Tuesday, January 21, 2020 / 04:59 PM
/ By Reuben Abati / Header Image Credit: Independent
Newspapers
Virtually everything in Nigeria no matter how well-meaning ends up getting ethnicized, or politicized, or religionized. So it is with Operation Amotekun: the Western Nigeria Security Network whose recent launch by the Governors of the South West, on January 9, has thrown up key questions at the heart of the Nigerian dilemma as well as the fault lines of the Nigerian state.
Today,
in all the six states of the South West, there is a planned Amotekun Solidarity
Walk to be led by state co-ordinators who are members of a group called Yoruba
World Congress - an umbrella group for all Yoruba socio-cultural and
self-determination groups. A statement issued by the Congress says: "All
Yoruba people are urged to come out in their millions anywhere they are in
Oduduwa land on Tuesday to show to the world that Amotekun has come
to stay." Yorubas in Kwara State have been asked to join the protest.
Non-Yoruba residents in the South West
have also been told that Amotekun is for the protection of
everyone in the South West, not only Yorubas. The planned rally may strengthen
the position of those who argue that Amotekun is an
attempt by the South West to assert itself within the Nigerian Federation, and
a hidden plan to introduce state police or regional police through the back
door or perhaps an initial move towards the South West's demand for
restructuring. Nonetheless, the suspicion that this is an anti-Federal
Government initiative or a form of political rebellion cannot stand: 5 out of
the 6 Governors spear-heading Operation Amotekun are members
of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Only Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo
State belongs to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
Whatever
shape the Amotekun Solidarity Walk assumes in terms
of attendance, the organisers have a duty to ensure that it is peaceful and it
is well-organized. They have the right to express an opinion on an issue of
public interest. They are also entitled to a legitimate right to protest. The
police and other security agencies must see the need to facilitate the
expression of those rights. The Inspector General of Police and his men must
tread with caution and be completely professional. We do not expect to read
reports of either accidental discharge or abuse of fire-power/ tear gas
tomorrow morning. Without knowing it, the Federal Government by declaring Operation
Amotekun "illegal" has simply further divided the country along
geographical lines: North vs. South; and provided fuel for the politics of
solidarity in the South and the Middle Belt and the oxygenation of identity
politics in the South West.
This is
the import of the questions that have been raised about the Federal
Government's objection to Operation Amotekun. The Attorney General
of the Federation quoting Article 45 of the Second Schedule of the 1999
Constitution (as amended) which gives the Federal Government exclusive powers
over the police, insisted in a statement that the Western Nigeria Security
Network is unlawful. Malami is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He is also
Chief Law Officer of the Federation and Legal Adviser to the Federal
Government. The Amotekun Solidarity Walk is meant to
remind him that he is not in a position to give orders to the six states in the
Western part of Nigeria. It is an open, people-driven rejection of his
interpretation of the law. Other Silks like him (Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba
and Chief Afe Babalola) and a senior legal scholar, Professor Itse Sagay who is
pro-Buhari, pro-APC, and pro-establishment has also had cause to give the
Attorney General a brief lesson in elementary law. The Attorney General owes
the public another statement in response to the counter views that have now
been expressed quoting the same 1999 Constitution.
Do the
people of Nigeria, whatever may be their ethnicity, have a duty to make useful
contribution to the well-being of their communities as stated in Section 24 of
the Constitution? Is the Attorney General of the Federation also
aware that President Muhammad Buhari reaffirms the value of this section of the
Constitution each time he proclaims that national security requires the
contribution of every Nigerian and every community? Chief Afe Babalola has also
drawn the attention of the AGF to Sections 40 and 45 of the Nigerian
Constitution. In rejecting the position of the Office of the Attorney General
of the Federation, various stakeholders are convinced that he was merely
expressing a personal opinion and that he has no powers to enforce his own
declaration. They want him to go to court if he so wishes, and thus allow the
courts to offer an interpretation and pronounce accordingly.
Operation Amotekun is
a product of the politics of protection and the failure of the same Nigeria
Police that the AGF Malami seeks to protect. It has been said that Amotekun is
an attempt to create state police or regional police. If so, what is even wrong
with that? We need to be reminded that state police or regional police is not
such an abstraction as many make it out to be. The police in Nigeria has
colonial origins. Between 1861 and 1930, Nigeria had a totally decentralized
police system: every part of the country: the Lagos Colony, the Niger Coast,
the Northern and Southern Protectorates, Native Authorities and Local
Governments had their own police forces. Under the indirect rule
system, local police forces were under the control of traditional rulers,
especially in Western and Northern Nigeria. The Native Authority Ordinance (No
4 of 1916) and later, the Protectorate Laws (Enforcement) Ordinance (No 15 of
1924) empowered traditional rulers to prevent crime and arrest offenders in
their jurisdiction and employ persons for police work.
In the
West, the kings had "akodas and olopas"; in the North, there was
the dogarai or yan dan doka. There were also Constabularies.
In 1930, the colonial authorities merged the Northern and Southern Nigeria
Police Forces. It was the first time a national police force would be
established, but even then, that national body co-existed with local police
forces in Western and Northern Nigeria. While the people accepted the latter,
they distrusted the national police which was largely regarded as a cruel
instrument of oppression and intimidation used by the colonial authorities to
suppress the people. The people were largely afraid of the colonial police. In
1966, the Aguiyi-Ironsi regime set up the Gobir panel to re-examine the idea of
having two police forces -local and national. The report was eventually
submitted to the Yakubu Gowon regime and in line with the recommendations of
the Gobir panel, the local police forces were disbanded on the grounds that
they were corrupt and open to abuse by politicians.
The
national police, the Nigeria Police Force was retained, even if nothing was
done to transform it in terms of essence, character and culture. The Nigeria
Police after independence retained its character as a tool of oppression and
intimidation, feared rather than respected by the people. It has since then
remained a tool in the hands of the powerful. Between 1966 and 1979, the police
hierarchy featured now and then in the governance process, but in due course,
military rulers of Nigeria crippled the police, by starving the institution of
funding, equipment and personnel. The military didn't want a rival security
agency. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the fortunes of the Nigeria
Police have not changed. The two former military leaders who became President
during the period have paid more attention to the armed forces. They can claim
that they have had to deal with the emergent crisis of insurgency in the
South-South and the North East and an asymmetrical war of terrorism but the
truth is that the Nigeria Police is handicapped. It remains linked to its
colonial character as a tool in the hands of powerful forces to be used to
oppress and suppress the people. There is no guarantee that any former soldier
in office as a civilian President of Nigeria would ever reverse the fortunes of
the Nigeria Police or accept the idea of a state police.
The
inefficiency of the Nigeria Police and its slavish character have made matters
worse. Complaints about police brutality indicate the scope of the alienation
between the people and the institution but it is the gross inefficiency that
has been reported that is the main problem. Since 1999, there has been a strong
agitation for the creation of state police, especially in the Southern part of
Nigeria. The people want to control their own security. Section 214 (1) of the
1999 Constitution recognizes only a national police force viz: "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 nay part thereof." Section 215
establishes the office of the Inspector-General of Police and State
Commissioners of Police and defines the source of authority, being the
President or whoever he authorizes in Section 215(3). Still, the truth is that
the Nigeria Police as it is, suffers a crisis of legitimacy and
confidence.
The
response to this has been the emergence of all kinds of security outfits across
the country since 1999 to take care of community interests. Vigilantism in most
parts of Nigeria in the form of neighbourhood guards, alternative, private
sector security guards, estate protection units, and vigilance groups set up by
state governments (more than 23) and the erosion of confidence in the national
police illustrate the extent of this situation. In parts of the North, there is
the Hisbah police, which enforces Sharia rules. In the North East, the Borno
state government set up the Civilian Joint Task Force to assist the military
and other security agencies to fight the Boko Haram, and ISWAP. The bravery and
contributions of the Civilian Joint Task Force have been praised by both local
and international analysts. In South West Nigeria, there was the Oodua Peoples
Congress, in the East, the Bakassi Boys, in the South South, the Egbesu Boys.
Every other community has tried to make an effort to defend and protect itself.
In fact, some of the states in the South West at some point set up Security
Trust Funds to provide support for the under-funded, formal, extant security
agencies and vigilante groups.
And
now, the Attorney General of the Federation complains about Operation
Amotekun. Was he just being politically correct to align with the misguided
views of some Northern youths and elders? We should be surprised that he has
not declared as unlawful, the employment of security guards by virtually every
home, every neighbourhood and every community in Nigeria. When you attend any
of the parties held every weekend in Lagos, you are most likely to find private
guards providing security. Nobody calls the police. They are afraid that the
police will collect bribe and allow all sorts into the hall, in addition to the
fear of accidental discharge.
Operation
Amotekun is a community response to the
challenge of insecurity in Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari says ensuring
security of lives and properties is an important part of his three-dimension
pact with the Nigerian people but Nigerians still feel very insecure. His
harshest critics compare the present situation in the country to the season of
anomie that was the civil war of 1967 - 1970. Hence, Amotekun, given
the spike in banditry, pastoralist vs. farmers conflicts, kidnapping, insurgency,
armed robbery and terrorism. What the Governors of the South West have
demonstrated is that they have a "Responsibility to Protect" their
people. Their recognition of that responsibility can only be
meaningful in terms of intervention. Hence, Operation Amotekun .
They deserve to be commended and not harassed by an over-bearing Federal
Government interpreting the law rather selectively. Good enough, the Attorney
General of the Federation has been reminded that there is more than one rule of
interpretation in law.
The
conversation is however altogether useful. Operation Amotekun has
generated fundamental questions around the 1999 Constitution and the police as
an institution. Shouldn't someone in the National Assembly propose a Bill for a
reconsideration of Sections 214 and 215 of the 1999 Constitution, to move
Nigeria away from the threshold of imperial policing to people-focused,
community-based policing? The colonial forces constantly re-organized police
forces in Nigeria between 1861 and 1930. Why is the Nigerian State in a season
of innovation and creativity in the world, so trapped in the past, unable to
provide security for the people? This is the main question.
Related Links
SOUTH
WEST SECURITY INITIATIVE - Why Operation Amotekun may not work as currently
constituted. - By
Dr. Charles Omole, January 13, 2020
Previous Posts by Dr. Reuben Abati
1. New Electricity
Tariffs: Questions by Reuben Abati - Jan 07, 2020
2. Omoyele Sowore:
Portrait of A Life in Protest - Abati - Dec
10, 2019
3. Of Constituency
Offices and Projects - Abati - Dec 03, 2019
4. The Supreme
Court and the Atiku Election Petition - Abati - Nov 05,
2019
5. The
Constitutional Crisis in Kogi - Abati - Oct 30, 2019
6. The Spiritual
Solution to Boko Haram - Abati - Oct 08, 2019
7. Oct 1: The
Journey So Far - Oct 01, 2019
8. Presidential
Powers and The Vice President - Sept 24, 2019
9. Nigeria,
Xenophobia and Ramaphosa's Apology - Sept 18, 2019
10. Mohammed Adoke
Writes Back - Sept 18, 2019
11. P and ID vs.
Nigeria: A Review by Reuben Abati - Sept 10, 2019
12. When Soldiers Do
Police Work: Disaster - Aug 14, 2019
13. Peter Drucker
And The Things That Changed
14. FBI, Nigerian
Fraudsters and Other Stories
15. P and ID vs.
Nigeria: A Review by Reuben Abati
16. When Soldiers Do
Police Work: Disaster
18. The Speech
Buhari Didn't Make
19. The People's
Revolt in Algeria and Sudan
20. The Obasanjo
Bombshell - Abati
21. Ogun 2019
Politics And Deployment Of Violence - My Encounter, Reuben Abati
22. Chief Anthony
Anenih: A Personal And Political Portrait
23. The "Oshiomhole Must Go"
Coalition
24. Beyond Fayose: The Future Of Ekiti State
25. The "Spirit Of Error" In Nigerian Politics
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