Akperan Orshi
| James Akperan Orshi | |
|---|---|
| Tor Tiv III | |
 | |
| Tor Tiv | |
| Reign | 3 March 1979 – 16 October 1990 |
| Predecessor | Gondo Aluor |
| Successor | Alfred Akawe Torkula |
| Born | 12 March 1925 Tse-Kur, Mbatie District, Benue State, Nigeria |
| Died | 16 October 1990 (aged 65) Tor Tiv Palace, Gboko, Benue State, Nigeria |
| House | Ipusu (Kpar) |
| Religion | Christianity (NKST) |
| Occupation | Teacher, lawyer, magistrate, civil servant and traditional ruler |
James Akperan Orshi (12 March 1925 – 16 October 1990) was a Nigerian teacher, lawyer, jurist and traditional ruler who served as the third Tor Tiv, the paramount ruler of the Tiv people, from 1979 until his death in 1990.[1][2][3] Prior to his appointment as the third Tor Tiv, he served as a chief registrar and commissioner for area courts, solicitor-general and permanent secretary, attorney-general and commissioner for justice of the former Benue-Plateau State.[1][2]
Early life and education
[edit]Orshi was born on 12 March 1925 at Tse-Kur in Mbatie District, which was part of Gboko area at the time. He studied at Gboko Elementary School (1934-1938) and Katsina-Ala Middle School (1939-1943). He was trained at the Elementary Training Centre, Bauchi from 1943 to 1946 and at the Higher Teachers' Training College, Katsina from 1950 to 1952.[1]
He attended the Institute of Education, University of London, 1956-1957. He attended a law school course at Zaria in 1959 and at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1960. He went on to have a subsequent legal education at Gibson College of Law and at the Middle Temple in London from 1960 to 1963.[1] He was called to the English Bar in May 1963 and to the Nigerian Bar on 11 July 1963, after attending the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.[2]
Career
[edit]Orshi began his career as an elementary schoolteacher in 1946. He became an elementary school headmaster in 1949 and served as headmaster of Gboko Senior Primary School from 1953 to 1957.[1] According to the Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation, he went on to serve as a headmaster of Vandeikya Senior Primary Boarding School from 1958 to 1960.[2]
After his qualification as a lawyer, he joined the judiciary as an associate magistrate in 1963 and was later promoted to magistrate grade I, senior magistrate and acting chief magistrate. He resigned from the judiciary and became under-secretary in the Ministry of Finance in 1969. In 1971 he rejoined the judiciary as chief registrar and commissioner of the area courts and in 1972 became solicitor-general and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice.[1][2]
Orshi was appointed attorney-general and commissioner for justice of Benue-Plateau State on 11 June 1974. He was reappointed after the change of military government in 1975. When Benue State was created in February 1976, he was appointed secretary to the military government and head of the state civil service until his voluntary retirement that same year. He later served as chairman of the board of Nigeria Airways. He stepped down from the airline's board in 1978.[1][2]
Tor Tiv
[edit]The Tor Tiv stool was established in 1946 by the British colonial administration, as a focal point in a society that had been largely decentralised in terms of its political organisation. The office alternates between the Ipusu and Ichongo sections of the Tiv.[4]
Orshi belonged to the Kpar lineage of the Ipusu division and was from the Tombo area. He succeeded Gondo Aluor of the Ichongo division, and was appointed Tor Tiv III on 3 March 1979 and installed on 30 June when he was given his staff of office as a first-class chief. As Tor Tiv, he headed the Tiv Traditional Council, whose Ijir Tamen serves as the supreme council at which chiefs discuss issues affecting Tiv society and resolve disputes. He also chaired the Benue State Council of Chiefs.[4]
Orshi is described in scholarship as the first practising Christian to sit on the paramount Tiv stool, and a member of the Church of Christ in the Sudan Among the Tiv Christian denomination.[4] He was invested as a traditional ruler in Tivland through a broader trend towards the selection of educated, Christian men as traditional rulers, unlike investiture ceremonies that focused on Swem, a symbol of justice and ritual authority in Tivland, which was performed on the Bible.[4]
In April, 1985, Orshi held a series of meetings of the Ijir Tamen, which were meant to lead to the organization of a national forum for the Tiv to cooperate with one another. After five sessions from April to August 1985, Mdzough U Tiv was established and handed over to elected leaders.[1]
Orshi remained Tor Tiv until he died at the Tor Tiv Palace in Gboko on 16 October 1990 after a brief illness at 65.[1][3] In April 1991, he was succeeded by Alfred Akawe Torkula.[5]
Honours and legacy
[edit]In 1978, Orshi was conferred with the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by President Olusegun Obasanjo, and on 1st April 1981, was appointed Chancellor of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, currently Rivers State University, by Governor Melford Okilo.[1] In 1983, the university awarded him the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.[2]
The Benue State Government renamed the state-owned College of Agriculture in Yandev in his honour, to Akperan Orshi Polytechnic, Yandev, in April, 1991.[6]
Personal life
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Benue State Government (1990). Programme of Events for the Burial of Late Tor Tiv III, His Highness Orchivirigh Dr. James Akperan Orshi, OON. Makurdi: Benue State Government. pp. 7–18.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Babah, Chinedu (8 March 2017). "Orshi, His Royal Highness Orchivirigh James Akperan (Late)". Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- 1 2 "Benue agog as new Tor Tiv mounts throne". Daily Trust. 5 March 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Adega, Andrew Philips; Gbenda, Joseph Shinyi; Myom, Cynthia Shater (2021). "Ator A Zan Adua (Christian Traditional Rulers) and Tiv Culture in the 21st Century". International Journal of Culture and History. 8 (2): 16–34. doi:10.5296/ijch.v8i2.18915.
- ↑ "On a new Tor Tiv". The Guardian. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- ↑ Student Information Handbook (Revised ed.). Yandev: Akperan Orshi College of Agriculture. 2018. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 12 August 2026.