POLITICS & GOVERNANCE

Tuesday, 07 January 2020 23:00

THE YOURUBAS' OPERATION AMOTEKUN: AGAIN, THE DANGER OF SELF-HELP POLICING, SECUIRTY AND DEFENCE OUTFITS IN A MULTICULTURAL, MULTI-LINGUAL NIGERIA Featured

Written by JOHN ODEY ADUMA, SOAS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
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“Operation Amotekun was hastily conceived, hastily initiated, hastily thought over, hastily debated, hastily discussed, hastily being implemented, hastily executed, so will equally be hastily enforced by its Bacchic enthusiasts – the operators whose mindset will be that of regional armed forces (RAF).”

Having spent decades to warn the nation again and again about the extreme dangers the proliferation and the subsequent legalization of ethnic militias pose to a multi-cultural multi-lingual polity – Nigeria, according to Yakubu Gowon over 500 ethnic nationalities, I would not want to repeat myself in this article any more, but go straight to deal with the current national exigency, regarding the grave threats to both the national security and corporate existence as a people/nation.

It is no longer a rumour that the Yoruba security ‘masquerade’ – Amotekun will visit the human world on January, 2020, but this writer, whilst agreeing totally with the Yorubas that they have every right to self-defence, especially in a situation of gross absence of such national and representative security and defence agencies such as the police, the military and para-military, but is worried about the danger of the copycat effect or syndrome that this other-wise, I must say, well-intentioned project of our people in the South West would sure have on the rest of the nation. If this is allowed to go on by the Nigerian state and the rest of its people, the subsequent chaos and anarchy are better imagined.

JUNE 12 1993 AND THE ORIGIN OF THE MODERN TRIBAL MILITIAS IN NIGERIA

Even though I had said I would not go into details with respect to this national malady – one of many such since jihadi Rehoboam Muhammadu Buhari kick-started his second intifada on the 29th of May, 2015, the reader must not forget that this modern national madness actually was the fall-out of the callous and the crassly insensate cancellation of the results of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election which was not announced to the Nigerian people and the entire humanity, but were however, made to arguably, believe that that winner of that election was the former arch-agent of FULANIZATION and the military, who had equally been one of the financiers of some of the coups in Nigeria, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola was the winner.

But haven’t the Yorubas been bribed many times over by the trio of the Fulanis, Hausas and the Kanuris of the GIDA USUMAN BIN FODUYE RULING HOUSE – Ernest Sodeinde as Head of the so-called Interim National Government (ING), Olusegun Obasanjo’s Second and Third Comings, but had his Fourth term truncated, the first, being as military Head of State; and just last year, weren’t the Yorubas again bribed with the so-called Democracy or Abiola Day?

And no sooner than the latter political bribery from the Ruling House of Uthman Dan Fodio, than the herdsmen from all over Nigeria and West Africa began to invade and swarm the South West geographical portion of the Nigerian Federation with only the shout of Kai(!) Kai(!) renting the Yoruba landscape.

THE POLICE IN NIGERIA (NOT THE NIGERIA POLICE AS THERE’S NO SUCH A THING) AND THAT STUPID AND SO-CALLED PARTNERSHIP WITH THE OPC

It was not only thoroughly shocking, but heart-rending and a thing of incomparable embarrassment to see the a team of the Federal Might, composed of mostly senior staffers of the police heading to the private residence of one of that country’s notorious ego centrists, Adam(u), the carpenter, who in a sane society ought to be doing life jail at Kirikiri Maximum for his past, present murderous and ignominious activities – to initiate a partnership deal with his murderous squad – the OPC and the police. Haba! Adamu.

It looks to us that IGP Mohammed Adamu is just returning from the outer planet, if not we think anyone with a sense of history and dignity, more so, a police chief of a nation like Nigeria, who has been following recent events, especially since the June imbroglio, culminating in that bestial organization, the OPC, which had been categorised as a terrorist organization by the US Government, the UN and the Nigerian Government at various times, should not only be avoiding the deadly terrorist organization and all associated with it like a plague, including other such deadly, gruesome and murderous tribal militias across the nation, but be outrightly banned/proscribed and sent their scums to do life jail, and in Nigeria’s context, Me Lord adding: WITH HARD LABOUR!

But why are all the tribal militias and all the scums of the earth heading these notorious and murderous squads being treated with kid gloves and feted afterwards by the Nigerian authorities?

Did not Adamu know that in recent times, the OPC is the precursor of all the tribal/ethnic armed forces in Nigeria?

But why should any serious nation, more so, a multicultural, multi-lingual polity such as Nigeria, knowing full well the threats all these Alternative Armed Forces (AAF) or tribal or ethnic or private armies or ethnic/tribal guerrillas be doing business with them and giving the scums heading them undeserved chieftaincy titles or don’t our people know these BLOOD INDUSTRIES are just money-making machines/factories for the individuals/ethnic nationalities that own them, and at once, deadly killing squads who have all severally, turned our Nigeria into a FIELD OF BLOOD?

Are Adamu, his officers and wo/men not aware that in a pluralistic polity, these Luciferian agents are murderous squads in the hands of unpatriotic politicians, especially those who seek to permanently divide the Nigerian state – and are also hired by other Nigerians to do harm, and sometimes actually kill for flimsy reasons, after having been paid change to buy weeds and other drugs?

Fellow compatriots, why do you all think that Nigeria of today is a nation walking on its head – crimes of all sorts, killing of all kinds, thoroughly rife with incalculable extra-judicial killings?

Need I remind IGP Adamu, his officers and wo/men and the Presidency that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was formed in 2000 as a response to the bestial and murderous activities of the OPC, making life unbearable, insecure, brutish for the Northerners – the so-called Mekunus (the Fulanis and the Hausas of Nigeria) living in the South West of Nigeria, amongst other reasons contained in its mission statement?

Then came other such as Arewa People’s Congress, ACF’s military wing, formed on 13th December, 1999, MASSOB, MEND, Bakassi Boys, Egbesu Boys of Africa, the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Boko Haram, Ansaru, the pastoralists militias, the deadliest of all the tribal militias in Nigeria, and indeed, the whole of Sub Saharan Africa, IPOB, etc, etc.

Did not the IGP know that before the partnership initiative with the Yoruba ethnic militia/murderous squad – the Yorubas otherwise alternative armed forces and other ethnic militias had been warming up for a grave war with the Mekunus and their ethnic militias, especially a war of the apocalyptic type that would mark the end of the Nigerian state and Federation?

If nothing else, this very grave error of partnering, in some cases, seeking to partner with (a) tribal militia/s has convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the nation’s intelligence gathering remains still at zero level, and this has continued to be our observation and concern over the years.

Guess what will happen after this rubbish partnership? Having so been given such an undeserved recognition by the IGP, there is the very likelihood of splinter groups from within the OPC which will equally be seeking such ‘national recognition’ as these splinter groups will come in form of the Reformed OPC, OPC Renewal, OPC Revolutionary Squad, etc.

And undoubtedly, this sort of ignominious and mercantile multiplication is sure to be replicated and copied by the other ethnic armed forces, sparking a nation-wide anarchy of immense proportion which the current Arab-Sunni Government does not have the muscle to handle – the logistics, wherewithal and the intelligence to march these forces with advanced and greater sophisticated state forces/power, especially when it so embarrassing to know the Nigerian state has not been able to defeat or disable the band of Almajiris called Boko Haram, until they have grown to become international in nature and in operations to the point of West Africa now becoming the new global Headquarter of the global jihadists/extremists/terrorists.

A recognition as being given to the ethnic militias, Boko Haram, separatists, bandits and crimepreneurs in Nigeria is playing into the hands of unpatriotic politicians and other wicked people, even those on the pulpit, including the so-called prayer warriors that abound in mosques as well as in churches who have been hiring them to steal, maim, kill, rig elections, destroy properties of their political foes and cause national political upheavals of an unimaginable proportion.

AMOTEKUN – ECHOES OF THE ‘60s…OPERATION WETIE

Operation Amotekun was hastily conceived, hastily initiated, hastily thought over, hastily debated, hastily discussed, hastily being implemented, hastily executed, so will equally be hastily enforced by its Bacchic enthusiasts – the operators whose mindset will be that of regional armed forces (RAF).

TOWARDS THE DEMILITARIZATION OF THE NIGERIAN MIND – AMOTEKUN POTENTIALLY

Firstly, here is a typical mindset common amongst many Nigerians:

Bigmanism mentality as manifests in daily interactions amongst Nigerians – every Nigerian is a big man/woman or sees themselves in that egocentric mould inherited, first from colonialism, and afterwards a national disease which every Nigerian has been infected with, especially having been ruled for many years by the military. Also, this type of mindset could also be cultural as expressed in psychopathic questions such as – “Do know who you are talking to?”

“Do know who I’m?”

And in such verbal violent threats as:

“I will deal with you.”

“I will crush you.”

“Don’t you know who you are talking to?”

“I will tear you into pieces.”

“By the time I finish with you, you go know who I be.”

“I’ll finish you and nobody will ask me anything.”

“I go kill you and nobody go ask me Kobo.”

“Abi dem swear for you? You no know who you dey talk to so…shooo?

“Do or die.”

“Abi you dey mad? I go kill you now, now; waka go and nothing go happen.”

Thus, with this sort of colonial, militaristic and perhaps, cultural mindset against the current practice of onikaluku (Yoruba, for everybody/person)/communities/neighbours/regions/states/ local government areas having their private police, armies, vigilantes as self-help security and defence alternative, in the face of the current neglect by the Sunni-Arab Government of Muhammadu Buhari failing to govern Nigeria as a nation, one people under one destiny, vision, philosophy and mission.

Whilst every attempt being made by every Nigerian, state, street, neighbourhood, community, LGA, etc to protect themselves is acknowledged and commended by this writer as well intentioned and the right thing to do at these times of national exigency and unparalleled adversity, his submissions hereunder regarding the self-help security and defence alternative is for the sake of our Nigeria; that is, if anyone out there like me, still desires we should still have our Nigeria together, sit together and engage in a real talk with ourselves as to how and why we have found ourselves in the current mess.

Therefore, having explained myself, I should like to submit thus:

AMOTEKUN POTENTIALLY -

  1. Will be a money spinner/making machine – a sort of cash cow for the Amotekun operatives, just like the so-called national police and other policing/military and defence arrangements.
  2. These self-help security operatives – (the Amotekuans/Amotekunists/Amotekunians/Amotekunees/Amotekun EGUNJE will embark on constant raiding of goods and properties of some hapless citizens.
  3. This regional security operatives will mount road blocks at hidden and strategic places to collect tolls/extort money from their fellow Nigerians – motorists, passers-by, those carrying cows from Northern Nigeria to the South of Nigeria, from herdsmen, etc, through threats and intimidations, especially when they are not paid salaries against the background of our nation’s current reality – where to pay salaries are now ‘criminal’ acts, whereas, not to pay at all, is an exercise in utmost philanthropism!
  4. Bigmanism/big womanism mentality is sure to set in; and be brazenly exhibited by the operatives.
  5. Self-help policing is dangerous to the nation’s corporate existence, especially at a time when every household in Nigeria is asking for their own republic/nation/country. This is self-determination at its worst!
  6. A regional security outfit such as Operation Amotekun is a Guerilla Movement in the making, whose distant goal will be to fight for self-determination of the region concerned, in this wise, the South West Yoruba ethnic nationality. It must not be lost on the nation that some regions are not only on standby within the current federal arrangement, but have their constitutions ready since 1993 because WE DO NOT WANT TO BE TAKEN BY SURPRISE!
  7. Amotekun will become a law unto themselves, hence as soon as inaugurated there will be reported cases by members of the public about their ABOVE THE LAW tendency.
  8. Operation Amotekun in the hands of dangerous, greedy and very selfish politicians, especially in a sub-polity that has been hijacked by that unpatriotic Area Father, the GRAND OMOTA OF NIGERIA (GOON), Bola Bullion Ahmed Bourdibullion Thiefnubu, will be used to further divide and scatter our Nigeria, thereby putting very mindlessly, a knife on the last and only one ligament now left to hold us together. It was BAT who through his overweening ambition destroyed Nigeria’s UNITY EXPERIMENT in Lagos – our national integration and cohesion experiment, just as that Kaduna terrorist, El-Rufai has done in Kaduna, which before Nasir El-Rufai, was like our Lagos, the most successful experiment in national integration and cohesion in the Upper region of the River Nigeria. Since the beginning of time (1914), Rehoboam Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nasir El-Rufai are the worst and nasty pieces of creation to have been found amongst us. Some of the nation’s finest intellectuals from the South East have relocated from Lagos back to their villages just because of constantly being reminded by politicians like Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife, Remi, a pastor and a supposed woman of God, Femi Kusa that they are non-indigenes, more so, when they have to watch every time the shop of their brothers and sisters in Lagos, go up in flames, courtesy of the Area Boys, who are mere agents of these evil politicians.
  9. Therefore, Amotekun operatives in the hands of these wicked souls will just add to the number of Muhammadu Buhari’s street savage wolves and rampaging mobs to cause unprecedented crisis and CONFUSHON (confusion), CHAHOS (chaos) and an unparalleled brouhaha – WAHALA!
  10. If our previous experiences are anything to go by, the self-help security operatives will see our womenfolk as their own benefits, after having put on their uniform, especially in these days and age Nigerian men no longer respect our women because they have seen how one Muhammadu Buhari has reduced someone who is supposed to be his Juliet, Rudy Drop (William Shakespeare) and a “JEWEL OF INESTIMABLE VALUE (the Chief Obafemi Awolowo) to just the woman in the kitchen and in the other room, just so he can giraffe. Mallam Buhari never respect, adore, ‘worship’ and kiss Aisha; and the spill over of this ugliness from the Presidency is that women in Nigeria have simply been reduced to fetish objects (commodification) and as objects for actual rituals, especially those who are looking for wealth without working/sweating, and who do not have access to the public treasuries. When a President, not of, but in a nation like Nigeria abandons his supposed precious wife in the hands of parasites, plate lickers, scavengers, scums and terrorists like the KABAAH, not our good people of KABAH-O, the URBAN TERRORISTS in that TERRORISTS HAVEN, erroneously called the Presidency, such dregs of the earth like Mamman Daura, his Daughter Fatima and Abba Kyari, what do you think will become the fate of the women in Nigeria (WIN)? And not until every woman in Nigeria arises and tells their husband: I beg no treat me like Buhari dey treat Aisha, TREAT ME PROPERLY or I will frustrate all your nights until the Day of the Lord, the men in Nigeria (MIN) will continue to treat them like Sa re wa (Yoruba, for run come).
  11. Oi, has anyone ever seen Muhammadu Buhari hug, kiss and hold Aisha’s hand in the public? Just in case, anyone out there has seen this lovey display of MB toward Aisha, phone me, take toro.  
  12. In a nutshell, our women will not be safe in the hands of these ethnic/tribal soldiers and police.
  13. The charge of power show – brazen, brutish, primitive, savage, bestial, antediluvian and medieval display of power by the Nigerian people against the operatives will be rampant as soon as this regional/tribal security outfit is inaugurated.
  14. Amotekun operatives will be the ballot box snatchers in future elections in the South West.
  15. Political officials and private citizens, especially those who often do regard themselves as indigenes in utter disregard for the constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria will use these officialised ethnic militia outfit to hound, terrorise those they often regard as non-indigenes and make life unbearable for these so-called non-indigenes. Therefore, Amotekun fifle will always be threatening or used to threaten and intimidate fifle outside of the Yoruba ethnic nationality.
  16. Very likely, the A-Ops will go about looking for OWANBE and collect money from party organisers on top of 1000 plates of rice and 5000 cartons of odeku to lubricate their oesophagus!
  17. Well, is the O-A security outfit a firearm-carrying organization? Aaah! Don’t forget the fifle and their A-K47-o. The outcomes are already predictable, if yes.
  18. A-Ops are potentially a frontline and public facing organization but lack the needed frontline training and customer service/care in dealing with people in a multicultural and multi-lingual sub-polity such as the South West.
  19. Very unarguably, there will be constant clashes/frictions between them and the statutorily and constitutionally recognised regular security agencies, although these erroneously so-called national security and defence agencies are non-representatives. The A-Ops’ Ogas and their officers may not want to subordinate their authorities to the so-called federal agencies, where necessary, and where it matters the most, especially in times of national exigencies.
  20. There will be an unhealthy rivalry amongst the A-Ops, leading to blood shed.
  21. It is the most ridiculous and an absurd thing to do for a tribal outfit who are not constitutionally policing agencies to be carrying out arrestable functions which only the police can do. Here again, due respect for extreme or rare cases of “citizen arrest” in an emergency, but when it becomes the duty of a tribal and politically motivated security outfit to now start arresting every Olu and Oru, ridiculously reasoning that when they arrest criminals, they will hand them over to the police, it should a thing of grave concern for the Nigerian people. This sure is a glaring case of absurdity of legalization and promoting anarchy and chaos through the Lagos-Ibadan road (the back door). Therefore, my lament: for God’s sake, how many more million in that multi-cultural, multi-lingual, but very crowded policing space will now be doing the job of policing – already this writer for decades has been crying out against such crowdedness as the military, the Guguru Defence (NCDC), Road Safety, States Task Forces on Environment, Fire Service, Immigration Officials, Custom and Excise, Forest Guards, Hisbah, NURTW officials, DSS, SSS, pepper sellers, pomo sellers (show boy), fufu vendors, mai-guards, herdsmen, Boko Haram, dogaris, traditional rulers, etc, etc have all taken over the job of policing in multi-cultural and multi-lingual Nigeria! The situation is such that the regular police are now confused, frustrated, depersonalised, characterless, without integrity, hence the constant frictions/clashes between them and these self-help and egocentric policing ‘personnel’. 
  22. Op-Amo echoes Operation Wetie of the early 1960s in which the political elements locked horns with one another fighting for supremacy and relevance in the then Western Region – the two prominent political parties during this very ugly period of our national history were: the Action Group (AG) led by Obafemi Awolowo and the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) with Samuel Ladoke Akintola as its national leader.

Initially it was a violent clash between some members of the Fulbe (Fulani)/Hausa community resident then in the West and some of the NNDP members, provoking the first military coup of January 15, 1966.

Also IN 1962, OPERATION WETIE was adopted and used in the bad blood between Obafemi Awolowo and SLA, which those with insight knowledge believed was started by the two very ambitious wives of the duo – JOA vs. SLA, Mrs Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo and Mrs Faderera Akintola as to who would supply the books meant for the then so-called free education, which was just a tax relief on education, but was packaged by Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo as FREE EDUCATION.

In fact, Some historians had reasoned that the ambitions of these two women were actually the dynamo dropped on the tinderbox, which after having exploded from the then Wild Wild West, amongst other events of the postcolonial Nigeria such as (the crises – census of 1963-1964, federal election of 1964 and the Western Regional election, 1965), led to the first military coup, and coupled with the pogrom which saw the deaths of over 30 thousand Igbos in the North, subsequently led to the civil war of 6 July 1967-15 January 1970, lasting 30 months.

And of utmost concern about the Operation Amotekun is that its composition is reminiscent of the elements or the descendants of the peasants (Agbekoya – the equivalent of the talakawas in the North of Nigeria) and the Hunters’ Guild that participated very prominently in Operation Wetie (pour petrol on and set them ablaze) in the early 60s in the Western region of Nigeria,

23. Undoubtedly, there sure will be a copycat effect (CCE) or copycat syndrome (CCS) all over the country with other regions/states forming their own self-help security army. And already in some states and regions, these Alternative Self-help Security Organizations/outfits (ASSOs) are disguised as FOREST GUARDS!

24. Those who have been recruited to take part in the Operation Amotekun should be handed over to the national police to be properly trained as neighbourhood/community police officers – NEIGHBOURHOOD OR COMMUNITY POLICE SUPPORT OFFICERS (NPSOs/CPSOs) under the direct supervision of crime commissioners to be so appointed for each of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria.

25. Once again, I should like to advise that Road Safety and NCDC be integrated/absorbed into the national policing service as the Nigerian Transport and Highway Police (NTHP), whilst all national institutions, including the police and the military must be made representative, reflecting federal character, for a nation’s institutions are its pride, especially when authority of administration and enforcement rest on these institutions and NOT on mere mortals heading such institutions.

TIME FOR REAL NATIONAL TALK, CONVERSATION AND DIALOGUE

Henceforth, what type of a country are we looking forward to have and afterwards hand over unto our children?

Whilst I will use this platform again to call on the Presidency to as soon as possible kick-start this national conversation – which will be a sort of heart to heart and ear to ear dialogue/conversation/discussion, if for nothing else, just that it is good for a people of a nation to talk amongst themselves, rubbing minds together at intervals regarding the state of the nation/federation, the Presidency under Muhammadu Buhari must be made aware here that only fools don’t talk or organise family talks until things get out of hand as it has already, which I have been warning the nation ever since nineteen kirididi. In Yala, the man who refuses to call his people to talk, not only has something to hide, but is an evil man.

Whilst in all honesty, the O-Amo is borne out of a sincere desire by a people to protect themselves as the Government of the day has not only failed the Nigerian people, but all the peoples of the world, it is my candid opinion here that for the sake of Nigeria, the take-off of Operation Amotekun be put on hold, at least for now, to enable all of us to go to the table of brotherhood to discuss about our republic/federation, more so, the current grave threats to our national security and corporate existence as a people – asking the pertinent question, why a beautiful and giant nation has been left so exposed and now very vulnerable under that Saudi Arabia agent, Ayatollah Rehoboam Pharaoh Muhammadu Buhari.

To this end, I’m once again, calling first, before every other type of conversation, for a nation doesn’t do conference, but it sure does talk – does conversation and dialogue, the holding of the National Council of State meet immediately having done so recently. During this meet by the nation’s fathers, there should be constituted a body of all the Nigerian security experts both at home and in the diaspora to be known and called the NIGERIAN NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENCE COUNCIL (NNSDC).

Mallam Buhari must be made aware here again that Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians, whether Nigerians at home or in the diaspora, and not the private estate or orchard of any goddamned terrorist who went by the name UTHMAN DAN FODIO as his descendants promoting and encouraging the family compact rule in Nigeria have been doing/carrying on and behaving since 1914 till date.

The Sheikh is hereby being told in no unmistaken term that insulating former leaders/presidents/heads of state, and recruiting the lowest of the lowest whilst the brightest of the brightest abound at home and in the diaspora does an incalculable damage to our corporate existence as a people, kwenskwently (consequently) affect in no small measure, the overall integrity of the Nigerian Federation, our national brotherhood and international standing, and not only Africa, but the whole wide world is watching and monitoring the ongoing ontological disequilibria in Nigeria, for in spite of: NIGERIA IS STILL THE CITY SET ON A HILL FOR ALL OF HUMANITY TO BEHOLD!

Living in a multi-racial environment such as Great Britain, I’m in tears and crying out very profusely that Africa stands still powerless, rudderless, directionless, uncreative, uninventive, lacking innovations and leaderless because Nigeria lies in an emergency ward gasping for breath and very anxiously waiting for a kind-hearted blood donor.

Finally, both the idiots in the Presidency, and the President must be reminded that NO MAN IS AN ISLAND. Therefore, a word should not only be enough for the wise, but for the fools and idiots alike.

 

God, please bless your beloved nation, NIGERIA with good, great, inspiring and visionary leaders who will rule our Nigeria as ONE PEOPLE.

 

Yours in the service of God, our Nigeria and all of humanity.

 

ODEY OKABO OBOYA ADUMA

SOAS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

Read 1026 times Last modified on Tuesday, 07 January 2020 23:06

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