some years ago, the repose was encouraging. But at a time, we observed that attendance started to decrease and we started to ask questions. A leader must always ask questions like: ‘What?’ ‘Why?’ ‘How?’ “When you find answers to these important questions, you have arrived at a solution. If you can’t find answers to these questions, you are no longer a leader. That is how to keep the followers in constant zeal and hope in believing in what you are doing. “A leader must explain the goals and objectives of what he is doing. Once this done, the people will stand by you. That is what we are doing as far as the Ibilla Town Hall Meeting is concerned. We are restructuring and rebranding. Very soon, it will bounce back.”

Ogbadibo Carnival will promotes cultural heritage

The role that the Ogbadibo Carnival will play in tourism and cultural development of the state and the country will be massive. According to the organizer Comrade Johnson Agada, the carnival was borne out of the desire to provide the needed support to the people in preserving and projecting the ogbadibo culture and values. This, he said in a statement, would further put the Carnival on the international pedestal as well as galvanise its potential to generate revenue for the state, local government and engender bonding within the three district that makes up the local government “We strongly believe in the ideals of the Ogbadibo Carnival. We have watched with keen interest the passion with which the state government, community and local government has continued to celebrate there people’s culture and values and so the best way to celebrate our people and to bring back the loss glory of the land is to celebrate ourselves and enlighten the people about their lack of knowledge in the customs, norms and tradition of their father land.. He further explained that the Carnival will provides a platform for all district to showcase their and the people in general, that the whole street of Ogbadibo wil be flooded with colours and dancers, Comrade Agada who assured that the carnival would strengthen all sons and daughters of Ogbadibo local government of its participation in the project, maintained that everybody would become a strong pillar behind the yearly event. With time, the Ogbadibo cultural carnival will be the largest cultural carnival because the carnival was created as part of the vision to make Benue State the number one tourist destination for Nigerians and tourists across the world.

Ogbadibo Cultural Carnival: A Must-See Benue state Street Festival

Ogbadibo cultural carnival is most definitely a must see Benue state street festival. It will be Known as ‘Benue biggest street party’ is going to an annual celebration which focuses on African heritage – music, drama, dance and colorful display of costumes and makeup. A little background history on Ogbadibo Ogbadibo local government was created in 1991 and is made up of three districts, Otukpa, Orokam and Owukpa with Otukpa as headquarters, the local government derives its name from Ogbadibo stream which flows through the area. Ogbadibo local government area is bordered by Okpokwu local government area to the east, Olamabioro local government area of Kogi State to the north, Udenu and Igbo – Eze north local government area of Enugu State to the west and Isi –Uzo local government area of Enugu state to the south. The people of Ogbadibo local government area are predominantly farmers with cassava, millet, palm wine and palm oil produced in commercial quantities. This means the markets in the area are usually busy with traders from other parts of Benue state as well as neighboring state. There are large col and Karoline deposits in Owukpa and Orokam respectively. Different opportunities are currently being explored to recommence mining of the Owukpa deposits which was suspended in the past due to economic downturn. The people of Ogbadibo local government area predominantly speak a dialect of idoma language. Each year the festival will go from strength to strength and from one district to the other, this year’s carnival is pegged to be great according to the organizer, Comrade Johnson Agada whose dream is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. Why you should visit Ogbadibo during the carnival

This spectacular carnival will feature a very popular and international artist. The carnival is going to be world famous come December.

Tips on getting through this fantastic festival in one peace The festival is a 3 day affair running from the 26th to 28th of December so for some this may end up being a real test for endurance more than anything else. If you are one of those whose only exercise consists of walking to the car or lifting a beer can from out of the fridge you are going to need to pace yourself. Be prepared for a lot of walking; this is a month long street carnival not a 90 minute sit down committee meeting. Make sure you have appropriate footwear, no steel caps, no high heels or you will find your feet in excruciating pain at the end of the day. Stay hydrated: with all the attractions and trekking around you will ultimately be doing you will quickly find your bodies water supply depleted. Always have water on hand or at least some money to buy some if necessary you don’t want to collapse and find yourself on a hospital bed. It’s a shame that with all the cultural excitement and togetherness in events like this festival there will always be a few rotten apples lurking around. Make sure you consciously take care of your belongings, keep them tucked away safely and don’t become the target of pic pockets who always ‘ply their trade’ at times like these. If you are a person looking for the peaceful and serene side of ogbadibo of which this city is blessed with quite a few these is not the season to go looking for them. Half way through the year is better not in December take my word for it, carnival go’ers and tourists will be everywhere.

If you need to get more information on this special event, please let us know. The ogbadibo carnival will prove that everything in Ogbadibo local government and Benue state is indeed great, including carnivals.

OROKAM NOT MARGINALIZE : Comrade Agada Johnson

Ogbdibo cultural carnival is a celebration of love and peace among the people of Ogbadibo local government to promote the traditional value of the people’s heritage. According to the organizer of the cultural carnival, Comrade Johnson Agada said recently in interview in Lagos that the carnival is not a community project, it’s a professional business with people from across the state and outside the local government, it’s not a matter of orokam being marginalize, Orokam can never be left out in such a gigantic project, because Orokam is a very important community in Ogbadibo. ‘’A center working committee is yet to be formed and when formed, we will have equal people from all three district, but what we have now are just working committee to bring the project at least to a solid stage before having a central working committee and must people working for the success of this project are from Orokam. We have met with elders in orokam and we have their blessings and I am begging all sons and daughters of Ogbadibo to put aside our differences, come out and work together for the success of Ogbadibo cultural carnival. Ogbadibo cultural carnival is an initiative to enlighten the people of Ogbadibo local government in Benue State about the norms and value of the people. Comrade Johnson further said, the cultural heritage of the people of Ogbabido is dying, Ogbadibo naturally is known to be a traditional land (Alekwu) but due to lack of knowledge our people within and in diaspora keeps dying as a result of going against the customs of the land. The Ogbadibo cultural carnival was initiated to help return back the lost glory of the land and to cub social menace in our society such as cultism, killing for ritual purposes, abortion, kidnapping, stealing and disrespect for elders, the gods forbid all this doing, and right now I can tell you the gods are angry with us all, all this are not part of our customs and tradition, even our leaders are not helping the youths, they use them and dump them all in the name of politics and selfish reason and their children are all outside the country or state doing fine but through this year cultural carnival celebration, we need to promote our culture and tell our people where they got it all wrong and we are going to start from the traditional angle because must traditional rulers bribe their ways into office and as such don’t lead with all fairness and truth. For instance our elders collect money to support Fulani’s, look at the result now, the Fulani’s have dominated all most all our lands, they marry our girls and gave birth and even name their children after us, all this are the reasons for Ogbabido cultural carnival rather than thinking about marginalization or not, but I am categorically telling you now that nobody, no district or clans is being marginalize.

Fani-Kayode, Reno Omokri bicker over Zuckerberg’s Hausa comment

An off-the-cuff comment by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, about the importance of Hausa language, has pitted two prominent opposition figures on social media against each other. Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation and unabashed critic of the ruling APC, sparred with Reno Omokri, a former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan and social media strategist, in a series of harsh exchanges on Facebook Wednesday, with Mr. Fani-Kayode wishing he could have Mr. Omokri’s “little bottom spanked for being so cheeky and naughty.” A Facebook user had on Tuesday afternoon drawn the attention of Mr. Zuckerberg, who is visiting Nigeria, to the Facebook Hausa language option and urged him to consider adding other major Nigerian languages —especially Yoruba, Igbo and Fulfulde— to the platform to reflect the country’s diversity. “Thanks! I’m glad we support Hausa and we’re planning on supporting a lot more languages soon,” Mr. Zuckerberg responded. Facebook introduced the Hausa language option about a month ago. Mr. Fani-Kayode said the decision to add Hausa to Facebook was aimed at advancing a purported age-long agenda of Britain and America to prioritise the interests of the people of Northern Nigeria while suppressing the fortunes of the Southerners. Mr. Fani-Kayode also highlighted a conspiracy in the timing. “Kerry comes to the north and sees the Sultan of Sokoto, northern governors and Buhari. One week later, Facebook founder comes to Nigeria and says Hausa is a “unique language” which he has to be included on Facebook,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said. “Think Nigerians think.” As with most of his posts, Mr. Fani-Kayode’s statement elicited divergent reactions from many Nigerians on Facebook, including Mr. Omokri. “I do not understand why Kerry did what he did. But as for Zuckerberg, all he did was state a fact. After Swahili, Hausa is perhaps the most widely spoken language in sub-Saharan Africa. “That is why BBC Hausa, Voice of America Hausa, Deutsche Welle and other world radio services all have broadcasts in Hausa. We must applaud what Zuckerberg has done and not cast suspicion around it. “Doing so may encourage him to add other indigenous Nigerian languages as Facebook languages,” Mr. Omokri said. But Mr. Fani-Kayode saw his ally’s take as an attempt to undermine his long-suffering cause to liberate his people from the “yoke” of “Western imperialists” and “internal colonial masters”. “I read far more into this matter than you do because I am not just a politician but a historian. I also have my views about the social media generally, its link to the top Western intelligence agencies and what its ultimate objective is,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said. “I guess only time will tell if I am right but these are my views. In any case, I wonder how many Hausa-speaking people are on Facebook when compared to Yoruba and Igbo.” Unimpressed, Mr. Omokri doubled his efforts to knock down Mr. Fani-Kayode’s argument, saying the embattled former minister, who’s currently standing trial for graft charges, was missing the point. “By including Hausa as an official Facebook language, Zuckerberg recognises the fact that while there are literally tens of millions of Yoruba, Igbo and other indigenous Nigerian language speakers who can communicate in both their native language and English, the same cannot be said about Hausa speakers,” Mr, Omokri said. Mr. Omokri said, although Facebook may have shown interest in Hausa speakers by adding their language to its platform, the company was making investments in start-ups that are situated in the southern part of the country, adding that those were the consequential issues that deserved mentions. “You may recall that Zuckerberg and his wife recently invested $25 million in Andela. That would be a most strange way to undermine the South given that all of Andela’s founders and most of their fellows are from the South,” Mr. Omokri said. “Talk is cheap but money makes things happen. Zuckerberg talked about Hausa, but he put his money in a Lagos tech hub.” At this point, Mr. Fani-Kayode indicated that he could no longer swallow Mr. Omokri’s lectures, which were delivered with apparent respect, saying the comments were superfluous as he had not actually condemned Mr. Zuckerberg or Facebook. “Now I am beginning to get a little irritated by you,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said, adding that Mr. Omokri’s rebuttal to his observations constituted a betrayal of trust. “If I wanted to condemn you, him or anyone else, I would do so loudly, openly, clearly and gladly,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said. “But I haven’t done that: I simply disagreed with you and I was very civil about it which I really didn’t have to be because you don’t deserve it.” Mr. Fani-Kayode also dragged the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, into the crossfire, saying the former FCT Minister had repeatedly warned him about Mr. Omokri. “Our mutual friend, Nasir El Rufai, often warned me about you but I never listened to him,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said. “Now you have proved him right and all because you want to please your foreign and new-found northern friends.” Mr. Fani-Kayode then listed other areas in which Mr. Omokri allegedly betrayed his former colleagues in the Jonathan administration. But Mr. Omokri responded by saying he would not join issues with Mr. Fani-Kayode out of respect. The feud spilled over to Twitter on Thursday morning, when PDP supporters on social media sued for peace. Messrs. Fani-Kayode and Omokri have been playing a critical role in distributing populism messages on behalf of the PDP on social media, where the lingering economic crisis has helped the party regain its voice.

As economy declines, Buhari revives Jonathan’s agric policy he suspended

The Buhari administration on Wednesday said it had revived the e-wallet system for fertiliser allocation and distribution, a year after suspending it. The Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, made the announcement after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting, saying the policy would however be modified to address the challenges that made it unsustainable. At the meeting, which held as the National Bureau of Statistics confirmed the nation was in recession, the government also approved a borrowing plan and solid minerals initiatives to stimulate the economy. But the decision to restart the e-wallet fertilizer scheme represented another economic policy reversal by the Buhari administration, which had earlier dumped the initiative. The e-wallet system was part of the Growth Enhancement Support scheme introduced by former Goodluck Jonathan administration to address the menace of middlemen in the fertiliser supply chain, which experts identified as a challenge for farmers at the time. The policy, seen as one of the few successes of the administration, ensured the registration of about 4.2 million farmers within its first year. More than 10 million were said to have been registered at the height of its implementation. Akin Adesina, who served as Minister of Agriculture between 2010 and 2015, when the scheme was initiated, said its success contributed to his elevation to the African Development Bank where he is now the president. The policy was however suspended by the Buhari government in 2015. The Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, cited accumulated debts to fertiliser and seed companies as well as corrupt practices that had contributed in making it costly and unsustainable. “We had to look for money from our own sources at the federal level to bear the liabilities of states,” Mr. Ogbeh was quoted as saying in July 2016. “The GES payment was a debt we inherited from the previous administration. The total debt was N57 billion. When we arrived here, the agro-dealers said they couldn’t operate because they didn’t have bulk money to carry on with their businesses and so we applied to government and appealed for help to raise some money to pay the debt. But the minister said on Wednesday the Buhari administration will now resuscitate the policy.

How Nigerian govt caused economic recession — Emir Sanusi

Culled from Sahara Reporter.

Muhammad Sanusi II The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, on August 24, warned President Muhammadu Buhari to avoid repeating the mistakes made by former President Goodluck Jonathan so his administration does not end up in infamy like that of his predecessor. The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria also warned the government against continuing to blame previous administrations for the nation’s woes, saying what was important was for the administration to concentrate on putting the nation back on the path of progress. He gave the warning while delivering a paper entitled, “Nigeria In Search Of New Growth model” at the 15th meeting of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning. The Emir also spoke extensively on the nation’s economic recession. Here is his full speech at the event: First of all, I want to break from tradition. Usually I speak in Hausa in Kano. But, I don’t know how I am going to make an economic presentation in Hausa to 36 states’ commissioners and have someone translate it into English. To avoid things being lost in translation, I will speak in the language of economics. Let me start by saying congratulations to you minister. This is the first time I am meeting you in an official function since your appointment, and to tell you in public what I have always said in private; that you are one of the sisters I remain extremely proud of your work. I wish you all the best in these challenging times. I have always told people that Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, my teacher, (I don’t know if he is an ex or former minister, multiple times) taught me microeconomics. So, he takes a lot of the credits, and none of the blames, for what I have become. Ladies and gentlemen, I was not given a specific topic to talk on. But, because the concern today is the concern about the recession Nigeria is in technically, and also because it is a meeting of Planning and Budget Ministers, I thought I will do a proper economic presentation and put down my thoughts on where I think we are; why I think we are where we are, and what I think we need to do to get out of this. I am sure there will be many other presentations specifically on what a state can do to raise revenues and so on. But, having an overarching view of economic policy, and where we may or may not have done wrong, or what the key drivers of growth should be for the Nigerian economy are things I thought we should talk about at this session. So, I call this presentation, Nigeria: The Search For A New Growth Model. I will start by going back to the past, not just Nigeria, but Africa. Let’s ask ourselves what were the key drivers of growth in Africa, and what has changed since this golden decade Africa had. Africa Golden Decade was basically the decade of the 2000s. Africa moved from the previous decade, where it was a hopeless continent, to a new decade that we have one type lifting all story of Africa rising. This rise in Africa across the world was one of stories of sadness, poverty, famine and hunger to a continent that was full of potentials; where there were opportunities for investments; where capital markets were booming. All of a sudden people heard countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, etc. when previously these were supposed to be a basket case in the world. The first pillar of this growth was clearly shifting terms of trade, which as we all know in developing economics, can be a mirage. You can’t have improving terms of trade when you are exporting commodities over short periods of a cycle. But, we know as far back as the 1950s, from the Latin American structure economics, that over the long term, any economy that specialises in exporting primary products and importing manufactures would end up having terms of trade shifting against it. You can have a temporary boost, but If you don’t use that boost to have a structural adjustment that would make for prudent management of the economy, you would be courting trouble. By 2008, one barrel of oil would buy you one Sanyo flip telephone as against 19 barrels of oil to buy the same phone earlier. That gives an idea how well the terms of trade have shifted. We had an oil price of $10 a barrel in the time of Babangida. At one point under Obasanjo, it rose to $140 a barrel. This was a time of rapidly improving technology, cheaper manufactured products and therefore our oil could technically import us much more. This process was not common across all of Africa, because we are aware of other African economies that grew, and certainly it was not just one pillar. Let’s go to the second pillar of growth in Africa in that decade, which was debt. Between 2002 and 2008, the levels of debt to GDP (gross domestic product) in African countries and what they became after the Paris Club, HIPC debt reliefs and so on. Nigeria was at 50 per cent debt to GDP and came down to literally 5 per cent or so. This happened across all Africa in the form of debt forgiveness, debt relief, debt restructuring and so on. What this did was that it freed up government balance sheets and in that decade of Africa rising, the countries went back on a borrowing binge.