If the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has personal animus against the Western Nigeria Security Network, code-named, Operation Amotekun, he sure found a not-so-clever way to show it.
The deafening silence of the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, and his deputy, Garba Shehu, demonstrates that Malami is probably on his own.
The Yoruba appear set to disallow Malami and his paymasters from deterring them from invoking their constitutional right to self-protection. The natives of the streets of Lagos would have said, “Gele ma wo’be la we,” we pay no heed to naysayers.
The Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, spoke with Daily Trust TV, the online broadcasting arm of Daily Trust newspaper, probably established to advance the position of Nigeria’s Northern establishment.
He explains: “(Security) initiatives… point to… the fact that citizens are not happy with the security of the land. And governors have a duty… The security and welfare of the citizens is the number one job of any governor.”
This agrees with Section 14(2)(b) of Nigeria’s Constitution: “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” which, in a federation, includes the federal, state, and local governments.
The alarm raised by Lt Gen T.Y. Danjuma (retd.), a former Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Defence, that the Nigerian security forces are compromised must have informed Governor Fayemi’s lament: “The people within my jurisdiction are saying we don’t know what we are doing,” and after funding the police, buying vehicles and security gadgets, paying allowances, the people “still don’t get enough security.”
Out of the abundance of his heart’s lack of appreciation of the security challenge, Malami told the South-West: “The setting up of the paramilitary organisation, called Amotekun, is illegal, and runs contrary to the provisions of Nigerian law…
“… no state government, whether singly, or in a group, has the legal right and competence to establish any form of organisation or agency for the defence of Nigeria or any part of its constituent part.”
When the statement descended into, “The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) has established the Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Police, and other numerous organisations, for the purpose of the defence of Nigeria,” two things became obvious:
Malami was confusing protection of Nigeria against external aggression, the schedule of the armed forces with the President as Commander-in-Chief, with safety of lives and property of residents within Nigeria’s borders.
He also lost sight of Section 33(a) of the Constitution, which provides: “A person shall not be regarded as having been deprived of his life… if he dies as a result of the use… for the defence of any person from unlawful violence or for the defence of property.”
If that doesn’t quite read like a right to self-defence, try Section 286 of Nigeria’s Criminal Code: “When a person is unlawfully assaulted, and has not provoked the assault, it is lawful for him to use such force to the assailant, and reasonably necessary, to make effectual defence against the assault…
“If the nature of the assault is such as to cause reasonable apprehension (or fear) of death or grievous harm, and the person using force by way of defence, believes on reasonable grounds that he cannot otherwise preserve the person defended (including himself), from death or grievous harm, it is lawful for him to use any force to the assailant as is necessary for defence, even though such may cause death or grievous harm.”
Attorney Afe Babalola thinks, “There is no law in Nigeria which prevents citizens from being able to secure their lives and property. Indeed, without protecting the rights to life and property, no other right can be exercised, as one has to live to enforce other rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.”
His conclusion, to wit, “The Nigeria Police does not enjoy exclusive jurisdiction when it comes to the protection of lives and property,” contests with Malami’s claim that Item 45 of the Constitution’s Exclusive List assigns the “police and other government security services established by law,” to the Federal Government.
Those who think states have no jurisdiction over security matters should check Section 11(1,2) of the Constitution: “The National Assembly may make laws for the federation or any part thereof with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order…” and “Nothing in this section shall preclude a (state) house of assembly from making laws with respect to the matter referred to in this section…”
But the Arewa Consultative Forum “caution(ed) against establishing tribal security forces that may affect our unity and national cohesion,” while also arguing that “the Nigerian Constitution… gives the governor of a state the powers to direct a commissioner of police with respect to maintenance and security of public safety and order within the state.”
Former Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu disproved this by ordering police sentries to disallow sitting Governor Rotimi Amaechi from using the private gates of his official residence, the Rivers State Government House, some time ago.
Reports say the National President of Miyetti Allah, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, called for the arrest of Yoruba leaders for promoting Operation Amotekun, whose objective, he believes, is to ban Fulani herdsmen from Yorubaland.
The Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu assures, “The Amotekun scheme is not targeted at any non-South-West ethnic group, just as its benefits will be reaped by all Nigerians irrespective of ethnic or religious placements.”
Somebody here says, “E tu Brute?” to former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa, who thinks Amotekun is a road to Oduduwa Republic, just as Senator Junaid Mohammed thinks it’s a tribal militia.
Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore reportedly thinks, “This Amotekun scheme is political, and is not a solution to the problem of insecurity,” and suggests, “It is best they give up the idea because it may affect the chances of the South-West to produce the President in 2023.”
Former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, reportedly argued the sustainability card to sort of shoot down the Amotekun initiative. He waffled, “We have a lot of security outfits, and I think it is to assign specific responsibilities. That would take away (perceived financial) burden (away from the states).”
But the Southern and Middle Belt Forum was more forthright in declaring, “We consider… Malami’s action as an abuse of office to suppress the rights of (federating) units to secure themselves, and (a plank) in furtherance of the widely-held suspicion that sections of the country are deliberately being rendered vulnerable for herdsmen and other criminals by the Federal Government.”
Strikingly, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, asked the South-West governors to ignore Malami, whom he says, they don’t have any business consulting with.
It is gratifying that Yerima Shettima of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum thinks “Amotekun is commendable, and it should complement the efforts of the Federal Government to secure (the) lives and property of Nigerians… I am an advocate of community policing. If I now come out to condemn Amotekun in the South-West, that would be counterproductive.”
One thought AGF Malami, who clearly put his foot in it, would have encouraged the Amotekun initiative, instead of sweating it.
