Issues
Amotekun: Good Thinking, Bad Product?
After decades of general insecurity and apparent helplessness on the part of the Nigeria Police and other security organizations, different sections of the world’s most populous Black nation now seem to have lost faith in the ability of the regular security forces to restore peace and order in the land.
Recent attempts to rejig Nigeria’s security apparatchik have failed principally because President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) government are still playing deaf to all the calls for an immediate replacement of the nation’s service chiefs.
While the government prevaricated, Boko Haram, ISWAP, cattle rustlers, Fulani herdsmen, armed bandits, kidnappers, rapists, cultists and other criminal gangs became more daring in their various onslaughts against the rest of society.
The resultant resort to self-help has since found expression in the formation of neighbourhood vigilantes, state security outfits and now, regional police.
The Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Operation Amotekun is about the first of any such successful attempts at registering a regional security outfit in Nigeria.
So far, Amotekun appears like a well conceived antidote to the current spate of insecurity in the country and is fast becoming the prototype for all other geo-political zones except perhaps the core North which insists that the proposed South West brand of regional policing is targeted at migrant Fulani cattle herders.
On its part, the Federal Government had, ab initio, opposed the formation of Amotekun as an independent regional security apparatus. Speaking through the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), the government cited Article 45, Schedule 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as having placed the nation’s policing on the exclusive list. Malami, however, said that the government would allow state and regional participants on the basis of a newly proposed community policing architecture.
Under the new arrangement, as was later explained by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, the Federal Government will recruit about 40,000 Nigerians as Special Constables drawn from their immediate communities of residence, regardless of whether they are indigenes of such communities or not. They will be trained, attired in the usual police uniform and function in the same way as the regular police; except that their duties will be mainly to gather intelligence reports for which they will be paid a monthly allowance.
Going by this concept, therefore, Amotekun and such other future regional outfits are expected to fall into the community policing system only to the extent of sharing intelligence, arresting and handing over any crime suspects to the nearest police station for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Again, another equally aggrieved group and Mallami’s co-travellers, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), hardly helped matters when it threatened that the North will deny the South West zone a shot at the Presidency in 2023 should its governors still proceed with the establishment of Amotekun.
But the South West governors, who reportedly conceived the idea of Amotekun in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in June 2019 at a meeting of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) commission, would have none of that.
Their meeting with Malami, a few days after launching Amotekun on January 9, 2020, did not appear to have ceded anything to the Federal Government or Miyetti Allah. And this was quite evident from Malami’s posture during a presss conference after the meeting. The AGF’s countenance was, to say the least, a study in icy self-possession as he stood among the obviously gloating Yoruba governors. In short, he looked like one who had just met his match in the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, another SAN and chairman of South West Governors’ Forum.
Besides the South West geo-political zone, only the North West is said to have raised its own regional security force, codenamed Operation Sege Ka Fasa.
Before these inter-state security co-operations, internal security had degenerated to the level of states helping themselves by forming their own vigilante corps For example, in Lagos State there is the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), Borno has the Civilian Joint Task Force, there is the Hisbah Corps (Sharia Police) in Kano, Operation Rainbow in Plateau while Enugu floated the Forest Guards.
Here in Rivers State, the Governor Nyesom Wike administration, in 2018, established the Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency (aka Neighbourhood Watch) with about 3,000 vibrant youths recruited and already being trained by the Nigeria Police at Nonwa in Tai Local Government Area when the Federal Government suddenly clamped down on the initiative, accusing the state of providing training beyond what is usually allowed for such paramilitary engagements. But those who saw beyond their noses simply sympathized with an obviously paranoid Federal Government, especially in the face of the approaching general elections in 2019.
However, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has joined other regional socio-cultural organizations across Nigeria to urge their governors in the South South geo-political zone to quickly establish a regional security outfit in the shape of Amotekun.
PANDEF, an umbrella body of traditional rulers, elder statesmen and other stakeholders in the Niger Delta was reported to have made the call at an expanded National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting recently.
There is, however, this fear that PANDEF’s request may not be quick in coming, especially considering the latest pronouncement on the matter by the Delta State Governor and Chairman of South South Governors’ Forum, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, that the governors would rather key into the nation’s approved community policing template.
Commenting on the South South scenario, a Port Harcourt-based security operative who only wished to be identified as Ehiogie from Edo State said much as he liked the bold statement being made by the Yoruba governors with the launch of Amotekun, it is still early to see how applicable the idea will be to other zones; more so now that it is yet to have the necessary legal framework for its implementation.
Ibiso Elvis-Amgbare is a private school teacher also resident in Port Harcourt. According to her, “What the Yorubas are doing with Amotekun is enough to tell President Buhari that he has never been sincere in tackling Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen attacks against ordinary citizens of this country and can no longer be trusted to do so, going forward.
“I hope that Amotekun succeeds and for our governors in the South South to adopt same in order to stave off any dislodged miscreants who may be tempted to relocate from such zones to this area,” she prayed.
Pan-Igbo organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Middle Belt Forum and a number of other ethnic-based groups have tried to close ranks with their region’s governors, especially since the advent of Amotekun. The only sticking point is that whereas most of these groups have urged for speedy assemblage of their own equivalent of the Yoruba police outfit, apparently in response to the fast deteriorating security situation in their respective domains, their governors seem to be tactfully delaying the process while awaiting the eventual outcome of Amotekun.
Thus far, Amotekun’s formation can be said to have been popular, consistent, fearless and quite methodical. Nearly all prominent Pan-Yoruba groups have lent their support to the agency and its promoters. From Afenifere, whose chieftain and former Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae, was once abducted by suspected herdsmen, to Odu’a Peoples Congress (OPC), Yoruba World Congress (YWC) and Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), there has been serious condemnation of the Federal Government’s attempt to subjugate the WSNS by appointing its representatives into the governing council of the regional agency.
What’s more, the initial equipment outlay by the South West governors for Amotekun’s take-off is as intimidating as it is impressive. According to reports, each of the six governors was billed to contribute 20 security patrol vehicles and 100 motorcycles; but Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, opted to donate 33 vans, making it a total of 133 operational vans and 600 motorcycles.
Also, even if Amotekun will be run by a governing board, there is no losing sight of the fact that the South West already has a generalissimo in the person of the former OPC warlord and now, Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Ganiyu Adams. His influence will surely rub off on the regional outfit.
Reports also have it that the outfit has already recruited 1320 operatives from Lagos, Ekiti and Osun states armed with Dane guns like local hunters. Question is: What can these locally made firearms accomplish against the AK-47 wielded by the Fulani herdsman, kidnapper or armed robber? Or, better still, should such encounter result in the deployment of unorthodox combat methods, can the Amotekun cops boast of superior charms and amulets against their mostly itinerant adversaries?
Amotekun is good, no doubt. And its promoters have also demonstrated their individual and collective abilities to think outside the box when it mattered most. But what happens after now? How well will the likes of Amotekun be managed elsewhere such that will not lead Nigeria into deeper crisis than they intend to avert? Only time will tell.
By: Ibelema Jumbo
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
