-Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA) -By Austen AKHAGBEME:
One of the many things that makes Nigeria an amazingly impossible knot in the eye of some people, and public policy a nightmare, is the multiplicity of contrasting opinion and the plurality of emotion displayed to the chagrin of other Nations and more reasonable people across the globe.
The opacity of the genuine desires of those who governs us is always further intensified by their often primordial disposition laced with selfishness, religious bigotry and political affiliations. This describes aptly, the shenanigans, distrust, disbelief, fear and perplexity, on the part of the federal government, associated with the emergence of the supposedly innocuous vigilante group, code named AMOTEKUN, in Western Nigeria.
In a Nation where policing has become an herculean task, coupled with the emergence of new levels of crime and criminality (terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, robbery, human trafficking, ritual killings etc), why would anybody, ordinarily, raise eyebrow against a local unarmed security outfit aimed at complimenting the efforts of the already overwhelmed Nigerian Police at combating crime in its region? But for some altruistic reason that bothers on politics piloted by ethnic jingoists, such dissenting positions can be understood.
In all of these, the Yoruba Elders and Governors are talking tough, determined to forge ahead with AMOTEKUN. Nothing has brought more unity to the yoruba nation in recent times than this collective decision. Their memory is still fresh and replete first, with the kidnap of Chief Olu Falae in his farm and the targeted assassination of the daughter of Chief Fasoranti, a yoruba chieftain, amongst several other high profile kidnaps in the region.
Gov Akeredolu of Ondo state, a Senior Advocate and Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association is going hoarse with a loud voice shouting at whoever that cares to listen that the Attorney General’s pronouncement is wrong and beyond his powers.
The most sinister and diversionary angle to this conversation is the recent outburst of the ignoble Miyetti Allah, the Fulani Cattle rearers association: that insisting on AMOTEKUN, by the yoruba elders, tantamount to jettisoning the idea of their desired Presidential ticket for 2023.
I personally find this very disconcerting. This is one politically volatile and audacious statement made in recent times by this group of Fulani dominated association that must not be waved away. This is against the background of the fact that they went on national Television to instruct their members in Western Nigeria to stop night grazing, the very day AMOTEKUN was inaugurated. This proved positive that to them and their co-travellers, the fear of AMOTEKUN has become the beginning of wisdom.
Come to think of it, when has Miyetti Allah become a political bloc that determines which section of the country gets the Presidency? Where’s this audacity emanating from?
AMOTEKUN, no doubt, has become the proverbial mosquito that perches on the scrotum. It requires tact, guts, patience to painstakingly extricate. Nigeria is a federation and regional decisions and initiatives that bothers on the well-being of the people within the law and moral Justice must not be slaughtered on the alter of mutual distrust, fears and political correctness on the part of the Centre.
Let HISBAH stay. Let the Civilian JTF stay. Amotekun shouldn’t be an exemption.
- Austen AKHAGBEME is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online
