By Sanya Oni
If Nigerians were ever in doubt about how far removed the current minders of the security establishment are from the new thinking required for the current time, they only need at to look at the spate of events since the governors of the Southwest launched the regional security initiative – Operation Amotekun.
Nearly a month after, we have heard just enough of panic, denunciations, recriminations and brazen threats to make our cup of bad faith full and running over.
Part of that, I presume, is the sudden announcement of the take-off of the long-awaited community policing programme. At a time most Nigerians were probably still chewing the import of Attorney-General Abubakar Malami’s declaration of the initiative as “illegal”, they woke up to the news of a signal from the police authorities to their various formations across the country to commence the recruitment of special constables nationwide preparatory to the implementation of the community policing programme.
Unfortunately, if that move was meant to steal the thunder from the regional initiative, it would seem to have had a direct opposite effect; Operation Amotekun would appear a done-deal if the mood across the Southwest is anything to go by.
As one might expect, the mind games – that is what I call it – would appear to have move to another phase. Now, the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone X1, Leye Oyebade under whose watch the spectacular pro-Amotekun rallies took place across parts of the southwest has reportedly been shoved aside – replaced by AIG Bashir D. Makama with the former posted to National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies as a directing staff.
Did I hear Siberia?
Trust the police hierarchy to swear by the seventh heaven that posting was borne of service exigency; there are millions who, in the context of the preceding events, would smell mischief.
And trust the institution to be bothered less by optics of the distracting sideshows by its hierarchy at a time of grave crisis, there will hopefully, still be time to spare for those bandits running riot all over the country with their harvests of sorrows, tears, and blood.
This is where the tragedy looms. While the debate and the ensuing animus over the Amotekun initiative boils over, the nation is afforded the luxury of ignoring the unfolding disaster in the Northwest and elsewhere.
Few days into the new year, gunmen, said to number about 100 reportedly stormed Tawari community in Kogi Local Government Area of Kogi State. At the end, 19 people lay dead with several houses burnt. The police, as in all accounts of such nature, only came after the murderers left.
Few days after, on January 14, it was the turn of bandits, operating around Fandatio village, near Maraban Jos along the Kaduna-Zaria high way. This time, their target was the convoy of Umaru Bubaram, Emir of Potiskum, Yobe State. In the attack, six persons were felled, including four of the emir’s aides.
Today, the latest trending story is the heart-rending murders of the duo of Mrs. Philip Ataga and the Catholic seminarian, Michael Nnaji both of whom were abducted by some bandits on January 24.
The same week, the newspaper reported how bandits operated twice within 24 hours interval at the Kaduna Railway terminus injuring many commuters and kidnapping a few others.
And yet we have a police still answering to the name!
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Yours truly is still struggling to digest the import of the statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari on the security situation during the course of a visit by personalities from Niger State.
Said President Buhari: “I was taken aback by what is happening in the North-west and other parts of the country…During our campaigns, we knew about the Boko Haram.
What is coming now is surprising. It is not ethnicity or religion; rather it is one evil plan against the country…We have to be harder on them. One of the responsibilities of government is to provide security. If we don’t secure the country, we will not be able to manage the economy properly.’’
Now, that is a tough one to swallow, coming from the commander-in-chief. That the president could be “taken aback by what is happening in the North-west” obviously says a lot not just about the quality, relevance and timeliness of the intelligence being availed him by those charged with that duty; more than mere indictment of the current mind-set governing the security architecture, it is a measure of how dated the thinking in those quarters have become over time.
Moreover, in an age where intelligence constitutes a huge chunk of the security infrastructure, I guess the debate should no longer be about exclusivity, but a framework that best serves the needs of the people.
As they say, nothing is new under the sun. Not kidnapping; not banditry or even terrorism. The difference is how they have evolved over time. And because they have evolved, it means those charged with the duty have to be several steps ahead in their game.
Today, no one argues why the customs, the immigration, the civil defence, the neighbourhood vigilantes, the Hisbah and the countless other security initiatives should be. It’s all about filling the emerging void in the security system. What is important is that they all advance the goal of the orderly society. What needs to change is the governing mind-set that seeks to put security in some exclusive club.
Part of the job of the Ninth National Assembly must be to help break down the wall of exclusivity and defensiveness. After all, members are known to have in their employ mai-guards for routine security work.
Obviously, if that is good for the individual, it should be good for anyone desirous of a security framework to do so within the bounds of the law.
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