UPDATE: How The New Tor Tiv, HRM Prof.James Ortese Ayatse Will Be CORONATED

By Tahav Agerzua

Last Saturday, General Atom Kpera, retired, who is the Central Planning Committee Chairman of Tor Tiv the fifth Coronation coming up on March 4th, 2017, and key members of the committee, interacted with the media on the forthcoming event. The interaction took place at the J S Tarka Institute in Gboko. EXCERPTS:


THE DELAY IN BRIEFING THE PRESS

As you very well know, the coronation of the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse as Tor Tiv V is coming up on the 4th of March which is next week Saturday, which is exactly one week from today. We had hoped that this press conference would come up earlier but as you know, one of the things that made it difficult for us to be unable to hold the conference is that, we were not sure of the date. When we had the unfortunate occasion to bury the last Tor Tiv IV, the President of the country was not here and he didn’t quite like it and this time the Governor said he wants to make sure that the President is going to be here and that he sent letters to him and was waiting for his reply, suggesting the date. Unfortunately, the President had to go abroad for his vacation and now medication also. So this date was held up until he sent asking for the vacation to be prolonged and so it was held again. So the Governor said he was going to now ensure that he got a new date. He kept going back and forth to Abuja to get the date and it was finally confirmed, I think barely two weeks ago, and he said now we are going to go ahead. I think he has seen the Acting President. So we now got the information and then we started work. The funds didn’t come really until Monday, so barely five days ago and so these circumstances actually made us delay the first interview we were going to have with the press. I’m told that it’s better late than never. So we will make the best use of the time we have; it’s very short but it is better for the people to know what is happening from now on and that is why I called you that you should come so that you can listen to what we have and if it is worth sending it to the people of the state, and in fact the country, then you will send the information over.

COMMITTEES FOR THE CORONATION

We have firmly agreed that the 4th of March is the day we are going to have the coronation ceremony and it is going to be here in Gboko as we know. The permanent seat of the Tor Tiv is Gboko. The Tor Tiv resides here and when he dies, he is going to be buried here. I said he, because we are not going to have a she. So when the Tor Tiv dies, he is buried here; it is the permanent seat of the Tor Tiv, we call it the headquarters of the Tiv people. As of now, the Tor Tiv elect is still residing in Makurdi for lack of the prepared state of the palace. When you finish from here, you may like to go round and see what is happening. The palace is under renovation. And the place he is going to stay temporarily also is under renovation. We have tried to organize; that is, we members of the CPC. The Governor went ahead and appointed people who will now make the arrangements for the coronation and we happen to be the people and incidentally, Mr. Zam forgot to say here also that Engr. Ujege is the Vice Chairman of this CPC and he is the Honourable Secretary and I happen to be just the Chairman. We have divided ourselves into about eight sub-committees; each committee with a responsibility to work very seriously towards the success of the occasion. Now, the details of it, when I’m done, I will ask the secretary to give you some of the details but they are not really necessary. All we really want you to know is that we have divided ourselves into sub-committees with responsibilities for various aspects of operation. We have the tradition and culture sub-committee which is headed by HRH Jam Gbinde. Incidentally, that sub-committee is composed mostly of the second class chiefs in Tiv land. All the ‘Uters’ are members of that committee and we have a sub-committee on entertainment headed by Professor Ityavyar, the Commissioner for Education and we have the Hon. Commissioner for Works, Engr. Manger heading the venue and works sub-committee.We have the security sub-committee headed by Colonel Jando, obviously; we have the medical sub-committee headed by Dr. Joseph Ngbea; we have the sub-committee on protocol headed by the Chief of Staff, Hon. Orbunde; we have the committee on Information and Media and Publicity headed by Hon. Titus Zam. Then we have the committee on liturgy headed by the CAN Chairman of Benue, Rev. Akpen Leva. So, details of what each committee is doing, we may not get it here but I have given you the names of the chairmen.
So if you can’t find the answers that we give you here and you find any of the chairmen, they will give you details of the information because nothing that we are doing here is secret. We are only here to ensure that the Tor Tiv is properly coronated and so we don’t think that anything is secret. Maybe, the secret aspect may probably find its way into the security sub-committee. But like I said, I'am quite comfortable with Colonel Jando as the chairman of that sub-committee. He’s a soldier and I’m a soldier too. So ladies and gentlemen, there are things that will take place from the 1st day of March to the day of coronation and of course you know that we have invited and we are expecting very many dignitaries from within and outside Benue State.
It’s an occasion for merriment; merry making unlike the occasion we had about a year ago; an occasion where we were burying our Tor Tiv; this is an occasion that we are happy about and to the best of our ability, we will make everybody happy because we have a new Tor Tiv. So, I crave your indulgence to allow first of all my able assistant, Engr. Ujege. If he has any comment, before we now give the secretary the chance to give you a run down on the tentative programme.
He has asked the secretary to go ahead and thereafter, I believe that many of you will have many relevant questions; I want to underline that word; relevant and we will be happy to answer them to the best of our ability.

INTERMEDIATE AREAS CELEBRATE

Hon Zam: This is the programme of activities as approved by the CPC under the leadership of Gen. Kpera and His Excellency, the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom. You’ve been told that activities towards this very important activity will commence on Wednesday, the 1st of March, 2017. The people from Jechira and Jemgbagh intermediate areas will be converging in Gboko to celebrate the coronation ceremony. You may be aware that the Tiv nation is divided into six intermediate areas; and in the wisdom of the CPC, it was decided that each of these intermediate areas should have a day to come here and celebrate. You are aware that this time around, we are celebrating, so we thought it wise to lay out an elaborate programme of activities to give colour to this event and to show the world that the Tiv nation is happy over the selection of a new Tor Tiv. And so as I said earlier, on this day Wednesday, 1st of March, it will be the turn of Jechira and Jemgbagh to converge here in Gboko and begin the celebration activities for the coronation.
On the second day, being Thursday, 2nd of March, 2017; it will be the turn of Gwer and Lobi intermediate areas; i.e the MINDA axis.
Then on Friday, 3rd of March, 2017; celebration of the new Tor Tiv by Kwande and Sankera intermediate areas. Tiv people outside of Benue State and those in the diaspora and friends of the Tiv nation will all gather on that Friday, 3rd of March, together with the Kwande and Sankera intermediate areas to take their turn.

THE D DAY AND AFTERMATH

Then on the D day, being the 4th of March, the event proper will take place; that will be the coronation day and the issuance of the staff of office by His Excellency, the Governor of Benue State, to the new Tor Tiv. After this very important exercise in the afternoon, the Tiv nation will still stay back from that afternoon till the following day. Officially, the people assigned to continue with the celebration after the coronation proper are the Kwande intermediate area, where the Tor Tiv comes from and then the Jemgbagh which is the host area where the Tor Tiv will be staying for the rest of his life.
These two segments are expected to be here from that Saturday till Sunday when the rest of the people who may wish to leave might have done so.

SECURITY AND PARKING ARRANGEMENTS

The Vice Chairman, Engr Edward Ujege, has one thing to add about security.
You will appreciate that the field where we are going to hold that occasion is very small and cannot therefore have any space for parking of cars. So the security has been made in such a way that any person who has a car, be he the Governor or high up, you will be shown where your car will be parked and there will be a vehicle to convey you to the arena. And to limit the number of people who are going to be in that arena, what we have done is that we are going to accredit people who are going to come in. For instance, I was told last night that every local government may have only about ten slots; the press may have a number of slots which will be given to you. So we want as much as possible for people to obey this because the space is limited and we want to be sure that we show our best face forward as a nation and that is what we have done here. We shall appreciate that even the people who come here to see us display our culture and our tradition, we like to do it in the best way possible. I also will like to appeal; this is local news but I think you can carry it. I want to appeal to all Tiv sons and daughters that they should kindly make sure that they wear their best dress, they come to that place very well behaved; there is no militancy or anything of the sort because we are rejoicing, this is a singular occasion for us to show our own colour and that we are very obedient and disciplined people and so we are expecting that from everybody that comes that day. The chairman of the publicity committee is here and I’ve been made to understand that there will be a live transmission of what is going on during this period in which case, you can sit in your home or in your hotel and access what is going on. So these are the main things. A number of people have asked me especially the Igbo group, the Yoruba group and so on and so forth that they want to come and pay homage; you are free to do so, if you get in contact with me and I will get in contact with the chairman and we could arrange. I think there is nothing wrong with coming to pay homage either before or after the event because even when Jesus Christ was born, there were three wise people who came to pay homage and all that. So we are even encouraging our own people to come and pay homage. Let us give him a feeling that we like him, and give the outside world that on this day, this is our god and we will worship him. My father said ‘icivir ngi van a icivir’ that is, ‘respect begets respect’. Therefore let us show the world that we have respect for our elders like the one sitting here, we have respect for our chiefs, we have respect for our Governor, and we have respect for everybody.

NO LOITERING IN THE ARENA

Gen Kpera: Before we open the floor for questions, I just want to emphasize a point which Engr. Ujege has made – the issue of the tightness in the arena. The J.S Tarka Stadium is not particularly big enough to take everybody in. I happened to be the Chairman for the Committee of the burial of the late Tor Tiv and it was a chaotic situation at that place. Everybody was like, I’m mourning my Tor Tiv, so we allowed everybody to come in there and it was indeed very bad. Those of you who were there will agree with me that the crowd was uncontrolled and uncontrollable. This time, we don’t want that thing to repeat itself. We are rejoicing, but there is a limit to which we can rejoice. If you rejoice like the cricket, you are going to be dead. But we have requested for the number of the people really coming into the arena to be limited. It’s not because we don’t like the others to enjoy, but like I said, the space is limited. The local governments will be given the exact numbers and we appeal to them to make the people who are coming to the arena to be specifically identifiable. If you are coming from Gboko Local Government, where I come from, and he is coming from Buruku Local Government, ordinarily, I will have my identity card or something, otherwise it’s something else. When I come to the gate and say I am from Buruku, and the man says how come you are not having the card of Buruku people, that kind of thing. That is what we are hoping that we will arrange. Local Government sole administrators and the Uters are going to arrange. Each local government will take care of her own people, control the entry and exit. There are facilities there – toilets and all that. And so when you come in, you don’t need to stand up and be roaming around. Everybody will be made to sit down, if you don’t have a seat, don’t mind my language, but my language is ‘get out!’ If you don’t have a seat, just get out. But we will try and make sure that everybody is seated properly and is comfortable and is enjoying the occasion. It’s not because we don’t like some people. So ladies and gentlemen, if you have heard enough, then we will say thank you. But if you have not heard enough and you have questions, this is the time.

How much is the state government spending on the coronation?

Very good question, but I will answer that question after the event when we would have put our accounts in shape, then I can say we expended this much. That makes more sense to me, but if I say, we are going to spend N2,000 and we end up spending N5,000, you will say but you said you were going to spend this. So if you don’t mind, let me answer that question after the event.

Will the Tor Tiv take his oath by the Bible or Swem?

Now, let me answer the question. We are growing in this world. No human being is static and we have got Christianity introduced to us. A lot of us are Christians and we feel that it is good to maintain traditions but certain traditions which can be changed may be changed. We were discussing the day before and we noticed that all the Tor Tivs that have gone; the number one, two, three, four are Christians. Tor Tiv, one, two, three, four; the first Tor Tiv, I don’t know because I was young. The second and third, that is Gondo Aluor and Akperan Orshi were all sworn in by the Bible. The Tor Tiv the fourth, Akawe Torkula swore by the ‘Swem’, but thereafter, he practiced Christianity throughout. The Tor Tiv the fifth is going to be sworn in by the Bible.

We didn’t hear the name of who will read the citation.

The citation will be read and we will get the person who will read the citation properly, it is not particularly an urgent matter and it’s not news per say. Who is going to read the citation of the Tor Tiv…we haven’t really decided who will read the citation of the Tor Tiv. That is the best way to answer you. We haven’t decided who exactly will read the citation but it is being discussed.

Are we going to have viewing centres since the stadium will not be enough to accommodate everyone?

We are not sure of that at the moment but it is being considered. I am not definite about it because we have not really considered it in our budget but there are growing concerns about that and so we will take a look at it. I said that because many people will come in from the local governments and cannot have access; they should be places where they will stay and know what is going on. We are giving that very serious consideration but funding may be the problem; because if I tell Channels to come and set up a viewing center, they will say, bring money or I bring NTA, it’s still money. To set it up, if we have the money, it’s about an hour or two. But the main thing is that if we can convince any of these media outfits to do that, of course, if it was…just like the people set up their football centres; people agree to go there and pay; but it is not a matter that we can go and tell people to go and set up viewing centres for people to come and watch although they may make money out of that. This idea is a very wonderful way of keeping the crowd outside the venue. If we can erect those viewing centres around Gboko and even beyond, it will ease a lot of pressure on the venue.

Is it possible for you to abide by your program of events?

My friend, if everybody was wearing a military uniform, I will say yes on the dot, everybody will be there. When we called for a meeting, I was surprised today. When I call a meeting here, one hour after the time we say we are going to start, I will just say you people are lucky because I would have just sent everybody coming late to the guard room and they burst out laughing. I cannot guarantee that. Incidentally, I was telling the secretary that don’t mention those times, just the activity and it makes more sense to us. We hope that people will come on time and we cannot guarantee it. That’s the question you asked and the answer is, we cannot guarantee it. And so if we finish later than two o’clock, that’s when we finish. The second question is about the press. I cannot guarantee that everybody who comes from outside and wants to cover the event will have a place to stay. But I will imagine that the committee will make provision. You people will get an accreditation. People will get accredited and every person who comes here claiming to be a press man, don’t you know me? We will say, we know you but I’m sorry we have no space; that’s those who are unaccredited. We will certainly not have enough.
Is there going to be a restriction so that the area will not be crowded and those who have no business per say will be loitering around or will want to pass through?
That’s a very simple question to answer. I can just say yes. There will be restrictions. If the President is coming, the Acting President…the security team has told me that in fact from the day before that there will be restriction of movement around that arena. People may be wandering, but that is what their duty is about. So yes, there will restriction of movement around there. Now, the security people have already selected the parking lots. Bristow Secondary School and yesterday Colonel Jando was telling me…were you at Gboko yesterday? They have already selected these places where the parking lots are going to be. There are bus shuttles. They will park and they will get into a bus and they will be taken to the arena. And that is the only way to only control and of course before the event, they will have a cordon around and we will control.

How is the committee  anchoring the case of the Tiv in the diaspora who may want to take part in the celebration?

Well, I will give a short answer then I will pass it over to the President of the Mdzough u Tiv. Incidentally, it may interest you to know that these people are all represented on this committee. They are all here – Taraba, Nasarawa, everybody, they are all represented, MUTA is represented, MUT, U.K is represented. Whether they are coming or not, the President of Mdzough u Tiv will tell us. But they are all represented and we hope those that come will pass the information and the arrangement made for MUTA and the MUT, U.K. Last time, we had the MUT, Australia around.

Engr Ujege: As the Chairman has said, he is taking very good care of the situation by assigning Mdzough u Tiv to coordinate the activities of the Tiv people and in fact our friends; not only the Tiv people because of what you know, the Igbos and other tribes so we have a small committee that is looking into the demands of these people. And I think it is an occasion where we will let you know that if anyone of them gets in contact with yo, let me know. We have a team that is putting together all the information that they need to know relating to the chairman of the sub-committee, like the entertainment, we are relating to security, we are relating to venue - where they will sit, we are relating to see how they will be accredited to go in and everything. So we are doing our best. So if you have any question, or any problem or any requirement, that has been assigned to us by the Chairman of the CPC and we are doing our best in regards to that. I just want Mr. Chairman to just add one more thing here. You will be doing us a favour if you inform our sons and daughters as well as our friends; if on that day they will show a sign that they have come to an event depicting our tradition by wearing something that will look like our own traditional dress. Some people have made some dresses to commemorate this event. If you are able to come here on that day looking like a Tiv man and you are not, we will appreciate.  If anybody coming on that day, if you come and show us that you are with us that will be fantastic.

 Is the palace now well fixed for the new Tor Tiv?

The actual palace is being renovated and if you go in there you will see that it can’t be ready by Saturday next week. I talked to the Governor and he told me that he is trying to see that the temporary residence of the Tor Tiv who as I said is in his own residence in Makurdi  will be ready before that day because after the coronation, people will go in there with him to go and pay homage and he will have other big paramount rulers all over the place who will like to go and pay homage to him. So, the Governor is laying emphasis on finishing that place. Actually, the abode of the Tor Tiv is not within this committee’s mandate; government is doing that straight forward that is their thing. But I happen to know that the situation of the palace will not be ready; even this one, if they don’t speed it up, we will have a lot of problems. Like I said, I encourage you, if you have time, when you leave here, take a drive or a walk to the actual palace and the temporary residence; there is nothing secret about it. If it’s not ready, you will say it’s not ready. We are aware that the palace will not be ready. Incidentally, the ceremonies before the Tor Tiv’s coronation; the six intermediate area; last time when we were mourning the Tor Tiv, we did it right in the palace but that place is not available for us now because the contractor has piled up his equipment there and so we are going to be doing this in the Gboko Local Government Secretariat and it’s good information. The three days – Wednesday up to Friday, the events will be taking place at the Gboko Secretariat. There is enough space there. The cars that are parked inside, we will move it out and there will be enough space there. We would have preferred it to be done the way we did the mourning of Akawe Torkula but that is where we have to do the ceremonies prior to the 4th of March.

Does your committee rely on the State Government for the funding of this coronation ceremony or are Tiv sons and daughters taxed?



Very good question. No Tiv son or daughter have been taxed. But we are encouraging Tiv sons and daughters and indeed non-Tivs, friends of Tiv people to make contributions that they feel they can make and as we are talking, the Governor of Borno; he has sent 100 cows, not promised, he has sent already and there are those type of things that we are getting. The Benue State Government is not particularly rich. You know, all of us know that. So any contribution by any person, Tiv or non-Tiv is most welcome. I’m glad that you asked that question. A letter has already been sent out by the Mdzough u Tiv to Tiv sons and daughters and also our friends. So that is the thing, and we have gotten some assistance. Thank you for the question. Our doors are open for any contribution, any person, lady or man; for the successful coronation of the new Tor Tiv and also corporate bodies are welcome.