Making Amotekun effective, efficient

SINCE the inauguration of the regional security outfit, Amotekun, most professional, including security experts and legal luminaries have been weighing options and offering suggestion on how to make the overall objectives of the organisationattainable: sanctity of lives and safety of properties in the Southwestern part of the country. The preponderance of the views came against the backdrop ofcertain misconceptions in a few quarters about the how altruistic the motives of initiators, the governors of the six states in the region.  Having set aside political tendencies and inclinations, the governors had been decisive in defending the project regardless of the insinuations, including assumption by adversaries that the laudable initiative amounted to building something on nothing; that the concept lacked legal teeth.

The advocacy for legal framework gained ascendancy in the midst of the outrage elicited by the declaration that the Amotekun was unconstitutional, by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, AbubakarMalami. Therefore, while lampooning the minister for his outburst, prominent legal luminaries and groups and other individuals offered very useful advice on how to make the initiative rooted on the ground, effective and efficient once it became operational. For instance, Constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), KayodeAjulo and others gave specific steps that should follow in the direction. In fact, the Ondo State governor, who doubles as the chairman of the South-West Governors Forum (SGF), RotimiAkeredolu(SAN), had said the minister could not from the confines of his office make such a sweeping statement on the initiative.

The claims and counter-claims necessitated a series of high-kevel consultations, meetings and interface involving the main stakeholders, especially the governors with the Presidency in Abuja. The conscious bid to build a consensus on the issue led to the crucial meeting by the Vice President, Professor YemiOsinbajo with the governors on Thursday in Abuja, where all the parties agreed on a concrete roadmap on the security initiative for the South-west. A release issued by the office of the vice-president underscored the importance attached to it by all the concerned parties. It read in part: “Having regard to the need for all hands to be on deck in addressing the security concerns across the country, it was agreed that the structure of Amotekun should also align with the Community Policing strategy of the Federal Government.It was also agreed that necessary legal instruments will be put in place by each of the States to give legal backing to the initiative and address all issues concerning the regulation of the security structure.”

The meeting with Professor Osinbajo by the governors came barely 24 hours after the leader of the All Progressives congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu strongly canvassed for dialogue between the initiators of the idea and the federal authorities to address the perceived grey areas.  Some of the prominent individuals thatTinubu over the introduction of a regional security outfit included a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor KayodeOyediran; the leader of a pan-Yoruba organisation, Atayese, Chief TokunbohAjasin; former Minister of Education, Professor TundeAdeniran; former Commissioner for Works in Lagos State, Chief LanreRasaq and a former member of the National Assembly, HonourableMoshood Salvador.

Reacting to the statement of Tinubu on Operation Amotekun, Professor observed that the contribution of former Lagos State governor was well reasoned, balanced and statesmanlike. “I commend Asiwaju Bola Tinubu very highly for this statement on Operation Amotekun. Unlike many contributions on this matter in the public domain, it is well-reasoned, objective, balanced and clearly focused and statesmanlike; the sort of contribution a true leader should make. It contrasts with the rabblerousing chest-beating and trivialisation which characterised quite a lot of other contributions.”

Also speaking on the matter, Professor Adeniran observed that though that though the timing of Amotekun was auspicious, “it should neither be politicised nor romanticised in the realm of mythology.”

Rather, he said it should be seen as an initiative designed to bridge a gap in Nigeria’s security architecture as a result of our national security challenges. “What is necessary at this point is for the initiators of Amotekun to appreciate the commendation of the broad spectrum of Nigerians, dialogue with stakeholders of the Nigerian security project at all levels and on all fronts and get inputs to improve the relevant aspects of the initiative. Moreover, other states and zones must appreciate the need to emulate and improve upon the Amotekun initiative. We all have the responsibility to secure this great nation from the captivity of bandits and criminals of all categories. It is only in an environment of peace and security that development, self-actualisation and the attainment of community, state and national goals can take place.

While calling for improved training and funding of the nation’s security agencies towards achieving effective and efficient policing, Professor Adeniran said the security challenges confronting the country were daunting. “The forces battling with the Nigerian nation and the enemies aiming at its soul are formidable and we all have the responsibility to save the nation. Before us all, from community to community, local government to local government, state to state and zone to zone up to the national level is a chain of depressing evidence that we are under an unrelenting siege.

“While encouraging more funding , training and re-orientation to have and maintain vibrant and valiant police, military force and paramilitary organizations with the proper conditions, the enabling environment to succeed, the light shining on our security apparatus has exposed our present limitations,” he stated.

Speaking on the call for dialogue by Tinubu over the controversy trailing Amotekun, a former Commissioner for Works in Lagos State, Chief Rasaq said such dialogue was imperative because of the primary responsibility of the government to the citizens.  Rasaz added: “Dialogue is necessary, because even if you fight over an issue for 50 years, unless you sit around the table to dialogue, there will be no solution. I strongly believe that two wrongs don’t make right.” he stated.  “I also strongly believe that the south-west deserve the rights to protect the lives and property of the people. If individuals can hire guards to protect their lives, a whole South-West have more than what we can regard as the right to protect the lives of the people they (governors) are elected to govern.  The primary duty of any good government is the protection of lives and property.  But let them dialogue with the federal team and sort out things because just as the state have rights to protect their people, the centre also has the right to protect them. It will amount to exposing the people they are expected to protect to unreasonable and unsound danger if they don’t have an alternative that is effective.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. If we have been adequately protected in the South-West, the governors would have riveted their energy and resources on other reasonable things. So, I fully accept and endorse the position of our greater leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

Similarly, Chief Ajasin agreed with Tinubu on the necessity for dialogue but added that the controversy stirred by Amotekun provided an opportunity for Nigerians to address what he called the National Question. “I think Bola Tinubu has said it all! He said we have to dialogue over it. I want to add that it is indeed an opportunity to dialogue over so many things. I agree we need to dialogue so that we don’t heat up the polity.  “Yes, there was no reason for the statement issued by the minister of justice in the first instance because we have been shouting all these days concerning the wave of killing, kidnapping, with most people becoming afraid to travel. Yet, nothing is forthcoming from the government security agencies, so why can’t we now take care of ourselves?  You want us to just remain there and be a cannon fodder for them to kill all of us? We won’t accept that.  The governors did the right thing by saying they want to protect their people and that’s why they got the support of everybody. So, has created an opportunity for all of us to sit down together to think and resolve the National Question amicably,” Ajasin stated.

A former member of the National Assembly, HonourableMoshood Salvador described Amotekun as a welcome development, saying the people had waited for too long.  He recalled making a similar call for dialogue on the introduction of the security outfit when he advised that the inputs of all stakeholders should lead to the state Houses of Assembly in the South-West zone passing the necessary law backing the initiative.  “It’s almost the same thing with what I said. I said Amotekun is a welcome development. It is what the Yoruba people have looked forward to for a long time. But our governors have to go back to our state Houses of Assembly and make law to support the activities of Amotekun. In the lawmaking process, the governors should present the bill to the house to be received by the Speaker. The members will deliberate on it for the First Reading and the Second reading and there will be a Public Hearing. The Public Hearing stands for the dialogue. It is part of the lawmaking process; all the stakeholders will come together in a public hearing and discuss the contents of the bill and make further inputs. That is dialogue, which is in line with what I said.”

 

Legal framework

In a treatise, another vocal legal practitioner, DrKayodeAjulo provided a possible template that could be adopted to strengthen Amotekun. He give an extensive explanation on how the governors and others behind the security outfit could evolve the necessary legal framework. While insisting that the upsurge in banditry, kidnapping and gruesome killing necessitated the birth of Amotekun, Ajulo added that the existing security framework had shown that there is no clear chain of command making it difficult for the security authorities to deal with the rising wave of insecurity. Therefore, he said the main argument against the legality of “Amotekun” is the erroneous belief that the establishment of a parallel outfit to carry out patrol with the regular police in Nigeria is a contravention of the provisions of the constitution. He noted that such proponents often cite 214(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) that provides that: there shall be a police force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.” But the lawyer also reflected on the argument of the pro-Amotekun initiative on its legality that the duties of the concept is not policing properly so-called and that the outfit should not be confused as forming a parallel regional Police side by side the Federal Police Force because Amotekun is designed to work with the Police, not as an alternative, but as part of the tools to be used by the regular Police to provide a better and more effective security to the region. “Having established the necessity of a strategy for encouraging the public to act as partners with the police in preventing and managing crime, as well as other aspects of security and order based on the needs of the community it is advised that enabling laws be placed to put up an apparatus that will allow for a community-oriented policing.  In order not to throw out the baby with the bath water, it must be stressed that instead of banning any of these established security groups such as Amotekun, Civilian Joint Task Force, Hishba and others, their rough edges must be trimmed and their functions must be explicitly delineated. To the extent that the concept of Amotekun is fundamentally to create security awareness and intelligence gathering, it is my considered opinion that no law prohibits its establishment; that indeed the security situation in the South West makes its creation inevitable,” Ajulo stated.

Nonetheless, he shared the views of another eminent lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), and a lot of other scholars and professionals, as well as Nigerians resident in the United States on the need for the governors of the South-West to quickly initiate moves to give legal backing to Amotekun. “However, it is important that a proper law, which must of course take cognisance of existing laws, (not by executive action of governors), be put in place by the legislature of the  sponsoring states which would in turn be enshrined in our jurisprudence for the Western Nigeria Security Network, the Amotekun, would be ceremonially signed “into law” by the governors of the sponsoring states to define the scope and limit of its operation and all other matters incidental to it,” the lawyer advised.

Apparently the governors are now under pressure to act on the legal framework on Amotekun. While some observers are worried that the process could take some time in view of the procedure for legislation, others are optimistic that the governors cannot afford to prevaricate ordither because of the seeming emergency security in the zone. There are other pundits who believe that having gone this far on the initiative, the governors understand the implications of the task ahead.

In an encounter with newshounds after the meeting of the governors with Osinbajo last week, Governor Akeredolu was careful in giving details of their resolutions. But the pressmen succeeded in extracting a commitment on his part on the issues that hitherto surrounded the birth of Amotekun. “All of us have agreed on the way forward,” Akeredolu said. “The most important one is that we are going to have a legal framework to back this Amotekun. And this legal framework is going to be one which we all are going to look at and will be sure to go without any hindrance.” Thus, with that kind of promise from Akeredolu, the people of the South-West nay the entire country are expectant, particularly on how expeditiously the governors and other critical stakeholders acted on due process that would lead to the impact of the security outfit in the region no distant time.

In conclusion, the submission of Ambassador Dare Bejide on the security outfit and the attendant issues that trailed its birth on January 9, 2020 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. His position is that, “Whatever is the initial flaws of Amotekun , the governors from the zone should be commended for throwing away partisan garments in a bid to provide adequate security for those that voted them into office as governors.” He said because security remained a serious business,

‘Operation Amotekun’ is a necessary measure to curb robberies, kidnapping and other crimes that have become the order of the day in the zone, the governors should collaborate with the office of the Attorney General of the federation and other relevant agencies and thereafter commence the process of putting in place a legal framework highlighting the status,structure and funding of the outfit to ensure its sustainability. His words: “Security is a serious issue that should not be politicised. It is a matter that affects everybody and cooperation is required from all the stakeholders and at all levels.”