- An enviable initiative to enhance security of life and property
The six Southwest states of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Osun, and Ekiti are ready to launch a region-wide security outfit to complement the federal security system in the region. Code-named Amotekun (Leopard), the sub-national security arrangement is billed for official launch today, after the Standard Operating Practice is given a final nod by the governors of the six states.
The new security outfit is designed as a collaborative project that includes contributions from the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), members of the national police, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Agbekoya Group, and members of several other vigilante groups within the region.
The arrangement also includes consultation between the governors and traditional rulers in the southwest.
When the Amotekun initiative comes on stream, people living in the region are likely to have good reasons to commend their governors for listening to their cries, especially during the first part of 2019 when kidnapping became rampant on roads connecting the six states, including the Ore-Lagos federal highway where FunkeOlakunrin, daughter of the Afenifere Leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, was gunned down with no trace of her killers till today.
Historically, regional security initiatives are not novel in the country. Before the January 1966 military overthrow of the democratic government of Tafawa Balewa, the country had federal and regional police systems that cooperated to maintain security of life and property.
It was military governments that replaced the tradition of multilevel policing with one central police force. But the first attempt to return to any measure of subnational police system since the end of military rule in 1999 was not until Zamfara, Kano and other states created Hisbah to assist state governors to enforce Sharia laws.
In the wake of kidnapping and banditry across the country in the first half of 2019, Southeastern states recruited Forest Guards to protect their forests from kidnappers and other marauders.
It is significant that Amotekun is taking off at a time the Federal Government is planning to withdraw military personnel deployed to states during the peak of kidnapping and other forms of inter-state criminality in the country.
Even though the President has assured citizens that areas that still seem to be under threats will be given special consideration while soldiers are deployed to other critical assignments, the coming of the Southwest security outfit is timely as it will assist the Federal Government to beef up security in the region.
The decision of Southwest governors to heed the calls of citizens for additional security measures and the governors’ efforts to plan a security arrangement that includes various stakeholders are commendable.
It is laudable that the Federal Government has assured the states of its support, by allowing cooperation between the national security system and the new regional security initiative.
We find it remarkable that despite the bureaucratic, logistics and political differences that earlier tried to stall the emergence of Amotekun, the region-wide security system is finally ready to take off.
This could not have happened without the readiness of the governors to soar above differences – political, religious, ideological, etc.
We urge the governors to see the Amotekun project as the beginning of an enviable model of collaboration across state governments to protect and promote the region’s civilisation in the company of the country’s diverse cultures.
In addition, the security outfit should be structured and sustained in a way that no individual or state can appropriate the organisation for personal or private ends. Although security seems to have improved nation-wide since the mooting of the Amotekun project in the last quarter of 2019, strategic or proactive thinking demands that complacency is not given any space in the operation of Amotekun.
Everyone involved in management of the security outfit should be trained to act with professionalism, fairness and justice.
We commend the Buhari government for encouraging the governors to bring the Southwest security reinforcement initiative to fruition.
The challenge is for the governors to ensure that the new security outfit meets the expectations to contribute to peace and prosperity in the region and the entire country.
