In case you didn’t already know, TY is the acronym for Theophilus Yakubu. It is the name of Nigeria’s once chief of army staff and defence minister. His full name is Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. He is a “true son of the soil” of Takum, the biggest town after Wukari in Taraba state. Those of us also from there are proud of him and will always thank him profoundly for not forgetting his place of birth.
While he was fully involved with affairs of the Nigerian state like the bloody civil war, TY hardly ever visited home. His ‘homes’ were Lagos, Jos, Kaduna and lately Abuja where he had state of the art houses but with nobody living in them. The story some of us grew up to hear is that the only time he came home to bury his aged mother, he was accompanied by few comrades from the army. They were said to have wept more over his decaying town than the dead. They couldn’t believe that their “officer commanding” came from this place that was permanently lamenting its neglect. There was no pipe-borne water, no electricity and no macadamized road network. The town was shell shocked from its many civil strifes.
However, now retired from the military and a successful businessman ever since, TY has turned his attention back home. His T.Y. Foundation is doing a wonderful job of turning Takum around. Now we have clean water running from freshly installed taps, there is “light” everywhere and every night. TY has built wide bridges over the two streams that confront you coming into town, one before you get to the army barrack and the other after it. There is also a cute medical facility for mothers and their infants. However, these features of modernity and a good life have flourished in a town deserted by much of its population because of a savage internecine tribal conflict.
TY has been repeatedly accused of stoking embers of the conflict to help his Chamba ethnic group against its majority Kuteb neighbour. He is accused of secretly ferrying arms into Takum to keep the fire of mutual animosity alive and burning. The retired general hasn’t denied the allegation and his silence, not at all surprising, is being interpreted as admission of complicity. And his unreadiness, yes unwillingness, to use his huge influence to build peace between these two long time foes speaks volumes.
Those of us who thought his humanistic touch to the physical look of Takum signaled a determination to promote peace would be disappointed by a resurgence of Chambanization. TY has a visible hand in it. In May this year, Col. Agbu Kefas, the governor of Taraba Staye managed to install a Chamba man as “kuru” (chief of) Takum, in full breach of the 1963 Northern Regional Government Gazette that recognized the Takum traditional stool as the sole preserve of the majority Kuteb. The last Kuteb ukwe (chief) died in 1996 and there had been none ever since. Many governors before Kefas resisted persistent pressure “from the top” to upset the applecart by appointing a Chamba kuru. Instead, they let Takum be without a ruler for 28 years. They considered the matter too slippery a banana peel to step on. Their lack of action prevented violence but didn’t remove the tongue of ethnic flame. And neither has what Kefas has done. With a little but strong shove from TY, the governor has provided a chief but one presiding over a population as deeply divided and feuding as ever.
However, TY believes Kefas has done a right thing that many before him were too cagey to do. Speaking during a night time installation of the the Chamba in Jalingo, not Takum, surprisingly, the general said this: “A typical soldier would ignore the court and go ahead with the ceremony of installing the new chief. But Kefas did not do that. He patiently obeyed the court, let the court decide what they are going to seek, and allow the court to be the final judge. And it came, the final judgement, he proceeded to announced our new ruler. But these people we are talking about have a history of litigation. They are permanent litigants. Until the lawyers chopped all their money, then they will come back to their senses.
“The tragedy of all these is that the leadership of the prostestants, those who took the Governor, the Attorney General and who else – about three people – they took them to court, none of them was born in Takum. I used to go to school – in Katsina Ala – with the parents of some of those who are now causing trouble. And whenever we came back to Takum, no matter how late we arrived, they would make their way back to the hills, to where their home was. Now these same people are telling us that Takum belongs to them alone. They invented a new history of Takum that has no basis anywhere. They described events in Takum that never took place in its history and concluded that only they and nobody else, can share power and the throne of Takum. Well, the court disagreed. But be prepared, be prepared, Your Excellency the Governor, to defend your victory because typical, typical of these people, they will continue to go to court. The lawyers will tell them they will win next time. So be ready.”
Hardly the language of reconciliation and peace but an exhortation to be ready for trouble. Still we love our TY. We pray that the wisdom that comes with age will alight on him to open his “eyes of understanding”. Let him see also Takum’s need of peace just as he saw the necessity of a facelift. The facilities he is putting on the ground must have also on the ground people to enjoy them!
