In Nigeria, the Benue State is one of the States in the middle belt region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in the 2006 census, it was noted that the State has a population of approximately 4,253,641 people. It is inhabited by mostly by the people of Tiv, Igede and Idoma wo speak their native languages too respective of their names.
The people of Tiv comprises of the Etulos while looking at the Idomas and they are made up of the Ufia's also known as the Utonkon all the way to Orokam at the western border of the state. Now,there are also other ethnic groups in the State apart from the Etulos and they include the Abakwa, Jukun, Hausa, Igbo, Igala, Akweya and Nyifon. Benue is a very rich state based on the agricultural sector in the country as in the Capital of Markudi, there is a large produce of potatoes, cassava, soya bean, guinea corn, flax, yams, sesame, rice, and groundnuts and palm oil and that is why its slogan is “Food Basket Of The Nation”.
The name, Benue is derived from the River Benue and which runs through the region as the state was formed sometime in 1976 from the Benue-Plateau State and since then, it has also gone through more divisions as a new State named Kogi was also created out of it.
Now, the people of Benue have their land blessed with lots of abundance in Mineral Resources and you can get these minerals all over the different local governments in the Region. Looking at these Resources differently, it is only at a village called Tse-Kucha that is close to Gboko that you can find Limestone and Kaolinite also, can be found at Otukpo and right now, they are in use commercially. For the other, lot of their resources, you can find them in various deposits of Baryte, Gypsum, Feldspar, Wolframite, Kaolinite, mineral salts and Gemstone in different areas of the State.
The State is bounded by Enugu State in the South Western part, to the East is Taraba, Nasarawa has the northern border and the Country Cameroon is on the South-Eastern border. They have cheerful and very hospitable people who for their living fish and farm as their primary and most important profession.
