And i'm telling you the adamawasouth senatorial zone people she is representing are not hausa people. So don't come here telling us about what the middle belt people have been able to achieve and try to tell others that YOU were part of it. She's representing a group of people with a seperate culture and history, and like you said only share a border like the jews do with arabs. Can any arab lay claim to any jewish accomplishments just because they have geographical proximity ?
When your almajiris are able to look beyond their ignorance and elect a woman of another ethnic affiliation into the senate- or even lower house, then you can come back and tell us "north". Smart Adeyemi of Kogi too is in the senate why don't you ask him where He's from ?
Go and fraternize with your people cos your detrimental ways are not appreciated by us, plateau state i believe recently told your people that .

Knowall, among every 12 disciples you'll get one Judas. It's not only in the middle belt that you find such people cos they abound in all regions. I believe Saraki is living his father's fantasy which will disappear with the man's passing away. Olusola Saraki contrary to what some people think has been a stumbling block on the fortunes of most Kwara people.

@edoyad. .  .

i think the middle belters and the core north should be more united for peace to reign

however people should respect the local traditions and customs in each state

i wish for the day a northern Christian as president
and a southern muslim as VP would rule a democratic Nigeria

that would mean we have gone far in nation building

@paddylo, many people used to wish the same thing too. But believe me these matters are far more complex than meets the ordinary eye. I wish you have the opportunity to see the very things we see here to form a a better picture on this matter. May be I'll take time one of these days to explain these things in detail.

@edoyad
You are trully an edcated slowpoke!
Is Adamawa State not in northern Nigeria?
Did the incident not happen in Adamawa State?
Then whats so difficult to comprehend ?

NOTE:
Title of the thread reads, Yoruba WOMAN IS ADAMAWA SENATOR
Don't let your hatred and arrogance clowd your judgement.

@ paddy
That can happen but not with the insults and goading from the ilks of edoyad and co.
As a matter of fact the hausa/fulani man would accept anyone in so far as you will not disrespect him and particularly his religion. That is the key to peaceful co existance.

By the way, a northern christian , Gen. Yakubu Gowon (from Angas tribe) ruled Nigeria  - though not under demoratic setting - and still respected in the north.

I usually just browse without posting, but I felt compelled to post here.

Edoyad's point is extremely simple. He and most other middle belters do NOT view themselves as northerners! They are their own distinct group. You do not have the right to lump them in with Northerners; it is a decision only they and they alone can make.

What is so hard to understand here? Yes they live in a place North of Yorubaland or Igboland, but they have a entirely different culture and way of life.

The "salient points" of "unity and diversity" are meaningless here; there is no real strife between middle belter and southerner, so why should peace between them be surprising?

Edoyad, can you check out this thread:


https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-394607.0.html

By the way, a northern christian , Gen. Yakubu Gowon (from Angas tribe) ruled Nigeria - though not under demoratic setting - and still respected in the north.

i do know about gowon. . .and i am happy things were somewhat better in the past
unlike today when u have yearly riots in only one part of the country

it is really embarrassing,especially if u live outside Nigeria
and have to explain these incidents to mostly ignorant ppl over here

thats why i said u guys should respect the local customs of each state in the North
the hausas religion should be respected,but also the plateau mans traditions and customs
should not be encroached upon

if only some of these rioters know how ppl look down on black ppl worldwide
they would stop fighting each other and face the big picture. .

This is a much more accurate depiction of Northern and Southern regions of Nigeria than we are shown. Note that all the Northern regions practice sharia and regularly host violent extremist riots.

Please feel free to suggest corrections.

Adding to Beaf's point,

The only people who want Middle Belters to be falsely labeled as Northerners are those who want to see Northern domination of this country forever. You know as well as I do that if there were fair and free elections in this Nigeria, the middle belters would ally with the South rather than with the North.

This rubbish has been going on for a long time but unfortunately politics is a game of numbers. To make matters worse the british just put everything north of the Niger and Benue under the northern umbrella.
@tpia, so you better marry me if you want to become a senator in this country representing kaduna south.

My question to Edoyad, when was middle belt created?and what was the manouver behind the creating of middle belt? who created middle belt? After the creation of middle, those behind the creation of middle belt have they succeed in their plans? If you can find these answers, we can go for further discussions.

una well done o. una don derail my thread and turn am into "core north" vs middle belt bruhaha. Una congratulations o.

ndu_chucks: Why are you complaining so much? You started a post based on a false premise, and so people corrected you. Now you are complaining?

DapoBear:

ndu_chucks: Why are you complaining so much? You started a post based on a false premise, and so people corrected you. Now you are complaining?

DapoBear, I take it that you did not read the adjustment to the statement that caused the initial protest by Edoyad. Here's a link to the post: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-394445.0.html#msg5467989

Me_Aboki:

@edoyad
You are trully an edcated slowpoke!
Is Adamawa State not in northern Nigeria?
Did the incident not happen in Adamawa State?
Then whats so difficult to comprehend ?

NOTE:
Title of the thread reads, [size=14pt]Yoruba [/size]WOMAN IS ADAMAWA SENATOR
Don't let your hatred and arrogance clowd your judgement.

@ paddy
That can happen but not with the insults and goading from the ilks of edoyad and co.
As a matter of fact the hausa/fulani man would accept anyone in so far as you will not disrespect him and particularly his religion. That is the key to peaceful co existance.

By the way, a northern christian , Gen. Yakubu Gowon (from Angas tribe) ruled Nigeria  - though not under demoratic setting - and still respected in the north.

There is something very wrong with the bolded text. It's happened more than once from you, I believe it's an error tho; so please correct it.

the map is on point. The core North and those who feel or think they are united are the states that have sharia law implemented, the middle belt states are NOT the north just people playin both sides.

I did live in Adamawa state.

And beaf you get problem,

The reason she won was because Nyako and Obasanjo were running at that time, look some people won election in the USA because of the Obama factor.


Really Adamawa has mixed people. I live in Mayo belwa, yola, and Numan. 

Even the present Governor  Murtala Nyako niece was one of my student. His home town is Mayo belwa . If the governor remember very well. The house infront of his house was were the corpers use to live.

I even was living in the governor brother house at that time.   The town had a television viewing centre were they watch television , not too far from Nyako house.   One of the Nyako family read If i remember very well. Urban and regional planning or was it geography i cant remember. He use to smoke.  And the other  Nyako never liked him because he was smoking, I think he final was able to teach at the university in Yola, I think that was what I heard when I got back to lagos. He was the radical in the Nyako family. he was a funny man too. He love talking politics too. He use to be very close to my friend , who was a chemistry teacher at the secondary in Mayo balwa.  This Nyako family can discuss politics so much, I wonder where he is now.

Tola is another town in mayo belwa local government. that place far my brother. Food stuff was cheap in tola.


Bachama people are mostly christain. 95% of bachama people are christain. The luther church headquarter in Nigeria is in Numan, very close to the Numan general hospital.  It is close to road going to gombe. From Yola, the bus use to drop us infront of the luther church , those days.

The head quarter of numan local govt that that time was not too far from the Numan hospital and was just opposite and close to the school.
The luther church use to have a library at that time.

I was in larmode the cradle of the Bachama people. When the hama bachama die many years ago. One of the child was my friend.  I was in bolo, ngurore. demsa. I worked at savannah sugar , near Gwana.



In Yola most people are fulani. In song , most people are fulani.  In michika some people are fulani. mayo belwa have so fulani too.

Guyuk is not fulani. Jada and Ganye are not fulani.

The mostly fulani area of Adamawa state are  Yola South, Yola North, Girei. Fufore, Song, Gombi, and Hong

see the map below. it tell you the fulani areas.  the fulani mostly live up the river. but yola was down the river, while larmode is up the river, not too far from savannah sugar  area.  to the road going  to gombe road.

For you to know I am not telling a lie. The former president of full gospel business men fellowship in Adamawa state was Egbor. He later became, i think national president of full gospel. I know him.

edoyad:

This rubbish has been going on for a long time but unfortunately politics is a game of numbers. To make matters worse the british just put everything north of the Niger and Benue under the northern umbrella.
@tpia, so you better marry me if you want to become a senator in this country representing kaduna south.

bros abeg stop trying to deny your zone based on ethnicity.so called middlebelters have enjoyed the seat of presidency longer than any part of nigeria.secondly,they were involved in biafran war and killed igbos too.you all are thesame.the way hausas were massacred in jos is a witness.dont we have equal population of moslems and christians in the southwest?why are jos indigenes killing because of ordinary lga chairmanship?please accept the fact that north is north.south is south.

Edoyad,

The only thing I accept about your rants is that you are not Hausa/Fulani.  However, you cannot change the geographical location of Adamawa based on your ethnicity. Adamawa is in the North East zone, period.  Admittedly, many Adamawa citizens are non Hausa/Fulani northerners.

I know you have deep rooted hatred for Hausa/Fulani  and probably vice-versa. There is also religious hatred eating you people up. Imagine the city of Kaduna that used to be a melting pot, being divided along ethnic/religious lines - an affair that is as shameful as barbaric. Will you claim that Northern Kaduna is in the middle belt as well?

I noticed that you dodged an important question you were asked: when was middle belt created?and what was the manouver behind the creating of middle belt? who created middle belt?  I hope you are informed enough to provide us with answers to these questions.

Based on your logic, we might as well start using ethnicity for geographical expressions. You are a bloody non Hausa/Fulani northerner, deal with it! olodo.

The Middle Belt: History and politics
By Haruna Izah

Where is the middle Belt? Those who support this idea or concept define it to include eight states of the federation, namely Adamawa, Taraba, Niger, Kogi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory. Southern Kaduna, Brono and Gombe are also regarded as part of it. In trying to re-assert itself as an independent entity, the place has for long become an alluring bride for many suitors, conscious of the strategic part it plays in deciding the outcome of an election.

Straddling the middle of Nigeria, the middle Belt is a relatively big complex multi-ethnic, multi-religious geographical area, where unlike the Hausa-Fulani and the Kanuris of the far north, is populated largely by minority ethnic groups. Its politics is no complex, swinging between an uneasy attachment to the far north and sometimes an open or cautious solidarity and alliance with southern-based parties. No wonder it has since the pre-independence days been a fertile fishing water pond for the big three ethnic groups in the country in their quest for political dominance.

The middle belt however is much more than an attractive bride waiting to be plucked by the lucky suitor. It has other attributes. Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, a prominent advocate of this cause thinks he knows the true significance of the area in Nigeria. A middle Belt conference he convened in August 1998, the first civilian governor of the old Plateau state and one-time National chairman of thePpeoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated that "because the Middle Belt is located in central Nigeria, which comprise the people of southern and northern Nigeria, it is always in the best position to interpret the north to the south and the south to the north. Not only do we serve as the glue for the country, our privileged location enables us to best measure the temperature of the nation. This role places enormous responsibility on our shoulders, and also requires that both the north and the south must listen carefully to us anytime we speak on contentious issues".

This is chief Lar's understanding and the place of the middle Belt in the corporate entity called Nigeria. Indeed even before the emergences of the Lars on the political scene, the area had been under going some kind of rethinking on its place in Nigeria and its politics. The birth of the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) in the late 1940's was the culmination of such rethinking and the search by the area for relevance in national politics. The founding fathers of the UMBC such as the late Rwang Pam, Yonah Asadugu, Bello Jacob Ijumu, Pastor David Lot, among many others invested enormous amount of their time and resources to see to the realization of the goals of the area.

How did the United Middle Belt Congress fare in meeting the objectives of the area as set out by the founding fathers? In electoral term, the UMBC did very well. According to Jonah Asadugu in an interview he granted to a magazine called "Northern Nigeria in perspective"(NNIP) in February, 1992, the party won 35 out of the $45 seats allocated to the area during the 1954 federal and regional elections. It was however not so lucky with other goals, such that the demand for a Middle Belt region as the willink commission of Inquiry set up by the colonial government in the fifties to look into grievances of minority groups in the country rejected the request. British colonialists and powerful conservative northern interests may have been responsible for the rejection , though it appeared the idea never disappeared from the minds of some here.

It is understood by some people that part of the history of the middle Belt is the history of control and domination by its big neighbours. Some were able to resist the domination, some did not, thus losing their independence and the ability to chart a different course of existence. The voting pattern here is therefore usually informed by how the political parties relate to such history. This may explain why the United Middle Congress was able to sweep the polls in a large part of the area in the pre-and may also be post -independent periods. It may also be the likely reason why south-based parties like the NCNC and the Action Group were able to establish or form good working alliances with the UMBC. On the other hand, the failure of the defunct Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) to make significant inroads here may be due to the fact that the people here may have perceived it as the political organ used to dominate and marginalise them.

The second republic displayed a mixed grill of the voting patterns reinforcing the issue of the diversity of the area.

Perception of the past did count, but not everywhere. Old Plateau state, perhaps the strongest and most steadfast defender of the middle Belt identity went to zik's led Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP). It was a clear vote against the more conservative far north-led National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Former Gongola state, now made up of Adamawa and Taraba was swept by the Great Nigeria peoples Party (GNPP), a party that had some roots in the old Borno Youth Movement (BYM), an ally of the United Middle Belt Congress. Benue state, a hot-bed of minority revolt and identity, however to the surprise of many, laid out the welcoming mat for the conservative NPN.

Kwara and Niger states took the same route as Benue. In the second term in 1983, only chief Solomon Lar's Plateau, then made up of the present Plateau and Nasarawa states held its ground against the mighty onslaught of the NPN. Lar won his re-election on the same NPP platform. Kwara state exchanged suitors, ditching the NPN and tying the nuptial knots with chief Awolowo's Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).

The NPN also retained Benue and Niger states, in addition to adding Gongola.

During the short-lived third republic, the social Democratic Party (SDP), which was regarded as the party closer to the area's interest found formidable challenge from the more conservative National Republic convention (NRC). In the end the two parties divided the area almost equally during the governorship elections. Plateau, Benue, Kwara and Taraba went to the SDP, while the NRC took Niger, Kogi and Adamawa states.

During the presidential elections however the SDP polled substantially more votes than the NRC. As a matter of fact the SDP presidential candidate, chief M.K.O Abiola got the second highest block votes in the whole country from the area. Only the south west gave Abiola more votes.

Today in the present political dispensation, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in control of all the eight states here. Does this mean the PDP is closer to the aspirations of the area than the rival All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)? Hard to say, since in today's Nigerian politics, it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly what the parties stand for or where they originated from. However Middle Belters may have been looking for a bigger tent, in order to enjoy a bigger slice of the federal largess and found in the big PDP the perfect tent. Having watched from the sidelines during the NPC and NPN days, eras that consigned then to the political wilderness with all the attendant material drought, for once going mainstream with the PDP was a chance the area did not want to miss.

There are of course people who do not believe in the middle Belt even as a concept, let alone a reality. Those who hold such a view believe that the north is one, united indivisible entity, stretching from Kwara to Katsina and Sokoto to borno. It has no separate part, nor would any part be allowed to go its separate way. Not infrequently agitators, for a separate Middle Belt area out of the north are regarded or described as either few ethnic or religious sentimentalists, who out of pure mischief want to break up the north on the lame excuse that they are being unfairly treated to achieve their separalist goal or stooges of a south bent on slicing off a large chunck of the electoral votes of the north so as to cripple the region politically. Perhaps more than anyone, the Sardauna of Sokoto and the NPC made sure a middle Belt region did not materialize. Today his main followers are still keeping the flames of a united north and the anti-middle Belt stance alive.

Do those who deny the existence of a middle Belt have a point? Yes, they do to the extent that while there was an agitation for the region, the effort was never successful. So legally speaking, there was never a middle Belt region, if the argument is about what was in existence rather than what the people wanted but failed to get . The anti-middle group may have another point if those promoting the cause of a separate identity of area give the impression that the issue is more about religion than geographcal, historical circumstances and genuine minorities fears. Nothing gives those who do not like the idea of a middle Belt better amunition than the impression that it is about religious exclusivity for one religious group. And yet religion, in this case, Christianity, can not be promoted as the binding factor since to do so would exclude Moslems who however happen to form a significant percentage of the population. Christians may be in the majority, but and a quest for this identity has to have the ability of carrying along everyone, irrespective of faith or ethnicity.

However geography and history are more plausible factors the agitators of middle Belt cause can advance? Geographically, the area straddle the middle of the country, giving some of the people here an outlook and orientation that some places are quite different and distinct from the upper north. A large number of the ethnic groups here also share a common history of occupation and domination by the bigger groups in the far north. Common and shared historical experience has become for such groups a rallying factor for identity and unity. The fact that most of the groups are minorities in the midst of the dominant Hausa-Fulani and Kanuris has to some extent helped to instill a sense of solidarity to enhance their ability to ward-off domination, real or imagined.

All these are factors behind which a case for the middle Belt can be built. They are issues that cut across the whole area and not limited to a part of it or some group. On the other hand while some may feel religion is not insignificant, the fact still remains that its elevation will divide rather than unite the area, an outcome those who truly desire a united middle Belt cannot hope for.

So then, do the two sides have valid cases? It may seem so. Those who reject or do not believe in the middle Belt may have legality on their side. On the other hand, geography and history seem to support the cause of the advocates of the middle Belt. In the final analysis though, it may be history, perception, a sense of identity among the people and the nature of the state that will define the reality of the middle Belt rather than what the political elite from both the anti and pro group say, do or want.


Monday, November 29, 2004

[url=http://www.nasarawastate.org/newsday/news/culture/11129114540.html

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Hear from the people that grouped us.

Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in central Nigeria after Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election.

A Muslim charity in the town of Jos says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected among Christians.

There is no official confirmation yet, and figures are notoriously unreliable in Nigeria, says the BBC's Alex Last.
. . . . . . . . . .


Troubled past

In 2001, more than 1,000 people died in religious clashes in the city, situated in Nigeria's fertile "middle belt" that separates the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.

Nigeria map

And in 2004, a state of emergency was declared in Plateau state after more than 200 Muslims were killed in the town of Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia.

Correspondents say communal violence in Nigeria is complex, but it often boils down to competition for resources such as land between those that see themselves as indigenous versus the more recent settlers.

In Plateau, Christians are regarded as being indigenous and Hausa-speaking Muslims the settlers.


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Edoyad,

I ask you, does your grouping as a political entity to be explored by politicians and religious zealots alike, change the fact that the so-called middle belt geographically remains in Northern Nigeria? The answer to that question is an emphatic no!  Your recent posts have helped to ascertain this fact as well, read your own posts.

I maintain that you are a non Hausa/Fulani Northerner.  There is absolutely nothing you can do to change that. What you can change is your behavior to your neighbors - you people need to learn to live with each other instead of killing each other like cows in a barbaric manner.

You are invited to holiday  


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Nigeria Central
The Middle Belt, Glue Of The Nation

By

Chimaroke Nnamani
Governor of Enugu State
ebeano@ebeano.org



2005 edition of the public lecture series of the
Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Plateau State Council, in conjunction with
Africa Republic Foundation (ARF); Hill Station Hotel, Jos, Nigeria

Tuesday, August 16, 2005



,  cheating, in history, consists in speaking
for one's self, while feigning to speak of others,

,  Alan Browning
(in Nazi Hate Mongering, 1944)




. . . . To the effect of that background, I had then viewed the issues of Middle Belt Nigeria ,  with a kind of trepidation. Certainly, not that if a departure from the aimed definition in terms of geography, politics and class occurs, a kind of swift response for conceptualization would follow on the basis of the cacophony already strewn on the plain.

[size=14pt]By the way, if we talk of a Middle Belt, we must take into account such definitional preferences of the promoters as well as the historical data made available by researchers. Historically, it is not so easy to fit the entire Middle Belt into any zone of original antecedent. According to legends of legend and legends of origin, what we have on the ground cannot present a definitive single antecedent or even a composite background. Yet, even against that background, the Langtang, Birom, Tiv, Chawai, Jaba, Jukun, among the other tens of such ethnic groups, have one thing in common. They have lived in the Niger-Benue Confluence over some millennia. And they have, together, claimed the Nok culture, reportedly originating from Nok Village in Jaba Local Government Area, Kaduna State[/size].

Besides the varied origins as claimed in the cases of peoples of the Nok Culture, the Middle Belt areas or the Niger-Benue Confluence region, were to gravitate to such western economic endeavours, of which the Tin Mining enterprises in Jos, our present host city, drew into it many of the people who were to realize their common heritage and political destiny. Such virtually natural concentric development, expanding in the sucking of peoples from deep Southern areas as well as far-flung North actually presented the zone as the glue that draws.


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I ask again, who is Folashade Jackson Bent representing in the Nigerian senate ?

Knowall, as long as you're Nigerian, you're Nigerian if you know what i mean. The fact of the matter is a charlatan opened this thread with the intention of deceiving readers as to who the credit of an Osun woman being a senator from adamawa lay with. I'm waiting !

edoyad:

Knowall, as long as you're Nigerian, you're Nigerian if you know what i mean. The fact of the matter is a charlatan opened this thread with the intention of deceiving readers as to who the credit of an Osun woman being a senator from adamawa lay with. I'm waiting !

Guy e be like say you get real beef with Hausa/fulani people.

edoyad:

Knowall, as long as you're Nigerian, you're Nigerian if you know what i mean. The fact of the matter is a charlatan opened this thread with the intention of deceiving readers as to who the credit of an Osun woman being a senator from adamawa lay with. I'm waiting !

edoyad, you appear to be more daft than I anticipated and don't deserve any more attention from me.  Despite the fact that I modified the initial statement which you didn't like (https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-394445.0.html#msg5467989) , you insist on ignoring the main point I was making, which is: the rest of the country should emulate Adamawa state.

You'd rather fight over whether you are a northerner, middlebelter or a bushman. It is this kind of intolerance that causes you people to kill each other at the slightest provocation.  You are free to continue your rants, I'm done with you on this topic. Get lost and stay lost!  Once again, you are a bloody non hausa/fulani Northerner. Deal with it!