You are currently viewing Buhari should be commended for sustaining Amnesty programme –Ekewenu – The Sun Nigeria

Buhari should be commended for sustaining Amnesty programme –Ekewenu – The Sun Nigeria

 Sunday Ani

Ambassador Oghenekaro Ekewenu is a United Nations’ Ambassador on Sustainable Development Goals, Chairman, Board of Trustees of Municipal Youth Vanguard of Nigeria and former Executive Assistant to the Governor of Delta State on Maritime Development. 

In this interview, he speaks on the worrisome security situation in the Niger Delta region and the nation at large and offers approaches to tackle the situation among other issues.

One of the major issues of discourse in Nigeria today is insecurity which has manifested in various forms. To fight the monster, some regional outfits are springing in the country. What is your view about this development?

With regard to the recent trend in the country, the thinking is that the formation of regional security outfits will bridge identified security gaps and complement the efforts of the Nigeria Police in reducing criminalities across the land.

It started with the governors of the South-West zone who established the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), codenamed “Operation Amotekun.” This lead was followed by the formation of ‘’ShegekaFasa’’ by the Coalition of Northern Groups ostensibly for the  North-Central, North-East and North-West zones. Not to be left out, the governors of the South-East Zone are reported ready to unveil the name of their own joint security outfit for the region soon.

Similarly, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), has reportedly canvassed for the decentralisation of the nation’s security apparatus to give sub-national entities more room to protect life and property in their domains.

 

But some people believe that the regional security outfits are illegal and might be used by state governors to fight political battles in their states. 

The main counter-argument on regional security outfits is that their operations lacked the  constitutional and legal framework and that they might be misused by state governors for political and private ends.

 

Do the South-South governors need to join the bandwagon in establishing their own regional security outfit?

If indeed the South-South governors are to establish a regional security outfit, there’s the need to examine some identified challenges and gaps.

Statistics show that besides insurgency, there has been a significant rise in insecurity in the South-South states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers. A study done by the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger-Delta (PIND), reports that there were 416 violent incidents resulting in no fewer than 1,000 recorded deaths in 2019. In 2018, there were 351 episodes resulting in 546 deaths mainly resulting from organised crime, political rivalries, communal disputes, cult clashes and land disputes.

This apparently justifies the need for a regional security outfit to curb insecurity in the region. But whether the most efficient approach is through the formation of a security outfit is another matter.

 

What do you foresee as the challenges to the formation of a Niger- Delta security outfit if the governors are to key into the idea? 

Despite the seeming potential in forming a security outfit in the Niger-Delta region, the establishment of such an outfit would be confronted by a range of challenges unique to the region. Chief among these are the negative impacts of the outfit on the wave of militant agitations in the Niger-Delta region. For sure, the main personnel would be the restive young men and if not properly managed, they may become challengers of the Nigerian state. The odds are there that under the funding of governors of the oil-rich region, such an outfit may metamorphose into a national security threat. Another complicating factor in toeing the path of “Amotekun” is the legal and constitutional constraints in creating, rostering and deploying a regional security outfit, whose mandate would likely charge it with enforcing compliance with the various laws of crime in Nigeria. This legal impediment is driven in the main by two concerns: first, whether the states have the constitutional competence to legislate on matters relating to regional security and whether any collaboration with the police was envisaged under Section 4 of the Police Act, which defines the duties of the Nigerian Police. This challenge is compounded by the reluctance of the Federal Government to recognise the legal status of Amotekun and similar security outfits.

Another issue is that of mobilisation strategies, modalities for coherence and strategic coordination of the security outfit, especially where the outfit in the various states are to jointly commit themselves to a common purpose in countering insecurity in the region. In the light of the aforesaid, it is safe to conclude that such an idea is unrealistic, dead on arrival and should, therefore, be jettisoned.

 

What then do you suggest as the alternative or way forward?

I strongly recommend that the various communities in the Niger Delta region and the Nigeria Police should work out a framework of collaboration that would fill critical security gaps.

Furthermore, governments at the federal, state and local levels should deliberately roll back all forms of deprivations because they are strongly linked to insecurity.

In this regard, I highly commend President Muhammadu Buhari for his untiring efforts at maintaining continuous dialogue with the ex-militants through the Amnesty Programme as well as capacity-building/academic training of indigenous Niger Deltans, to acquire competencies and skills through the establishment of the Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Delta State. There is no gainsaying that the sustainability of any progress would require a viable bi-partisan efforts. It is also recommended that the leaders of the six geopolitical zones should hold an Inter-regional Security Conference to discuss a jointly agreed basis on the steps to be taken for a National Security Roadmap.


Source: www.sunnewsonline.com