Every life matters. Moreover, the Igbo do not thrive on superficial politics. Therefore, instead of colluding with the police to promote convoys of individual security details, the South-East governors should harken to the yearnings of the masses and join their counterparts in the South-South zone by launching without further delay a true regional security network to stem the rising tide of crime in the entire East. “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Tongues have been waging on why the South-East Governors
Forum reneged on its initial plan to launch a regional security outfit in
Igboland, similar to the Amotekun of the South-West. But the people should
ponder no more: the sudden u-turn has everything to do with sheer selfishness.
Security crisis has become an existential threat in Nigeria.
The South-West zone had been at the forefront of the campaign to restructure
Nigeria to true federalism, arguing that such model would lead to a more
progressive and safer nation. However, the campaign stalled on the altar of
parochial political interest after the All Progressives Congress, the majority
party in the region, captured power at the center. But all that changed after
July 12, 2019, being the day bandits murdered in cold blood Funke Olakunrin, daughter
of Pa Reuben Fasoranti, leader of Afenifere, the apex Yoruba socio-cultural
group.
Recognising that their people must first survive before they
can prevail, the South-West governors put politics aside and floated a
revolutionary regional security network, codenamed Operation Amotekun, an
arrangement that mirrors a true federal structure. The genius is that the
South-West governors could no longer fold their hands and wait forever on the
long-awaited restructure of the country nor continue to rely on an inept
federal police before securing the lives and property of their people.
Make no mistake about this: The Amotekun is not a
bulletproof solution to the security crisis, but it is a common knowledge that
mere emotion of fear stokes deterrence. The elaborate style in which the
Amotekun was launched, coupled with its unique name, not only demonstrated
unity of purpose in the region, it is also an eloquent statement that it is no
longer business as usual. The optics quickly sent shivers to the spines of
criminals who may entertain the thought of venturing into Yorubaland. More
importantly, the Operation Amotekun would provide a new layer of security in
the South-West amid waning public confidence in the Nigerian police.
Despite initial critics, the Amotekun has enjoyed broad
support from the Nigerian people and beyond. The major socio-cultural
organizations in the country representing the six political zones, namely,
Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, Northern Elders’ Forum, Pan-Niger Delta Forum, and
Middle Belt Forum lauded the development. It did not take long before a group
in Northern Nigeria launched a regional security network dubbed Shege-Ka-Fasa.
In view of the worsening wave of insecurity in Igboland, the
consensus, therefore, was that the South-East governors would emulate their
counterparts in the West to float a regional security outfit. But the
South-East chief executives looked the other way. Rather, they pandered to the
federal government on the basis of a naïve political expediency and agreed to
wait on a community police model that was proposed circa 2006 but is yet see
the light of the day. To these governors, the status quo trumps regional
security apparatus. Ironically, such view is coming from the same Igbo leaders
who have been going around in recent times, heaping every blame for the lack of
development in the zone to the long-awaited restructure of Nigeria, which they
insist must feature regional autonomy. But there comes a time shenanigans give
way to common sense.
The truth is that the South-East governors decided to
discard a new layer of security in Igboland, because the victims of insecurity
are typically the ordinary people. Unlike their counterparts in the West where
the gruesome murder of the daughter of a prominent politician provoked a sense
of urgency in Yorubaland, the Igbo politicians have had no cause to question
their own sense of invincibility. The nonchalance, of course, is hinged on the
fact that the Nigerian rich and famous enjoy maximum security by maintaining a
retinue of large convoys of police personnel for the protection of their
families and estates. Not surprisingly, a convoy of vehicles—with sophisticated
sirens accompanied with police escorts—has not only become a status symbol in
Igboland, it has also emerged as the most common security alternative in the
region. To that end, instead of public safety, the Eastern police contingent
now focuses on the pecuniary opportunities in the convoy security model at the
cruel expense of the vulnerable masses.
Every life matters. Moreover, the Igbo do not thrive on
superficial politics. Therefore, instead of colluding with the police to
promote convoys of individual security details, the South-East governors should
harken to the yearnings of the masses and join their counterparts in the
South-South zone by launching without further delay a true regional security
network to stem the rising tide of crime in the entire East. “A stitch in time
saves nine.”
*SKC Ogbonnia, a 2019 APC presidential aspirant, is the
author of the Effective Leadership Formula
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