i am hungry of Tiv yam

Mu su

@hawua

i will surely get you some, but do you want me to pound them?

word to you guys,keep it up

Msu ne shiii.

tviwomen have alot of aids.

@jona

and you got your stats from where? cause the local govt in benue that keeps making benue a state to be recond with when it comes to aids is oturkpo, an idoma local govt (no disrespect to the idomas intended).

Nice save DRANOEL

*Hauwa*:

i am hungry of Tiv yam

Mu su

its spelt musugh . . . love the yam too

Hmm.

Where have I been all these while? _{Am I asking myself?}. This is a thread to be. men.

That said. I was born and bred in Tivland. (A)vandeikya (Hill of Monkeys _{Though I dont reason like one}). Lived there for twenty yrs.

Attended Jack and Jill in the 80s. Any old boy in the house? Without mincing words, Tivs are the most hospitable tribe I 've lived with. Thats why I keep visiting there whenever am free.

Una too much. Msugh gbin

always wanted to go to Vandeikya while i was there. . . went as far as Iugh (hope i spelt it right ) really nice place

it is spelt ihugh not iugh

I think i've met only 3 tiv people in my life (they lived in makurdi but i am not sure whether they are Tiv). But its good that we are starting this thread, i hate to see that a lot of our minority tribes have no voice, we need to see more ijaw, nupe, idoma threads i would really be happy.
Some of our local tribes are getting extinct and they can't even speak there languages no more, this is despicable.

Poster, i would love it if all the Tiv people on this thread spoke there languages here as the yorubas, hausas, and igbos do.

@ Davidif,I'll start  - Mfa u ngeren zwa tiv dido ga kpa mi nongo 

If that's Tiv (it looks like Ibo) then that's good, i have never heard Tiv before in fact, i don't think i have ever heard any minority language before except Efik, Ibibio, Nupe and Igbira. We need more please and we can't have our people being ashamed of their language. I know we yoruba's no send, we dey even speak Yoruba in front of oyinbo.

Don't worry, if i become Naija president, no student would be able to enter University unless they can pass there native language test PROPERLY.

ngusha:

it is spelt ihugh not iugh

ma bad. . . almost got it sha

@ davidif
i am impressed about your comments. let me help janedoe out,
good morning - U nde ver?

good afternoon/evening - U pande ver?

How are - U ngu nena?

FIne - Kwagh er ga

come and eat - Va ya kwagh yan

SIt down - Tu ma nya

Wait - Tile

Please keep in touch for some more peace y'all tiv speaking peeps and our fans

I AM A PROUD T I V BOY no long tin

.

@ Ngusha- Msugh Kpishi

@ Wanville- Msugh,se nger ga kpa se mba hen

u pander ver. . . we corpers called it upoundoyam
@ngusha
sa pe!!!

@janedoe
m humba u suun

I'm both idoma and tiv. My dad is idoma and my mum is tiv. Really an interesting link we have here. I really wish i could speak tiv, i love my language. My middle name is Doose. and i think tiv guys are actually the most handsome guys in nigeria. And of course the women too (both tribes) example moi. lol. Keep the post coming guys

@ Ngusha

@Doose,msugh da vaan=>Welcome

i am impressed about your comments. let me help janedoe out,
good morning - U nde ver?

good afternoon/evening - U pande ver?

How are - U ngu nena?

FIne - Kwagh er ga

come and eat - Va ya kwagh yan

SIt down - Tu ma nya

Wait - Tile

Please keep in touch for some more peace y'all tiv speaking peeps and our fans

I AM A PROUD T I V BOY no long tin

ngusha,
I believe that our diversity is what makes this country important, i hope that one day that naija does not just become one homogenous country but one with different people from different tribes and tongues, that's why we have to protect our languages from going extinct man.

i don't even want to imagine myself as someone of another tribe. Not even been an Italian not to talk of any Nigerian tribe. I'm a proud Tiv man and I love my language.
keep the line going my brethren

Zwa Tiv doo, wanigbianev av.

I am writing this article because I am Tiv. And the reason is simple. Only a Tiv man can write these things as they strictly affect the Tiv nation. As the saying goes, it is he who wears the shoe that knows where it pinches. If I keep quiet and expect a Kunle Lagbaja or an Ahmed Ibrahim to do this, I will be deceiving myself.

I guess some readers would expect me to apologise for sounding tribal but I will not. We have pretended for too long to avoid being branded clannish with little results to show for it. When an Ibo man boldly cries against marginalisation, he is heard because the system appears to believe they have the right to complain. But the Tiv man has no rights! When a Niger Deltan agitates for resource control, he is listened to because, they have the oil. But the Tiv man contributes (nothing?) to the Nigerian economy.

Do I need to remind us that the Tiv nation is the food basket of the nation? The enormous contribution of their agricultural produce to the economy cannot be wished away. Tens of thousands of tonns of yams, rice, soybeans, groundnuts, oranges, etc, are produced and daily shipped to other parts of Nigeria. The Tiv nation remains the only region in Nigeria that produces these crops in commercial quantities.

Apart from being the food basket of the nation, the Tiv nation has consistently sacrificed their people for the unity of this nation. During the Civil war, they lost of one of their illustrious sons, the late Col. Joe Akaahan the then Army Chief of Staff during the Nigerian civil war in a chopper crash who has not been given a befitting honour by Nigeria to date. He remains one of the unsung heroes of that war.

In the face of gross injustice and tyranny to a people who have sacrificed in no small measure to the building of the Nigerian nation, they are expected to keep quiet. Whenever they speak out, they are quickly branded as tribal bigots in order to silence them. For this reason I decline to shut up even though many would wish I should because they hate to hear the truth.

For decades, the Tiv have shied from speaking up against the systematic exclusion of her people from national appointments both in public and private establishments, hoping that justice and truth could, one day, triumph naturally. This silence has however been misconstrued to mean apathy. Though they work very hard wherever they find themselves they are often bypassed with opportunities; and those who do this do not expect an outcry from any quarters. Who will speak for them anyway?

Even though they are about the 5th largest ethnic group in Nigeria (Census2006), they rank among the least patronised and most marginalised groups in the scheme of national power sharing and distribution of economic opportunities. Despite the fact that they are highly educated and hard working, they are often forced to occupy the back seat.

To further exacerbate this methodical exclusion, the Tiv are mischievously assumed to occupy only one state, which is Benue, despite the fact that they make up a significant population of Southern Taraba, Plateu and Nasarawa States and even part of Northern Cross River. In these ‘other states’ they are given minority status and in the most extreme cases even forced to assume ‘settler’ status thus denying them a stake in the politics of those states. Their efforts to be integrated and be able to participate in the politics of their constituencies is seen as an affront by the ‘indigenes’ in those states. This has often resulted in heated ethnic conflicts. Whenever this happens, analyst find it convenient to blame the Tiv for what has been termed their expansionist tendency.

The Obasanjo administration embarked of a well-planned decimation of Tiv people from federal appointments. He prematurely retired many serving and upcoming Generals of Tiv extraction from the Nigerian Army. He also removed Tiv sons in government appointment in series; Dr. Iorchia Ayu as Minister, Victor Malu as Chief of Army Staff, Engr. Barnabas Gemade as DPD chairman, Engr Ujege as Director Federal Highways, Mr Akpe as Comptroller General Nigerian Prisons Service, to mention a few. He even sent the army to commit the most atrocious genocide in peacetime Nigeria at Zaki Biam just to get even over a squabble with General Victor Malu.

In the current dispensation, one has also observed that whenever a Tiv man or woman is appointed to a national portfolio, there is an outcry from a particular section of the country bordering on non-qualification. It does not matter whether the person so characterised as un-qualified is highly educated and experienced in his field of specialisation. As long as he is a Tiv man or woman, he is deemed unfit to hold a National portfolio!

When the current Attorney General was appointed, these critics did not hide their outrage. The unmistakeable message in most of the commentaries was: this fellow is from a wrong corner of the country. Even his ‘SAN’ was ludicrously described in some quarters as a ‘junior SAN’! Reference to his hometown was made in unmasked derogatory terms. The most vulgar of the gang even called him a ‘bush man’ and ‘ local lawyer’. Their implied contention was that not having practiced law in Lagos or Ibadan effectively makes his knowledge of the law and the Nigerian Constitution of Inferior value. Since then he has received the most hostile press attention among all the members of Yar’Adua’s cabinet.

This reminds me of a shocking experience I had in an encounter with a certain popular Professor in Lagos some ten years ago. As a young graduate of Chemical Engineering, I had walked into his environmental consultancy outfit on Okpebi hoping to land a job as a junior consultant under his tutelage. But I was in for a shocker. The Prof. simply walked me out of his office with a stern warning not to present that certificate elsewhere for a job in Lagos! His reason? He said he does not recognise degrees awarded by Northern Universities. In his exact words: ‘you boys sit down in the north to study elementary science and then call yourself Engineers’ .To say I was mortified would be stating the obvious.

Now, others may not express this nothing- good- comes- from- the-’ north’ attitude in such bizarre a manner as this Professor did, but they do all the same albeit in many subtle but easily decipherable ways. A renowned columnist recently in a veiled attempt to insult to the President took upon himself the task of recommending some books that the president must read in order to become fit and proper to rule Nigeria. This fellow probably believed he is more learned than the President, forgetting that the President is an intellectual in his own right and bred from a well-groomed and educated family, whose father was educated enough to be a Minister of the federal republic at a time when this columnist was probably still in Primary school.

Again when Farida Waziri was appointed to take up the post of EFCC Chairperson, as soon as her roots were traced to the Tiv Nation, some people suddenly realised that she was not ‘qualified’ to head the agency. They sought to sell the fallacy that her appointment was simply because she is from the same State with the AGF, as if the AGF did the appointment. Faced with her intimidating CV, which they could not reasonably deride, they resorted to character assassination. One renowned SAN even asked the Senate not to confirm her appointment failing which he preceded to the courts to stop her.

In like manner when Barrister S.T. Hon was decorated as a Senior Advocate Of Nigeria (SAN) the same group of people argued that Barrister Hon was not qualified because he was a Tiv candidate, they strongly believe that nothing good comes out from Tiv nation, however, Justice Katsina Alu of the Supreme Court who is doing a good job for the nation is a Tiv man and Prof. Ignatius Ayua a renowned fellow in company law in Nigeria is also a Tiv man.

And now we have a very highly educated and experienced technocrat of international repute in the person of Dr. Paul Orhii appointed to head NAFDAC; but instead of applause and support from all, what do we have? A babel of voices from the very constituency he needs the more support questioning his qualification. But is Dr.Orhii, for all practical purposes, not qualified to head NAFDAC?

It is my humble opinion that, if you remove this groundless stigma of ‘he- is- a- Tiv- man-, therefore- he- cant- do- it’, then he is very eminently qualified. Few (if not none) of the so called concerned PSN members shouting blue murder could boast of the credentials and international experience Dr. Orhii is bringing to the NAFDAC DG office. Trouble is that his critics in the PSN most pathetically do not seem to understand his jaw-breaking field of Neuropscycopharmacology. They most probably did not expect such a highly trained specialist to emerge from the Tiv nation. Thus their consternation could be understood.

If Orhii, a Medical Doctor with a PhD in Pharmacology, and over 20 years of practice at home and abroad, is believed not to have a good knowledge of drugs then I wonder who has that knowledge. With a degree in Law to cap it all, one expects that the new NAFDAC boss is even better positioned to tackle the legal aspects of his job which is key to successful prosecution of fake drug suspects. Despite the very weak and shallow argument being put up by PSN against Orhii’s appointment, I support that they go ahead and test their case in Court. At least that would provide useful precedence for the future.

Dr. Orhii is one of the finest brains I have met. He has a unique passion for good governance, justice and equity. He is frank, fair, and above all hardworking with unbelievable humility. An intellectual of many disciplines with vast international experience in Medicine, Pharmacology and Law. Such a man is not just fit to head NAFDAC but is indeed a good omen and a harbinger of better days ahead for the agency.

The truth is that while the rest of the so-called educationally advanced states were busy reeling with pride and underrating the Tiv nation, their boys silently dug their heads in the books. The result is that the Tiv Nation is teaming with many more Orhiis that cannot continue to be ignored for too long. There are currently over 100 Tiv Professors holding key research positions in foreign universities in technologically advanced nations like the USA, Germany, Japan and Russia.

A trip to Benue State University will convince one that indeed, the Tiv Nation has groomed competent academics who are capable of running their faculties to the highest standards. Benue State University is rated among the best State Universities in the country. Her law graduates have been excelling at the Law School. These academics are stars who were not allowed to shine in Universities like ABU, Calabar, Jos,and Nsukka due to the same marginalisation mentioned above. When Senator Saror, a Tiv Professor headed ABU, he received the most bizarre opposition ever witnessed by a VC in my little history.

That Yar’Adua has in a rare display of non-discrimination, recognised the strategic position of the Tiv Nation and set out to fish out competent hands from there to man some key positions in his government is quite commendable. But the appointments so far made are just a tip of an iceberg. Even if ten more of such critical positions are given to the Tiv nation, it will not suffice for the decades of neglect and discrimination suffered by the Tiv Nation. I urge Yar’Adua to shop for the next CBN Governor and Chief Justice from among the Tiv. There should be no sacred posts reserved for certain ethnic groups in Nigeria.

@Terry
Ka yie ga wangom, zwa Tiv do dedo (no be lie my brother Tiv language is good very much), not to talk of their soup which they prepare oh boy! its off the hook my people. Chai if am to cum back to this life a million and one times i will love to be a TIV boy no doubt, if i hear say i no marry tiv girl make i die any female tiv girl here interested?

Ahh Ngusha I'll only consider it if you can make genger

jona is not only against Ibos, also Tivs too!!!
give it a rest man _{(abi na woman)}

Very funny, so you Tiv's think you are marginalized? The Nigerian Defense get a very fat share from the annual budget. Yet, what do we get from it, 1960 Armoured Tanks, 1970 Land Rover jeeps, to cut it short, the army embezzles approximately 90% of the funds. The Tiv's are a majority of the Other ranks, so the many bits get to the Tiv population, the Tiv are 2nd in Command after their Hausa brother in the Officer rank level. Let the South South take your place and they will make less noise.