Amotekun, what is the Arewa north afraid of?

The level of apprehension, paranoia, and panic that has gripped the Arewa North since the inauguration of the Yoruba Regional Security Outfit codenamed Operation Amotekun (which is not even going to bear arms) is indicative of something very positive for the non-Caliphate rest of the country.

In the entire southwest, there are state owned vigilante services helping to provide security for the locals. In the East, you have the Forest guards in Enugu, the Homeland Security (not fully operational but has been approved by the police) in Abia and one of the best organized vigilante services in Anambra. Yet, neither the Northern controlled security agencies nor the Attorney General has declared those ones illegal.

Why Amotekun?

Well the answer is not far fetched.

It is not really the Amotekun the Danfodios are scared of. It is the fact that a Southern region was able to find the needed UNITY and COURAGE to look beyond partisanship and other mawkish considerations by setting up a regional security outfit to protect their people from a govt sponsored terrorist group masquerading as cow herders. The Caliphate sees this as a form of defiance on the part of the Yoruba. But even more than this, the Arewa North fears the ripple effect of the success of operation Amotekun and one of those ripple effects is that other regions which have been victims of the murderous indiscretion of the fulani killer herdsmen will follow the Yoruba example by setting up their own regional security. And when this is replicated in most part of the country, you will have Organic Restructuring even without amending the Constitution. This is their biggest fear.

As for Miyetti Allah, their fears are understandable; no thief will be happy that his victim has decided to put measures in place to secure his home.

Read also: Stepping back from the brink of war

What the Jukun people of Taraba just did, announcing their own security outfit is what every non-Caliphate part of this forced union needs to do. Don’t just stop at showing solidarity to the Yorubas, come out with your own regional security outfit. This is not about the Yoruba as a people. This is about every region in the country making a bold statement that a govt which has refused to protect her citizens has no right to stop them from protecting themselves especially when the killers of these citizens are being protected by the same govt.

There is something the Southeast can learn from Amotekun.

The fact that both the official inauguration of Amotekun and the back and forth verbal gymnastics with the affidavit Attorney General are being handled by the duly elected governors of the SouthWest (most of whom are APC and even in their first term) has a lesson for Ndigbo: YOU CANNOT LIBERATE A PEOPLE WITHOUT BEING IN CHARGE OF THEIR POLITICS. It is your being in charge of their politics that will give you the needed legitimacy, platform as well as the structure to be their savior. As a matter of urgent importance, we must take more interest in the caliber of men and women managing our affairs at home. If we don’t, by 2023 which is almost here, this same crop of politicians will still be running our affairs and no amount of social media insult and name calling will change that. When your regional politics is controlled by men who think of their political interests before thinking of your safety, you stand absolutely no chance of being liberated. You can dislike your politicians. But you cannot hate politics itself because it is the key to everything including your liberation. Political power is the number1 controller of all other powers. It is the reason some clown in Abuja can sit in some office and declare a regional security effort illegal. It is also the reason the Yoruba governors who are resisting him haven’t been “gifted” with Python dance.

By Charles Ogbu….

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