I decided to make another round of case for a regional security organization in the South East of Nigeria in other to remind the political leaders of the region that evil is already in their midst. This will be the last time I will ever attempt to drum up support for this issue. One thing I have come to understand about the leaders of this region is that they are too lukewarm and cowardly disposed when it comes to confronting matters that is strangulating to death the interest of their people. There is this Igbo maxim that say: only an irresponsible person will run after a black goat in the night. For one not to be cut up in the middle of nowhere there is need to arrest a pressing situation before it blows out of proportion and consume everyone.
The Nigeria of today is full of unimaginable surprises. When a section of the country now possesses the prerogative power to determine who forms any group or who becomes the President then one begins to wonder if there is any difference between a banana republic and Nigeria. In a country where terrorists are treated with kids glove while peaceful agitators are massacred with AK47 and even in most cases bathed with chemical weapon, there is every need to bale the water while it’s still an ankle deep. The aim of my message is neither to open old wounds nor to inflict fresh ones. It is a divine mandate, designed to wake every lucid mind in the South East region with the bitter and incontrovertible truth.
Time and events have proven that truly Nigeria belongs to an uneducated tribe, while the other educated tribes in the country are slaves and must bow to the command of uneducated arrogant demagogues. Sometime ago a vituperative leader in this country once said that Nigeria is the estate of their father and they must ruthlessly do everything humanly possible to make sure it doesn’t slip away from their hand. Fifty nine years after independence, the story has been the same. There is no record of unity, peace and progress. The nation has been enmeshed in all manner of ethnic jingoism, killings, tribal warfare, economic terrorism and political parochialism. Nigeria has been nothing but a skeletal shadow.
In natural law, I was made to understand that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. From time immemorial, this law applies in all human interactions and has become one of the yardstick for measuring fairness and equity in all social stratum. Unfortunately the revise is the case with Nigeria. While a section of the country is qualified to own all the oil wells, control the Presidency and the coercive apparatus of the state, the rest exist to applaud and lick their filthy anus. This reocuring ugly incident of a section of the country attempting to lord and intimidate the rest is becoming so visible and embarrassing. It is really a mockery on collective intelligence that an infinitesimal group in a nation will be bold to tell others when to eat and when not to eat.
The horrible security situation in Nigeria calls for a thorough regional introspection. There is no day that passes without one hearing stories of how terror movements and other bandits killed and displaced hundreds and thousands of people from their communities, and these are happening in a country where there are functional security agencies who are paid with the tax payers money to maintain absolute security. There are recorded cases of Fulani bandits kidnapping and raping aged women in their farmlands. The one that happened in Ebonyi State which was widely reported by media houses is a clear testament. The same carnage is on-going in Enugu, Imo, Anambra and Abia states. No arrest has been made and the governing powers have not held anyone accountable for all these heinous crimes. These killers and terrorists appears to be above the law because there seems to be some level of conspiracy from the top to shield them from prosecution
Moreover, the lopsided structure of Nigeria and its security architecture is a larger signature to the fact that nobody is safe in the country. The Fulani tribe is in charge of the police, army, DSS, civil defense, customs, Navy and Immigration. It’s all about the government of the Fulani, by Fulani and for the Fulani. Other extractions of the country have been displaced from the national security formation.
When it comes to security and beyond, the South East region has been jettisoned. The only thing that works in the region is the mounting of road blocks from one pole to another by haggard and poorly trained security agents. Coordination of various military operations (like operation Python dance), extortion, killing and illegal arrest of motorists who refuses to part with their hard earned money on the numerous checkpoints littered all over the region is categorically seen as an act of gallantry.
However, there can’t be and will never be one Nigeria when some selfish and backward folks have chosen to arrogate power to themselves. There can’t be one Nigeria when there is no sea port and international airports in the South East. It is sheer deceit and folly for anyone to say there is one Nigeria when the Hisbah police and Civilian JTF in the North are legal while in other regions of the country such organizations are deemed illegal.
Nigerians don’t need to be told that one of the major reasons that have compelled the various regions of the country to establish indigenous security organizations is because the centre cannot longer hold. The security architecture in the country has been crippled by dead woods and ethnic chauvinism; hence the regions are now left to source for concrete alternatives for self preservation. The police and the army as presently constituted have stupendously failed to secure the people.
It will be bad and very regrettable that the South East leaders will fold their hands and watch while other regions of the country assiduously work to protect lives and property of their people in the face of this terror that is escalating in the country. It is necessary to constitute a viable regional security organization. It is a child of necessity. There is Hisbah police and JTF in the North, while there is Amotekun in the West. Thus, South East region shouldn’t be left behind in this self preservation mechanism. Political leaders from the South East must synchronize and push for the formation of an indigenous security outfit. Anything short of the above suggestion will continue to put the region in the radar of killers who maim and kill with impunity. My suggestion is not an attempt to be divisive and sadistic, but the reality on ground is what I’m laying bare for every reasonable mind to embrace.
In conclusion, I will quote professor Farooq Kperogi’s commentary of 18th January, “It’s irrelevant if Amotekun is constitutional or unconstitutional. You need to be alive to read the constitution. Only the living debate legality and constitutionality. The seemingly never-ending widening and deepening of the theaters of bloodshed in the country, occasioned by the unrestrained sanguinary fury of homicidal marauders, in the face of the inability or unwillingness of federal security forces to protect lives has made Amotekun an issue on which most people in the Southwest won’t compromise”.
I will advise all stakeholders from the South East to take a leaf from professor Farooq Kperogi’s commentary. Decisive measures should be taken to ensure the safety of the region. There is no room to start arguing the legality and illegality of setting up such security organization. Self preservation is a basic instinct in human beings and animals. A Stitch in time saves nine.
Kalu Nwokoro Idika is a political analyst, investigative and freelance journalist
