Tiv Youth group [VATIM] meet to discuss Issues affecting Benue State.

Some youth tiv youths from Benue have started a movement known as VATIM,Vanguard against Tiv Massacres.
The group represents a legitimate pressure group  of young men and women from Tiv area against the socio-political and economic marginalization of the Tiv race. Read more


Monthly state of the nation Address.
PREAMBLE
According to statistics, we the Tiv people have a population of over ten million people, predominantly indigenous in the states of Adamawa, Taraba, Nasarawa, Plateau and Benue. We are, by this statistics, the third largest homogeneous group in the country – behind the Yoruba and Igbo. The Hausa/Fulani, with their seeming superior population, is not homogenous as it combines two otherwise different people gradually evolved into a single entity.
We are by that quality, major stakeholders in the Nigerian project. Even if as we are currently relegated to the rear in socio-political and economic issues of National importance, by our not encouraging participation, it does not deny us that singular privilege and of course the right to begin to speak out in support or against issues of high national importance and therein, make our positions known thereto.

INTRODUCTION
VATIM FOUNDATION, represent a legitimate struggle, in the modern day contemporary Nigeria, against the socio-political and economic marginalization of the Tiv race. We are a group of Young Tiv indigenes based in Abuja, who have elected to champion the cause of our people being hounded in their ancestral homes in NASARAWA, BENUE, TARABA, PLATEAU and ADAMAWA STATES. Our mission is to legally advocate and seek solutions to the ECONOMIC, PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL repression of our people in all the aforementioned states. We are therefore non-partisan but deeply concerned about the fair treatment of the Tiv man or woman where ever they exist. In so doing and in the unity and progress of the Nation, we are automatic partners in progress with any and every similar legitimate, law abiding group(s) that shares the same dream for our and/or her own people as well.

PASSAGE OF THE PROHIBITION OF CATTLE AND OTHER RUMINANTS GRAZING BILL IN EKITI, 2016.
We commend all the good people of Ekiti State on the final passage of the anti-open grazing bill by the State House of Assembly last week. This action of the State Assembly shows that they are really in touch with the yearnings and aspirations and in the exercise of their rights as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chapter 1, Part 2, Section 6 and Section 7; as well as Chapter 5, Part 2, Section 100.

While waiting for his assent, we must not fail to commend the Governor of the State for his support in the same direction towards ensuring that the people of Ekiti State enjoy the privileges as elucidated in Chapter 2, Section 14 (2B) and Section 17 (2B) as well. It is common knowledge that without law, there is no sin; therefore, as soon as the governor gives his assent, the onus of enforcement will move to the enforcement agencies without allowing for the current resort to self-help.

It is however regrettable, albeit even shameful to note, that other states who have suffered worse afflictions, who perhaps had similar bills privately sponsored before Ekiti State, are unable to pass same. In Benue State for instance, a predominantly agrarian state, the food basket of the state, the state assembly resorted to playing petty politics with the passage of the bill. Recall that the State Governor as well as the Movement Against Fulani Occupation [MAFO] had presented bills to the state assembly, they are still grappling with petty differences which have made it impossible to give legislative work the due attention it deserves. As it stands, perhaps it will not be out of place to state categorically that the state assembly is busy fiddling while Benue burns under the weight of armed herdsmen, with the enforcement agencies handicapped in performance of their lawful duty due to absence of enabling laws.
We hereby encourage the Speaker and the members of the assembly to take a trip to Ekiti state for their next vacation and learn a thing or two about people oriented legislations. But even before then, they must wake up from their embarrassing slumber.

The road to freedom from the insurgency we are experiencing is long and torturous. It will not automatically end with the passage of a piece of legislation but it will go a long way. The house should therefore do its own part and pass the buck to other relevant stakeholders waiting along the road.

RESURGENCE OF ATTACKS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY
We note with great dismay, the recent resurgence of attacks in communities of Adamawa and only last week, Enugu State. It is pathetic that the government of the day, which claims to have wiped out insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country, has been unable to or has refused to or perhaps has allowed the escape of those terrorist into these areas. Perhaps this was what the government meant when it alluded to ‘pockets of insurgency’ and ‘soft target’ when it posited that the insurgents had been technically defeated.

We wish therefore to advised or perhaps remind the government – in case they may have forgotten - that these ‘soft targets’ are also peopled by citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who also have fundamental rights to be protected, as enshrined in Chapter 4, Sections 33[1], 34 and 35 of the amended 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which the president swore to uphold on May 29, 2015 – for the next four years thereof.

NIMET EARLY WARNING FLOOD SIGNALS AND THREAT TO LIVES OF CITIZENS
Recall that on the 8th day of August, 2016, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency [NiMet] issued a warning advising the government in eleven states of the federation to prepare for imminent flooding in the month of August. Out of the eleven states was Benue and Nasarawa States. Coincidentally, Friday August 26 2016 witnessed a very heavy traffic gridlock occasioned by the heavy downpour which stagnated on the road making the smooth flow of traffic impossible. Man hours were lost as well as damage to property.

We must therefore commend the activities of the Benue State government through the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Utilities and Environment, which has heeded to the advice of NiMet by clearing water channels to allow for free flow of water. It is hoped that the office of the State Emergency Management Agency will equally take proacTIVe steps so as not to be taken unawares.

In the interim, we advise that SEMA puts pressure on the Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation [PCFRR] to ensure that contractors complete all the hostels [for internally displaced persons] being constructed in 24 states of the Federation – including Benue and Nasarawa states – to serve as temporary place of abode for those who are currently at the risk.

As a more permanent solution, planning regulations in the high risk areas should be reviewed and strengthened to perhaps outlaw constructions works thereto until the time when the River Benue will be dredged to increase its water carrying capacity and therein curtail the periodic overflow of its banks. Government can also do well to lobby for the actualization of this project, which is now long overdue.

Thank you for your time as we look forward to the next state of the nation address.

For VATIM FOUNDATION:

TER AKAA AONDOVER UTSAHA
Chairman General Secretary