AMOTEKUN: Abubakar Malami vs Disturbing Facts.

Amotekun is a child of circumstances and it must not die. Period. 

The world wants to dance to Nigerian music, watch our movies, speak our slangs, and dress our ways. But back at home, it is a hell on earth, thanks to faceless greedy Nigerians who find grace in blood money. They armed barely literate killers with sophisticated weapons to traverse our highways and town-roads to hunt for vulnerable human beings for ransom. Many Nigerians have paid with their lives or suffered untold hardship in the hands of some of these invaders. Elder statesman, Chief Olu Falae is a surviving victim. But one of his workers was not that lucky. They killed him. And Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti was not that lucky, too. She was killed on the spot. And these victims are not alone. 

April 25, 2016, armed Herdsmen, about 500 of them, descended on Nimbo Village in Enugu State before dawn. At about 7 a.m., the attack started - they went about killing and slaughtering every human-being on sight. Prior to the attack, the Governor was alerted. In turn, he alerted the Commissioner of Police. And Abuja was alerted. But no counterattack came. And no rescue mission came from the Police or from any of the nearby Military units. The attackers entered the village. They killed. They maimed. And they disappeared, untouched as they came. It was breathtaking. Later in the day, the Governor was seen on TV weeping profusely over the sight of butchered cadavers. And as usual, it was all threats and no action from Abuja. 

March 17, 2016, 'Armed men in Military uniform invaded the Ugwuneshi community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State and arrested 76 of their men on the allegation that they were planning a counterattack against Fulani Herdsmen who kidnapped two of their women. The armed men came in Military trucks. When it was all over, about 76 of them were taken away in the Military trucks to Umuhia prison. They were detained for two weeks. About four years later, no one could give an account on who authorized the military invasion, and whether they were a real contingent of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Although they came in Military trucks and fully dressed in military fatigue, the Military did not claim responsibility.

February 14, 2018, one Efe, the head of a vigilante group in a village near Benin City was shot to death execution-style by a member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The tragic event was exacerbated when the apprehended herdsmen who wreaked havoc on their farmlands were released by the Military Personnel who shot Efe to death. Let me rephrase that. Herdsmen continuously invade the farmlands of a community in the outskirt of Benin City. On one occasion, the villagers, led by their leader, Efe, were able to repulse the attack of the trespassing herders and held some of them, hostage, pending the arrival of security personnel. The security personnel came and one of them gun down Efe in cold blood and release the apprehended trespassing herders.  

Why these three instances? Very simple. Abuja is not on your side when it comes to kidnapping and herders’ onslaught. You are on your own. The Nigerian security apparatus is not on your side. This conclusion holds the truth that present leadership is without a roadmap on how to overcome the clear and present danger – real danger – poses by killer-herders and deadly kidnappers. Therefore, Ametokun must live.

Rationale

Friday, July 12, 2019, suspected herdsmen in a kidnap attempt at Kajola, Ondo State, shot and killed Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti. When Funke was contending between life and death in the face of her killer’s gun, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) was not there. When Efe was shot dead execution-style, Malami was not there. When Nimbo village was attacked, Malami was not there. When my vehicle was attacked between Lokoja and Okene in 2016, robbed at gunpoint and told to jump into the bush, Malami was not there. When Aguta village in Benue State was invaded and children were tied into stakes and their throats slit open to bleed to death, Malami was not there. 

This is not about True Federalism or Restructuring. And it is not about dividing Nigeria. It is about insecurity. And it is about self-help in the face of acute government intransigence on accepting or confronting a disturbing reality – that indeed it has failed Nigerians. Truth matters. It is becoming a divided nation every day, and no one within the political leadership has the wherewithal to brandish a moral compass.  Where is your audacity, Abuja? Where is your integrity? Where is the leadership in you? 

Decades from now, and when the history of Nigeria is under review, the Ametokun Security Initiative will emerge as the second most important decision to emerge from the Western region and Nigeria at large. The 1953 motion for independence is number one. 

Today, Nigeria is in a state of anomie security-wise. A group of people, who are not up to a thousand, have taken it upon themselves to dictate the scope and extent of our land ownership rights and usage. In a similar fashion, road transportation is now a risky undertaking. Today, not many Governors can afford to travel by road. How do you facilitate investments when you cannot police your highways? 

Yet, we are debating whether the Yoruba people have the right to defend themselves? Give me a break! That right is inherent - it is not debatable. It is fundamentally irrelevant that other affected regions have failed to act in a similar fashion or that we have collectively failed as a nation to be bold and be decisive in confronting killers in our midst. This is a crucial moment, Nigeria. This event is noble. And it is ethical. Belated as it is, it must be applauded. And it must live. 

A line on the Sand.

These killers without a home, we are told, are not Nigerians. And I can find a reason to agree with the advocates of that theory. Most of the kidnappers and killer-herders do not speak the popular Hausa language, based on the accounts of the victims. 

If they are non-Nigerians, trespassing and invading your farmlands and killing and raping your women unhinged, you have every right to defend yourself by any means necessary. We are under siege. We are in dire straights, confronted by forces that harbor no compassion or feeling of human kindness. And we are cascading precariously into extinction as a nation-state. Sadly, no Moses on sight. But make no mistake, AMETOKUN has come to be our Moses. 

It is the helplessness coming from Abuja in the face of the nation-wide vulnerability of her citizens that makes the call for True Federalism or Restructuring very compelling. Not crude oil. We have long ceded total control and ownership of the crude oil to them. As to our lives; the dire is cast. We cherish it. And we must protect it. And the bargain is over. 

Therefore, we must move forward to defend ourselves from foes who enthusiastically unleash extorted kisses and brutal sex on our womenfolks over the years; dispossessed struggling Nigerian families of their earnings, desecrated our fertile land with innocent blood, and turned a once upon a time globally reputed happiest people on earth into a dispensable species. We are born with that right. And you are justified to attack and disarmed before you are attacked and dispossessed of your life and belongings. It is called preemptive right. It is inherent and it is fundamental. Ametokun is a child of circumstances; therefore, it must live.