Senator laments unfair treatment of Tiv in Taraba

Deputy Senate Minority Leader and Senator representing Taraba South in the National Assembly, Emmanuel Bwacha yesterday said the Tiv people of Taraba have not been treated fairly for a long time.

He was speaking in his hometown Mararaba in Donga local government area of the state when the leadership of Tiv Cultural and Social Association led by their President Mr. Goodman Dahida paid him a courtesy call.

Bwacha lamented that a good number of Tiv people in Taraba were indigenes of the state, but over the years they have been denied certain rights.

“It is wrong to discriminate against Tiv in the state. Tiv people should be carried along for the purpose of development. All that I have been doing for the Tiv and other ethnic groups in the state is not because of politics, but my covenant with God and for justice.

“The Tiv people even with their large number has only one district in the entire state which I influenced and that almost cost me, but I stood firm,” he said.

He called for unity among the Tiv people in the state, saying with their population in the state, if they are united they can achieve a lot politically, even as he cautioned the leadership against trading their people for personal gains.

The lawmaker who lauded governor Ishaku for restoring peace in the state harped on the need for unity of purpose that would move the state forward.

“There is nothing more than unity and peace. Today even if the governor did not achieve any other thing, the peace being enjoyed in the state is a great achievement.”

On the issue of the sudden change of the name Dan-Anacha to Kwararafa, the senator said the place was headquarters of the famous Kwararafa empire long before Dan-Anacha came to be.

He maintained that the Tiv people who are now the majority in the area has nothing to fear as nobody was chasing them away, adding that the economic activities of the Tiv in the area was not only helping Taraba, but Nigeria and that nobody was contemplating chasing them away.