AMOTEKUN, NORTHERN NIGERIA’S NIGHTMARE.

Operation Amotekun, terror to the terrorists. 

The Yoruba tribe is unarguably one of the most advanced and developed tribe in Nigeria. The tribe occupies the south western part of Nigeria and their history dates back to hundreds of years ago when a supernatural being called Oduduwa ascended from heaven and landed in Ile-Ife, Osun state Nigeria.

Amotekun vehicles pictures. 

 The Yoruba race occupies only six out of the thirty six states in Nigeria and these are: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states. The Yorubas are known for their hospitality, generousity, openness and strife for excellence. In the sixties in Nigeria, the western part of Nigeria was developed far ahead of other region.

Even till date, the western part of Nigeria still remains the most developed part of Nigeria. Recently, the south western region has been invaded by a horde of armed bearing Fulani herdsmen who plunder cities and villages in search of pasture for their cattle.

This Fulani herdsmen menace is not limited to a particular village or city alone; it cuts across many villages and cities in some parts of Nigeria. For instance in Benue state, thousands of people had been killed since this insurgency began and many more thousands were made homeless.

Yet, Benue state is not the only state where Fulani herdsmen carry out their nefarious act. In order to combat this security menace and other security challenges in the region, the six South-west state governors came together to form Operation Amotekun.

 Amotekun means leopard in English, a very vigilant, powerful, strong and stealthy animal. Amotekun is meant to protect the south west region from the evil activities of armed bearing Fulani herdsmen and other evil perpetrators in the region, especially in remote villages where policemen are not enough or totally unavailable.

 This step by the south western region is to complement the security efforts of the federal government since the country is grossly under policed. Even the few policemen that are employed by the government are robbers themselves because they are terrorists to motorists on the roads rather than striking fears and terrors in the minds of armed robbers and miscreants hence, there is a need for security of lives and properties of the citizens in the region.

 Immediately the outfit was inaugurated, it sparked mixed reactions from different people. It was vehemently opposed by many Northern leaders because they saw it as a tool of the south west against their brothers who are grazing cattle in the south so they opposed it vehemently.

 The question on my mind is that, if these northern leaders are so concerned about the business of their brothers in the south, why didn’t they tell them to stop their armed banditry before now? Were they not aware of the evils being wrecked by these Fulani herdsmen and what steps have they taken to put an end to this menace?

 We all know that they did nothing. But when the south west is about to protect itself against these sons and daughters of the devil, the Northern leaders suddenly woke up from their intellectual inactivity. Most notable among the northern leaders who opposed the establishment of the outfit was the minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami. He came out publicly to declare Amotekun illegal.

Being minister of justice, he hid behind legal cloak to speak against what he doesn’t like, rather than speaking the mind of the law but we are not fooled. We can see through the smokescreen.

Some other notable northern governors too came out and screamed and shouted, waving warning fingers that establishment of the outfit is a way of dividing the country rather than uniting it but the south west governors were undaunted, they instead forged ahead. On their part, the south -east and south southerners were supportive and encouraging. They applauded this bold move by the south west and called on the eastern governors too to do the same.

 At least, if the federal government is too feeble to protect us, then we should be ready to protect ourselves. We cannot wait any longer for an arm bearing maniac to come to our village at night to kill our men, rape our women and dash our babies’ skulls against mud walls before we defend ourselves.

 Eventually, the federal government succumbed to the demands of the south-west and legalized the outfit with stringent conditions but half victory is better than no victory at all. Operation Amotekun is finally actualized! Amotekun is meant to protect the territorial integrity of the western part of Nigeria using the indigenes from the region which is made up of OPC members, ex-military men and women, local vigilante groups and so on. 

 These people will be given stipends monthly and they are to be at alert in their neighborhoods for illegal activities, to forestall such activities before the arrival of the police on the scene. Since its inception, the six state governors of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states had contributed money to buy vehicles for the operation and Oyo state alone had given a hundred vehicles to that purpose and earmarked huge amount of money in their respective budgets to support the smooth operation of the outfit.

 The fear on everyone’s mind is that with time, the fire and passion that drives these state governors may burn out and Amotekun will become inactive soon and the security challenges will increase exponentially.

 Nigeria has a bad history of discontinuity. We have seen awesome and amazing policies that have been abandoned because the formulators are no longer in the corridors of power. How sure are we that when the current set of state governors leave office, their successors will keep the fire burning? Another fear on our minds is the way Nigerians abuse situations and things. How sure are we that both the governors and the security operatives that are to coordinate this outfit will not abuse this outfit and use it for personal and selfish purposes? What assurance do we have that when the outfit begins its operation, innocent people would not be maimed and aimed at?

 How sure are we that Fulani herdsmen will not generally be persecuted, after all, it is sis not all of them that bear arms? For now, we have no answer to these questions but we can only hope that the Northern leaders would not be proved right at the end of the day. We hope that Amotekun has come to stay.