The acute inadequacies of Nigeria’s conventional security forces has left large swaths of territories ungoverned and millions of lives an...
While the Boko Haram insurgency appears to be confined to the north-eastern corner of Nigeria, trans-border bandits, composed mainly of ethnic Fulani militia men that were mostly imported into the country from countries of the Sahel region as mercenary fighters in the infamous farmers/herders’ clashes, have constituted a deadly criminal franchise whose spheres of influence are spreading beyond the North-West into the central and southern parts of Nigeria.
Resulting from this complex web of complicated security challenges that have overwhelmed the capabilities of the already overstretched Nigerian security forces, Nigeria has gained notoriety as the third most terrorised country in the world. Taking advantage of the multi-layered inadequacies and defects inherent in Nigeria’s national security architecture, which has left large swaths of lands ungoverned and millions of lives unsecured, trans-border bandits have converted the entirety of the Nigerian territory to a thoroughfare of criminal economic opportunities through mass murder, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom.
Faced with the grim reality of the inability of Nigeria’s centralised policing system and other Federal Government-controlled security agencies to contain the rising spate of insecurity, which was aggravated by the incursion of trans-border bandits into the forests of the south-western states from where they stage deadly attacks on major highways in the region doing what they know best, killings, robbery and abduction of commuters, the sub-national political leadership of the region was moved to act.
In a country sharply divided along ethno-geographic and religious fault lines, the killing of the daughter a prominent Yoruba leader by suspected Fulani bandits raised tempers above boiling point in an atmosphere already charged up by bigotry and irredentism.
In moving quickly to calm frayed nerves, prevent resort to self-help, which may result in a total breakdown of law and order and further re-assure the grieving people of the South-West region of their safety and security by constituted authority, the six governors of the affected states, in full consultation with relevant stakeholders, including security agencies, took the pragmatic step of evolving a community-driven security initiative, codenamed Operation Amotekun. A Yoruba language descriptive for leopard, the Amotekun security initiative is comprised of group of vigilante volunteers bearing non-prohibited arms essentially conceptualised to compliment the community policing effort of the Federal Government that is aimed at combating crime through provision of the critically needed native intelligence by residents of a region under the siege of cross-border bandits and other local criminal syndicates.
However, the birth of the Amotekun security initiative has come under an unnecessary wave of controversies that threatens to abort this child of existential necessity that is very dear to the people of Nigeria’s South-West region. The first to oppose the Amotekun security initiative was the Miyetti Allah Kautal Lahore, a self-styled pan-Fulani socio-cultural organisation that is committed to unrestrained pastoralist right of nomadic herdsmen along what they describe as “ancient grazing routes” across Nigeria. The Miyetti Allah group, which has been severally accused of coordinating the importation of mercenary fighters into Nigeria on behalf of their cattle breeding brethren in the infamous farmers/herders’ clashes, expressed strong opposition to the Amotekun security initiative, claiming it was targeted at Nigeria’s ethnic Fulani people, while also calling for the arrest of “Yoruba leaders” championing the cause of restoring security to the South-West.
If the unfounded misgivings of the Miyetti Allah was taken lightly by those concerned, the subsequent statement from the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, declaring the Amotekun security initiative as illegal, came as a rude shock to Nigerians. The unilateral declaration of Amotekun as illegal by a Federal Government that has been unable to protect and secure the lives of its citizens against marauding trans-border bandits is provocatively insensitive and portrays the Muhammadu Buhari administration as pandering to the parochial interest of Miyetti Allah Kautal Lahore. Following the lead of Miyetti Allah, prominent voices out of the Muslim North of Nigeria have been unanimous against the Amotekun security initiative.
Contrary to the claims of the Federal government and the allegations of Miyetti Allah, Operation Amotekun is a legal security initiative that is not targeted at Nigeria’s ethnic Fulani but criminals, irrespective of their ethno-geographic origin, in collaborative effort with the Nigeria Police, under its framework of community policing, with the aim of restoring security to Nigeria’s South-West region. The Amotekun security initiative is similar to the Civilian JTF in conceptualisation and operation as a home-grown community-based counter-insurgency volunteer group in the North-East. The only difference between them is that the Federal Government has denied Operation Amotekun cooperation of security agencies where it has allowed Civilian JTF.
Rather curiously, the major opposition to Operation Amotekun appears to be coming in torrents from the Muslim North, a region that is at the epicentre of Nigeria’s security earthquake. For the leaders of a region that has been reduced to a mass human slaughter slab to appear less concerned about finding solutions to their complicated web of complex security challenges and more concerned about the efforts of leaders of another region at solving their own security problems is the height of provocative irresponsibility.
If the leaders of northern Nigeria do not value the lives of their people enough to rise up beyond the cowardice of futile negotiations with trans-border bandits, their South-West counterparts have demonstrated the courage of responsible leadership in their commitment to the security of the lives and properties of their people.
A region that is collapsing under the heavy yoke of multifaceted security challenges cannot afford the luxury of opposition to a security initiative such as Operation Amotekun. Faced with the reality of the inability of the combined strength Nigeria’s security forces to effectively combat the deadly menace of trans-border banditry and Boko Haram insurgency, northern Nigeria, more than any other region in the country, needs its own Amotekun security initiative. To effectively contain and defeat insecurity in northern Nigeria will require a collaborative region-wide security initiative such as Operation Amotekun in the South-West, working in synergy with security agencies.
Therefore, the Northern Governors Forum would do well to reach out to their South-West counterparts for the operational manual of the Amotekun security initiative for modification and adoption in Northern Nigeria.
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