Amotekun a direct response to insecurity —Lawal

Chief Bayo Lawal was the former Attorney-General of Oyo State from 1999 to 2003. In this interview by Gabriel Oshokha, he speaks on other steps that should be taken to make Amotekun to complement the law enforcement agencies to curb crimes in the South-West, among other issues.

HOW would you assess the prevailing political climate in the state?

The current political climate in the state does not give much to be desired because there have been claims and counter-claims from politicians which recently culminated in crisis and, in fact, violent demonstrations in some local government areas in the state. This is so because of the perception of our people with regards to the alleged conduct of local government election. But that is subjudice and I won’t comment much because the matter is in court. But having said that, a situation where violence and brigandage will be the order of the day in any part of the state is not what we desire. But good, the case came up recently in court and the two gentlemen who represented the parties, Chief Niyi Akintola and Dr Akin Onigbinde-both of them are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs)-were in court. The two of them are eminent indigenes of the state and I believe that we would come to some agreement and everybody will be happy as far as local government administration is concerned. And there is this strong admonition, even from the court, that we have no other state and so we must conduct our affairs in such a way that all of us will stand to benefit and the dividends of democracy will spread. Currently, that appears to be the in-thing and I will urge and plead with our people to stop inviting foreign authorities to meddle in the affairs of the state. We should give the current administration the peace of mind to administer the state in such a manner that all of us will have peace of mind and so we can share the dividends of democracy in the state.

What significant changes have you noticed so far in terms of governance and public perception of government?

I want to take you back to the pre-general election of 2019 where in Oyo State particularly, there was an agreement—a coalition kind of agreement where the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Zenith Labour, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) coalesced to form a formidable platform on which the current governor stood the election. And good enough with that coalition, Seyi Makinde, the current governor, emerged victorious. I must tell you, as an indigene of this state, that, so far so good, in terms of governance, no sooner Makinde took the oath of office than we started seeing changes, positive changes. I will highlight a few of such changes. Firstly, the state of education in the state that had gone comatose, all of a sudden, became vibrant. And I attest to the fact that, within the first month of his assumption of office, textbooks were distributed freely to secondary school students. I happen to know this because in my house in my village, I have a cousin of mine with four children. While interacting with them when I got home, each one of them came with textbooks—English, Mathematics, Biology and Chemistry—not exercise books, and this was so all over the state. So, credit must be given to such an administration.

Secondly is healthcare delivery. If you have ever been to Adeoyo Hospital before the advent of this administration, you will feel sorry because the whole place was overgrown by weeds. But no sooner Seyi Makinde assumed office than we started witnessing the transformation of the hospital. You can go and see the transformation. This was spread all over the state; wherever you have a state general hospital, there has been ongoing transformation. Healthcare delivery forms part of the agenda of the administration’s manifesto and the governor is acting on his promises.

If anything, I must commend this administration because of what it is doing. If it has not done, it I won’t comment but I have reasons to comment. For eight years of the previous administration, if you are travelling from Ibadan to any part of Oke-Ogun, you will feel sorry that you belong to this state. Now, you would realise that a couple of months back, this administration re-awarded the Moniya/Iseyin Road and the work is ongoing fast to the extent that a journey that hitherto will take about three hours  from Ibadan now takes less than two hours to Iseyin. In the last rainy season, Oke-Ogun was cut into two; people could not cross over to Oke-Ogun, and whenever you get to River Ogun, that is the end of the journey. But all those things have now been put into place.

The Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme (OSADEP) headquarters used to be in Saki but through machinations and political shenanigan, it was moved to down to Ibadan. But in the wisdom of this administration, because Oke-Ogun is not only the food basket of Oyo State, but also the entire South-West region, Governor Makinde has taken the headquarters of OSADEP back to Saki and we are happy for it. I would not want to talk about security because of the challenges that we had. When the roads are good, farm produce will come on time to the urban centres; when the roads are good, easy movement of people will be assured; when the roads are good, there will be less challenges of security. These are the things that agitated us in the Oke-Ogun area of the state and this administration is taking care of such challenges.

Hitherto, our people were disenchanted before the advent of this administration. Hitherto, the civil servants felt disenchanted. I just told you that in Oke-Ogun, we felt disenchanted; hospitals without drugs, even no personnel. But all of those have been transformed and people are now enjoying the facilities. Civil servants are now taking their salaries as and when due. In fact, pensioners are taking their pensions regularly. The other day when I was in the secretariat, I got to know that Governor Makinde has scheduled payments of pensions. If it is your turn, you just go and pick your cheque on a particular day. It is done in such a way that you don’t need anybody’s influence because you have been scheduled. If, for instance, you are a 2020 retiree, you just go and take your cheque on a particular day-it is staggered and I think it is commendable.

What would you suggest as other steps that should be taken to make Operation Amotekun complement other law enforcement agencies to curb violent crimes in the South-West?

The concept of Operation Amotekun is a direct challenge to the state of insecurity, not only in the South-West region, but also all over the country. What our governors did that every individual of Kaaro Oojiire (Yoruba extraction) must commend is that they came together and addressed the issue of insecurity in the region. The governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu; governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde; governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun and the governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola all came together for that purpose. But the striking issue there is that Governor Makinde of Oyo State, a PDP governor, was part of the agreement. This Operation Amotekun arrangement could not have succeeded this far, if had raised an objection to it as nobody could have raised a finger on the issue of partnership in Amotekun. You have the PDP and the APC in the arrangement and so kudos must go to Seyi Makinde because if he had opted out of this arrangement, it could not fly.  That is on the face value of it.

Operation Amotekun is to address insecurity and this is devoid of partisanship; it is devoid of faith or religion. It is a strong signal to powers-that-be at the centre that we cannot just fold our arms and see our citizens being maimed, raped, abducted and being kidnapped without any challenge. So, Amotekun is a good enterprise in the South-West region. And you will observe that even in spite of criticisms of whether it is legal or non-legal, some other regions have followed suit with their own variations of Amotekun. Some few days ago, northern states came together to launch their own version or variation of Amotekun-they call it Shege Ka Fasa. I saw it on the You-Tube. They have their own vehicles as Amotekun; they have their own equipment and they even have their own equipment. If they can take care of their zone and the South-West is able to take care of its zone, the South-South and South-East should go and take care of their zones, security wise so that all of us will be covered in terms of security.

Let no one deceive you; even the current police structure, as it is cannot cover the entire country by way of security. Indeed they lack so many things; they don’t have finance and logistics. We cannot just fold our arms and be watching; we must do something, even if that will be the complementary efforts of the South-West to the police structure that we have. The Amotekun is a project that everybody, irrespective of political leanings and religion, must embrace.

What do you envisage in the politics of the state in the next couple of years and why?

It is obvious now that in politics, it is either you belong to Party A or Party B. From what played out in the 2019 general election, especially in Oyo State here, that we are gravitating towards a two-party system; it is either you are in the PDP or you are in the APC because all those political parties that formed the coalition and used the PDP as the vehicle and what they are saying is that the PDP is a stronger party that can express their political desires. So the trend now is to give an impression that two-party structure is coming up strongly to contest future elections. And, if you observe very clearly, some of these other parties that congregated and formed the coalition are becoming less and less viable in the political scene. Right now, it is either the PDP or the APC and it is the choice of the people to pick one of the two. It is good for our democracy; it will be less expensive for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections because when you have about 70 or 72 political parties contesting presidential election, it will become difficult for INEC to handle. For instance, if you omit just one political party’s logo, it can disrupt the entire election. Now, the parties are becoming manageable. That is the trend I am seeing in Oyo State and I think it is good for us.