Lawrence Igyuse Doki

Lawrence Igyuse Doki, also known as Gyuse Doki, was a World War II veteran and Tiv resistance leader. Alongside fellow army veterans such as Makir Zakpe, he is remembered as one of the emancipators of the Tiv people in the 1940s, leading the agitation and the 1946 Makurdi riots that forced British colonial authorities to reconsider the Tiv people's demand for their own paramount ruler, the Tor Tiv.

Doki was born on 24 August 1923 at Mbaduku, Vandeikya Local Government Area, to Doki Abua Tortya of Mbaaposugh, Mbaadigam, of Nyumagbagh council ward in Mbaduku District, Vandeikya. He lost both parents as a child. He attended St Patrick's Catholic School, Tavaku (Taraku), in present-day Gwer East Local Government Area, from 1934, graduating with a Standard Six certificate on 30 September 1940.

Ten days after graduating, at the age of seventeen, Doki was conscripted into the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) in 1940.

On 27 January 1941, Doki was sent to the war front in Kenya, where he served under General George Giffard and displayed conspicuous courage. He was subsequently transferred to the Gold Coast (British colony), where he was appointed drilling officer for new West African recruits from the Gold Coast Regiment. He was promoted from Private to Company Sergeant Major (CSM), serving under Lieutenant General Francis Nosworthy and later Lieutenant General Montagu Brocas Burrows, before being demobilized from the RWAFF in 1946 following the end of the Second World War.

Doki and other war veterans were conscripted into the Nigerian Army in 1965, and he was still serving during the Nigerian Civil War in 1967, fighting on the Nigerian side alongside Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Akaahan Agbo (Joseph Akahan). In 1972, two years after the war ended, he retired as a Second Lieutenant to his hometown of Mbaduku.

Before the installation of the first Tor Tiv, Makir Zakpe, the Tiv people felt marginalized under British indirect rule, which divided them among the Jukun in the north-east, Cross River in the south, and Lafia division in the north-west, and which had installed Audu Dan Afoda as "Sarkin Makurdi" (King of Makurdi). Doki, together with fellow World War II veterans including Aemberga Samu, Tsenzughul Tyungu, Ishi Wayo, and Gbir Agera, began agitating for a Tor Tiv while still serving abroad, writing to D. F. H. Macbride, acting Resident of Benue Province, to request the appointment of a Tor Tiv - a request Macbride denied as contrary to colonial policy.

On his return from the war, Doki and his comrades organized protests against British-backed Hausa-Fulani caliphate influence in Makurdi. When Audu Dan Afoda died suddenly in 1945 and the British moved to install his son as successor, the resulting unrest erupted into the Makurdi riots of 1946, led by Doki. The riots disrupted the planned dynastic succession in Makurdi and forced the Governor of Nigeria, Sir Arthur Richards, to reconsider the Tiv demand for their own king, leading to the eventual election of a Tor Tiv.

Led the 1946 Makurdi riots, which forced the reconsideration of Tiv demands for the Tor Tiv institution. Promoted from Private to Company Sergeant Major during his World War II service. Posthumously honoured by the Kunav traditional council with the chieftaincy title "Nomor u Kunav" (Kunav man of valour) on 22 April 2000.

Despite the resistance he helped lead ultimately resulting in the creation of the Tor Tiv institution, Doki himself, along with his fellow veterans, did not benefit directly from the change - Makondo Igbon of Nyiev, Ihyarev, was installed as the first Tiv chief of Makurdi. Doki and his comrades were instead arrested, tried, and convicted for their role in the unrest, with Doki, as the leader, sentenced to seven years and eight months' imprisonment at Enugu prison. Following his release, he was banished from Tivland by Tor Tiv Makir Zakpe for political reasons, living in exile in Western Nigeria until his return in 1959, three years after Zakpe's death.

Makurdi has had only Tiv chiefs since the agitation led by Doki and his comrades, and the city became the capital of Benue State in 1976. A street in Makurdi is named in his honour, and he holds the posthumous Kunav chieftaincy title "Nomor u Kunav."

• 24 August 1923 — Born at Mbaduku, Vandeikya Local Government Area
• 1934-1940 — Attended St Patrick's Catholic School, Tavaku (Taraku)
• 1940 — Conscripted into the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF)
• 27 January 1941 — Sent to the war front in Kenya
• 1946 — Demobilized from the RWAFF following the end of World War II
• 1946 — Led the Makurdi riots
• 1946 (approx.) — Sentenced to seven years and eight months' imprisonment at Enugu prison
• 1959 — Returned from exile in Western Nigeria
• 1965 — Conscripted into the Nigerian Army
• 1967 — Served in the Nigerian Civil War
• 1972 — Retired as Second Lieutenant
• 1974-1981 — Boarding Master, Tilley Gyado College, Makurdi
• 5 November 1981 — Died, aged 58
• 22 April 2000 — Posthumously honoured with the title "Nomor u Kunav"

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