EXPLAINER: A beginner’s guide to Tinubu’s position on AMOTEKUN

In a 33-paragraph statement regarding the propriety or otherwise of Amotekun, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu took a middle course in what many have termed a careful move not to hurt his future political interests. Did he prevaricate unduly? You be the judge.

1. Amotekun should be seen as a “limited, inoffensive addition to security”

2, Those who don’t agree with (1) “have taken themselves upon a madcap excursion.“

3, If you believe the Federal Government “seeks to terribly suppress the Southwest,” then you “have also lost your compass.”

4, If you fall into categories (2) and (3), then you “have sunken into the dark recesses of fear and political paranoia that can undo a nation if such sentiments are allowed to gestate”.

5. Most critics are enjoying blissful ignorance because they have the “vaguest notion about Amotekun or equally ignorant of its provisions.”

6. Nigeria is far from a culture of popular will because “how people have mishandled this matter demonstrates that we still have far to go in perfecting this democracy.”

7. “If quarrel over Amotekun becomes the standard for how we handle disagreements then we will obscure Nigeria’s path forward with our own rubbish.”

8. Amotekun “is an opportunity to more clearly define our federalism.”

9. South-West governors, AGF both right because “no one can blame either party for seeking to fulfil what they genuinely see as their public duty.”

10. Claims that cynics wanted him (Tinubu) to “misspeak or misstep in a manner they could twist to their political advantage.”

11. Claims that “As a political leader, he (Tinubu) has “not the luxury of hasty, ill-conceived utterances.”

12. Amotekun “in principle, is a commendable undertaking.”

13. Claims that he (Tinubu) “dearly loves the people, all of them, because over the years of our existence, they have suffered much…and he would not treat them cheaply or bandy their emotions like some errant football.”

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14. Amotekun “is but the second generation of Neighbourhood Watch expanded to a regional scale…and does not appear to insult the constitution.”

15. Tinubu does not agree with some aspect of Amotekun because “first, the stated mission is information gathering by civilians and tasks are always and everywhere best done in low-key fashion.”

16, “Equipping Amotekun with showy paraphernalia may cause the public to misconstrue the role of Amotekun.”

17, Amotekun could negate community policing policy because “it is uncertain how well Amotekun can complement the police force as the force moves toward greater decentralisation when Amotekun is organisationally leaning in the opposite way.”

18. South-West governors cause of the public uproar because “failure to include the office of the Attorney-General in these discussions is the fount of the current public uproar.”

19. AGF hasty in condemning Amotekun because “he rendered a public statement that was more inaccurate than it should have been.”

20. South-West governors and the AGF should “enter private discussion” because “this matter cannot be resolved on the pages of newspapers or by attributing negative motives to either side.”

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