Middle Belt

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Middle Belt Region
Central Nigeria
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Motto: Our Land, Our People, Our Heritage
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Largest cityAbuja
Official languagesEnglish
Major indigenous languagesPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
Ethnic groups
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Religion
Christianity
Islam
Traditional Religion
[[Demonym|DemonymTemplate:Pluralize from text]]Middle-Belter
Population
• Estimate
40,000,000[3]

Middle Belt (also written Middle-Belt) is an informal term, not officially recognized by the federal government of Nigeria, that is used in human geography to designate the region stretching across Nigeria longitudinally and forming a transition zone between Northern and Southern Nigeria.[4][5][6][7][8][9] It is composed of the southern half of the defunct Northern Region of Nigeria,[10] now comprising mostly the North Central and parts of the North East and North West geopolitical zones, and is characterised by its lack of a clear majority ethnic group. It is also the location of Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory.

Some scholars argue that the concept of the Middle Belt reflects not only a geographic region but also a religio-cultural coalition of minority groups in Northern Nigeria, many of whom are predominantly Christian and non-Hausa in origin[11][12]

The presence of many minority groups, to some degree, constitutes an ethno-linguistic barrier in the country and draws a separation between the principally Muslim North and the mainly Christian south.[13] The region is a convergence of these cultural domains and maintains a tremendous degree of ethno-linguistic diversity. Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger–Congo languages are all spoken, which are three African language families.[14] In the 1920s, it was described by Melzian (1928:496) as the "Middle Zone".[15][<span title="Script error: No such module "decodeEncode".">further explanation needed]

Overview

As to what the Middle-Belt entails, three top members of the Middle-Beltern struggle had this to say as presented in the pan-Middle-Beltern magazine, New Vision in December 2000: Template:Quote

The veteran journalist, Chief Bayo Joseph, Media Consultant and Chairman, Editorial Board of the New Vision, on his own part said:

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On another flash, Onesimus Enesi added that:

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The definition of the Middle Belt areas are subject to great debate due to the presence of significant number of ethnic Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and Igbo groups .[citation needed] In addition, the Yoruba who are the predominant ethnic group in Kwara and Kogi have a strong affinity with the larger Yoruba body and frequently prefer not to be associated with the Middle Belt identity.[citation needed]

Politics

Territories

States of Nigeria which are generally referred to as belonging to the Middle Belt are: old Plateau (now Plateau and Nasarawa), old Gongola (now Adamawa and Taraba), Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Benue, the Federal Capital Territory, alongside Southern Kaduna, Southern Bauchi, Southern Kebbi, Southern Gombe, Southern Yobe State and Southern Borno, all culturally considered as part of the Middle Belt.[10][16]

Agitations for a region

The yearnings for the creation of the Middle Belt region in Nigeria had been a burning issue, as even groups like the United Middle-Belt Youth Congress (UMYC) demand for a separate identity from the "North" by the creation of the Middle Belt region as a federal unit within Nigeria.[17]

Demographics

Population

The population of the Middle Belt as of 1991, was about 17.3 million but now predicted to be over 45 million people with the Christian population accounting for 65%, Muslims 25%, and Animists 10% of the total population.[10]

Ethnolinguistic groups

The Middle Belt consists of many ethnic groups speaking over 230 languages. There is no dominant ethnic group, but among the larger groups as of 1991 are: Tiv with a population of 5.1 million and Nupe with 1.8 million people.[10] These ethnic groups are represented by advocacy organizations such as CONAECDA.[18][19][20]

Ethnoreligious conflicts

Minorities in Nigeria tend to be dominated by the three largest ethnic groups, the Hausa of the North, the Yoruba of the Southwest and the Igbo of the Southeast. Surrounded by divergent religious, economic, and cultural histories, the Middle Belt has been the melting pot where small and large ethno-religious groups in Nigeria have long coexisted, but where they have also increasingly collided over land, resources, identity and political power.[21] The result is a mixture of recurring conflicts and occasional political unity and solidarity amongst these highly differentiated peoples. An example for the latter was the United Middle Belt Congress that emerged following Nigeria's independence from United Kingdom in 1960. In particular, Jos city in Plateau State has been a centre for ethno-religious disputes and violence since the 1990s. The Jos Forum Inter-Communal Dialogue process spanned 16 months from August 2013 - December 2014, and refers to a peace process undertaken by communities living in Jos that concluded in a "Declaration of Commitment to Peace". In 2018 violence escalated, with battles for scarce resources leading to over 500 deaths and 50 towns being destroyed. The clashes were largely between Muslim Fulani pastoralists and Christian Berom farmers. Over 300,000 people have been displaced by the violence.[22]

See also

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Obed Minchakpu: The Middle Belt question in Nigeria's political discourse". The Sun. Lagos, Nigeria. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."North must apologise for atrocities committed against Middle Belt –Prof Yusuf Turaki". Daily Post. Lagos, Nigeria. 24 April 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Maryam Ahmadu-Saku (30 September 2024). "64th Independence: Over 40 million people marginalised in Middle Belt". Daily Trust. Retrieved 22 March 2025.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."E-Government Portal". services.gov.ng. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."National Library of Nigeria (NLN) - Index". nln.gov.ng. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Okorie, Patricia N.; Ademowo, George O.; Saka, Yisa; Davies, Emmanuel; Okoronkwo, Chukwu; Bockarie, Moses J.; Molyneux, David H.; Kelly-Hope, Louise A. (2013). "Lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria; micro-stratification overlap mapping (MOM) as a prerequisite for cost-effective resource utilization in control and surveillance". PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 7 (9) e2416. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002416. ISSN 1935-2735. PMC 3764235. PMID 24040432.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Ministry of Regional Development". Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."General remarks". European Union Agency for Asylum. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Structure of the Commission". National Boundary Commission. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Johnson, Patrick (1978). Operation World: A day-to-day guide to praying for the world (4th ed.). OM Publishing and WEC Publications. pp. 327–328. ISBN 1-85078-007-2.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kperogi, Farooq A. "Why Nigeria's Northcentral States Can't be Renamed "Middle Belt"". Notes From Atlanta. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Barnes, Andrew E. (2007). "The Middle Belt Movement and the Formation of Christian Consciousness in Colonial Northern Nigeria". Church History. 76 (3): 591–610. doi:10.1017/S0009640700500596. ISSN 0009-6407. JSTOR 27645035.
  13. ^ Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.Johannes Harnischfeger, Democratization and Islamic Law: The Sharia Conflict in Nigeria (Frankfurt am Main 2008) p. 38. Campus Verlag. Template:ISBN
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Languages of Africa". www.fmprc.gov.cn. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Melzian, H. (1928). "The Northern Tribes of Nigeria, by C. K. Meek, Oxford University Press, 1925". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (Review). 1 (4): 495–496. doi:10.2307/1155920. JSTOR 1155920. S2CID 143502810.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nigeria: Rising Toll of Middle-Belt Violence". 28 June 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Akinferon, Dapo; Kumolu, Charles (9 December 2011). "We're not northerners- Middle-Belt youths". Vanguard. Lagos, Nigeria. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Blench, Roger (2020). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (PDF). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  19. ^ Blench, Roger. 2019. Old data and new technologies: the seamless integration of linguistics, literacy and translation for Nigerian minority languages. Jos Linguistic Circle, Jos, 13th March, 2019.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Blench, Roger (31 December 2020). "Research on the Plateau languages of Central Nigeria". Afrika und Übersee. 93. Hamburg University Press: 3–44. doi:10.15460/auue.2020.93.1.209. S2CID 128339090.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Higazi, Adam (January 2011). "The Jos Crisis: A Recurrent Nigerian Tragedy" (PDF). Working Paper (2). Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: 3–6. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nigeria's Farmers and Herders Fight a Deadly Battle for Scarce Resources". 25 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018.

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