By Ehichioya Ezomon
At 5:55 p.m. on Thursday, January 23, 2020, there’s a news flash about the South West Security Network (SWSN): “FG, South-West Governors agree on Amotekun,” tweeted Loalu Akande, the spokesperson to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
This comes at a meeting between the Federal Government, led by Prof. Osinbajo, and South-West governors. Also present were the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami and the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu.
In an update, Mr Akande said: “The meeting was at the instance of the Governors, who had asked to see President Muhammadu Buhari over the controversy surrounding the Amotekun initiative.
“However, due to the President’s foreign engagement, he asked the Vice President to host the meeting. The meeting was very fruitful and unanimous resolutions were made on the way forward.
“Having regard to the need for all hands to be on deck in addressing the security concerns across the country, it was agreed that the structure of Amotekun should also align with the Community Policing strategy of the Federal Government.
“It was also agreed that necessary legal instruments will be put in place by each of the States to give legal backing to the initiative and address all issues concerning the regulation of the security structure.”
Surely, the agreement aligns with the submissions of the National Leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the issue that has sparked fierce debate across the country.
While apportioning blame on both sides, Tinubu, who proclaimed the essence and relevance of ‘Operation Amotekun,’ called for a meaningful dialogue to iron out the grey areas.
The Federal Government, through the Attorney General, had sharply criticised the launch of Amotekun as “illegal,” on the assumption that it’s a regional structure that violates the Constitution and extant laws on the establishment of security organisations.
But earlier on Thursday of the meeting, Mr Malami, on a chat on Radio Nigeria, Abuja, seemed to back-pedal, and said he didn’t classify Amotekun as illegal, claiming he’s “misinterpreted.”
His words: “I said the Operation Amotekun should be properly backed by law, so at the end of this government,… any government that eventually succeeded it would not rubbish the operation.
“I said if they failed to enact a law in support of Amotekun in the South-West Region of Nigeria, another government can come and say it’s illegal and this is because it is not backed up by any law.
“So, it is just a piece of advice to the state governors, to use their power, and the State Houses of Assembly in their various states to enact a law that will make the operation more effective.”
Really? If Malami was misinterpreted, and yet quoted repeatedly as captioning ‘Amotekun’ as illegal, why wait for over a week (nine days) to debunk the assertion? Was he cornered? Perhaps!
But by 7:05 p.m. on the same January 23, the “piece of good news” from the Vice President Osinbajo-led parley, broken by the media from past 6:00 p.m., was literally trashed. An update stated that: “Amotekun is illegal, FG insists.”
Which FG? The one represented by Prof. Osinbajo at the behest of President Buhari, or another “government” unknown to law and the Nigerian people? It’s baffling that the obvious rubbishing of the “agreement” emanated from Malami, who’s at the meeting.
Issued by the minister’s spokesman, Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, the statement fished, rambled and re-litigated all that had been said about Amotekun, which necessitated the meeting to find a common ground on the matter.
Though he said the government doesn’t oppose a working arrangement with any institution established to provide security, Mr Malami was insistent: “No amount of effort to hide the truth will work. People could be carried away by sentimental or emotional inclinations, but truth remains apparently palpable.
“The bottom line is that the current Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not accommodate formation of regional security architecture. This is a fact which is undisputable and undeniable.
“This arrangement called Amotekun is not backed by any law neither at the State nor at the Federal Government level. Amotekun remains unconstitutional and illegal, as already indicated.”
However, Mr Malami urged that its “aberration, relating to constitutional compliance,” could only be cured by ensuring “constitutionality and legality both in spirit, planning, concept and consummation.”
The questions: Was the Attorney General hiding behind the alleged “illegality” of Amotekun to tear the “agreement” reached by the Federal Government and the South-West governors?
Was his new stand a resolution of the Vice President’s meeting or a post-meeting “decision” by another sect of government officials composed of what critics label as the “cabals”?
If it wasn’t the decision of the meeting to regurgitate government’s prior position on Amotekun, why did Malami act otherwise to undermine the agreement reached?
Was the “other camp” expecting the Osinbajo-Governors meeting to be deadlocked, failing which they had to spring a “Plan B” to create confusion and doubts in the outcome of the jaw-jaw?
Whatever informed the seeming about-turn by a member of the Osinbajo panel, the blame for the Amotekun controversy goes to its brainchild: the Governors of the South-West.
Why in a hurry to undercut a crucial security plan on a shaky or no foundation: without enabling laws? Was it an oversight or a ploy to face, from the get go, any constitutional and institutional challenges that may arise to hamper its smooth operations in future?
No matter their strategy, when ‘Amotekun’ takes off fully, the governors still have to commend Mr Malami, for “opposing” the outfit, and Asiwaju Tinubu, for backing them to resolve the impasse.
LAST LINE: Reactions to: ‘Mbaka’s ‘prophecy’ and our hypocrisy’
(+2348038341409): Good day sir. I like your submission and analysis on the topic. Nigerians are too hypocritical in nature. When he prophesied about the enthronement of Buhari, and that Jonathan would fail re-election, nobody queried him. And again, the prophecy about the re-election of the president in 2019. Instead of people to praise him (Mbaka), he’s being insulted.
Barr. OSI Nwosu (+2348057475706):
Tom Ogen (+2348131922828): I love this quotation: “There’s no duress for one to believe in Fr Mbaka’s ‘prophecies.’ It’s a matter of faith. As Italian theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, posits: ‘To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.’”
* Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
