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There is nothing bad concerning copying others nor is anything wrong with imitating other people’s ideas, after all, the holy book encourages us to imitate that which is good. However, it must be explained that imitating just for the sake of it can spell doom.
For instance, in 2001, when the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration licensed GSM/mobile telephony in the country, suddenly, there was prolifiration of phone booths springing up across the country. Young boys and girls got engaged in it and before our very eyes the business, which initially seemed productive, started packing up with the introduction of affordable cell phones. Before our eyes, scammers emerged and this gave birth to the notorious yahoo-yahoo boys and other criminality.
There are many instances where Nigerians rush into projects and businesses, leading to proliferation, and they end catastrophically. Be it in education, medical centres, churches or you can name it, we love copy-and-paste procedures, not minding the end result.
The rave of the moment is the establishment of vigilance groups by local and state governments around the country. Since the country was bedeviled by a wave of insecurity, first, from the southwestern part of the country, which saw the birth of Odua Peoples Comgress (OPC) spearheaded by Chief Fredrick Fasheu, before Gani Adams converted it to a militant group and a vigilante.
In the Niger Delta area, another militant group known as MEND emerged; there are several vigilance groups either in local government councils or communities. Such was replicated in the eastern part of the country, with the establishment of “Bakassi Boys”. This trend spread like wildfire, especially in the North East, sequel to the invasion of insurgents and later with the advent of notable terrorist groups operating all over the northern part of the country, with the establishment of Civilian Joint Task Force, that was complementing the efforts of the military.
Apart from the traditional vigilance groups that were set up by traditional rulers, not erasing those set up by local governments, the tide of vigilantism changed when state governors in the South West craved to establish more robust and trained vigilance groups. They indeed set up the Amotekun, which has been making headline news due to its activities.
Some other state governors, like Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, have even gone further by requesting for license to arm their vigilance groups with sophisticated rifles.
In fact, Governor Ortom recently claimed that he had requested for AK-47 rifle licence for the state’s vigilance group but had failed to receive a response from the Federal Government after three months. His colleague in Ondo State, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, recently faulted the Presidency on the denial that it had not granted permission to the Katsina State local security outfit to bear automatic weapons. He has requested that approval be issued to him to enable him procure AK-47 authomatic rifles for Ondo State’s vigilance group.
As members of the Nigerian Governors Forum, it seems clear that these two “confrontational governors” are the test tubes for the forum to see if they can armtwist the Federal Government with their requests to be granted approval to arm their vigilance groups with sophisticated firearms like AK-47.
According to Wikipedia, “Vigilantism is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice without commission.”
So, if the role of the vigilante is to arrest defaulters, what would they be doing with an AK-47? If the governors wanted to hide under the insecurity in the country, one would be quick to ask if they were not governors four years back when insecurity was very rife and had gotten to a crescendo such that travelling by road was like entering the lion’s den? Today, the rate of insecurity has considerately been reduced by the gallant efforts of the Nigerian Army, Air Force, Police and the intelligence agencies.
However, no one should blame the governors, after all, there is justification in the Doctrine of Necessity and the provisions of Chapter VII, Article 51, of United Nations Charter on Self-Defence. Buying firearms for their respective regional security outfits, and training and re-training of local vigilance groups and hunters in their domains to safeguard their people may be paramount in their calculation. But have they weighed the consequence as it concerns their state and the country?
As I write, political campaigns are ongoing, elections are also around the corner. So, these governors are merely testing the waters to see if they can force the Federal Government into subjugation regarding their demands. Surely, once they succeed, other governors would jump into it, and mayhem would be unleashed on the country. What it means is that these governors would automatically turn to be “vigilante lords” as they would be in a position to call the bluff of even federal forces. An AK-47 is a very sophisticated rifle and meant only for well-trained security agents.
One was expecting the governors to rally around the lofty idea of establishing the state police system. Could it be that some governors have sensed that it might be difficult for them to manipulate the state police system to their advantage, hence the urgent clamoring for such rifles to be deposited in the hands of vigilance groups? Arming vigilance groups would be tantamount to inviting disaster. No matter the rate of insecurity, a well-trained, equipped and remunerated police force, along with the military, are capable of ending terrorism in the country.
A check on the Nigeria Police, in terms of better training, equipmemt and remuneration, shows they are far behind South Africa, Ghana and even Liberia, which is very unfortunate, considering the fact that a retired army general-turned-politician is the Commander-in-Chief. Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky lrabor, has stated the position of the Federal Government, which is that acquiring sophisticated rifles like the AK-47 is a no-go area for civilians, no matter their nomenclature.
By the way, how do you monitor or supervise these vigilance groups with no fixed addresses? How will the governors and their supervisors account for missing rifles? Who should be held responsible if these armed vigilance groups transform into political thugs?
The question one should be asking is ,why the urgent clamour for AK-47s in the midst of gross unemployment and high poverty rate in the country?.
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Behold the sweetness of award and promotion (2)
The same excitement goes for those nominated for the nation’s national award, especially security officers who, after 35 years, had hung their uniforms for good, only to be remembered by the country they heartily served and nominated for national awards to be rewarded for their meritorious service to their country.
This writer worked with a few of them. They are selfless and full of the milk of human kindness, even though their uniforms tend to portray them as very hard officers. They served Nigeria as if they were working for their personal industry.
(To be continued)
