The report was treated like a footnote in the main press,
but social media and online news platforms gave it a
wider play. It’s the story of the launch of a nomadic
vigilante service by Miyetti Allah, a group of herders
turned political pressure group, comprising mostly Fulani.
The national president, Bello Bodejo, said in Lafia,
Nasarawa State, where the launch took place, that the
vigilante service, which had already recruited 1,144
Fulani youths, would assist security agencies in the state
to combat criminal activities.
Four years ago, the Nnamdi Kanu-led separatist group,
IPOB, made similar doubtful claims when the group set
up the Eastern Security Network (ESN), for the South-
east states. But federal security agencies crushed it. Yet,
in a move that seemed to suggest that one vigilante
group is greater than the other, the Nasarawa State
Police Commissioner was a special guest at the Miyetti
Allah vigilante service launch last week.
There was a report on Wednesday that Bodejo had been
arrested by the DSS, but the DSS has since denied. While
no one is sure of the whereabouts of Bodejo, he appears
to have launched a vigilante service that, regardless of
the pretence of confusion surrounding it, bears the mark
of official approval.
It would be a mistake, however, to think that this once
mostly feared and despised association of herdsmen and
the police are in bed after only one evening of flirting. Of
course, Miyetti Allah may have been motivated more by
group self-interest, relevance and survival. But the
dalliance with the police, the indifference of the main
press, and the muted public response, are not an
accident.
Epidemic of desperation
They are a reflection of the despair and desperation over
the growing insecurity in the country, especially its latest
franchise in form of widespread kidnappings, even in
places once thought to be safe havens.
As a result of multiple internal security challenges from
banditry and insurgencies in the North-east, North-west
and North-central, the unrest and violence by separatist
groups in the South-east, not to mention pipeline
vandalism in the South-south, the police have almost
been reduced to Boys Scouts, while the military is doing
more for less.
A recent report by The Economist, citing ACLED, a global
monitor of conflict, said more than 3,600 people were
kidnapped in 2023, with the sharpest rise in May – the
most ever – while almost about 9,000 Nigerians were
killed in conflict last year.
In a horror story that spooked memories of the Chibok
girls, the family of Mansoor Al-Kadriyar was attacked in
their home in Bwari, Abuja on January 2, and six of the
girls were abducted. The eldest was killed and the other
five released after 19 days in captivity and N55million
reportedly paid in ransom.
It’s in light of this widespread misery and what appears
to be a general state of helplessness that Miyetti Allah, a
symbol of Fulani hegemony, launched its nomadic
vigilante service in a region fraught with a variety of
deadly clashes, the latest of which has been the
murderous rampage of ethnic violence in Plateau State
that has, so far, claimed nearly 200 lives in less than two
months.
Ostrich game
Thanks to elite hypocrisy, after years of playing the
ostrich, we are back where we started: a realisation that
the current policing model is not working. With broken
noses, bleeding hearts, and a variety of poor imitations,
we’re dragging ourselves back to the very thing that we
have always tried to run away from: state police. State
police is not a silver bullet, of course. But in the last 25
years, we have seen improvisations that have barely
dented the monster.
The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), for example,
founded by Fredrick Faseun and Gani Adams was a
citizen vigilante-led attempt to curb insecurity in the
South-west. It’s still active in many parts of the region.
But former President Olusegun Obasanjo with those
close to him who feared it was a South-west agenda
towards state police, kept OPC in check, often deploying
an iron fist.
In a watered-down attempt to devolve more policing
powers from the centre, we’ve seen attempts by the
Federal Government at so-called community policing end
up with greater Federal control, with the notorious pay-
as-you-go police protection being enjoyed by the rich,
especially politicians, who can afford them. It was only
when the farmer-herder clashes threatened to ruin some
states in the South-west that governors in the region, led
by late Rotimi Akeredolu, rallied to form Amotekun.
The South-east followed this lead with Ebubeagu, and a
number of states in the North-west, especially, also set
up their own vigilante services. In August 2022, then
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, launched the
Community Volunteer Guard.
In spite of states drifting towards it, in spite of the ruling
All Progressives Congress (APC) including state police in
its manifesto, and in spite of President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu being one of the most notable champions of it,
the idea is still something of anathema.
Constitutional Conference report
Ten years ago, state police was one of the most hotly
debated issues at the Goodluck Jonathan-brokered
National Conference, a conference whose report, unlike
those of a number in the past, has proved quite durable.
A summary of the 2014 conference report presented at
the Second Chris Ogunbanjo Lecture Series in 2017 by a
member of the conference and Chairman Emeritus of
PUNCH, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, said, “Any state that
requires it, can establish a State Police for that state,
which should operate in accordance with the provisions
of the law setting it up, to be passed by the State House
of Assembly.
“Its powers or functions will be determined by such
legislation and should not be in conflict with the duties
and powers of the Federal Police.”
The conference also made suggestions about changes in
nomenclature and structure of the police and also in the
relevant sections of the constitution. Of course, nothing
significant has been done since, which is not a surprise.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari whose lot it was
to get it off the ground, told me during an interview
nearly two years after he took office that he had not read
the report and was not interested.
If Buhari preferred treading the beaten path, Tinubu
cannot pretend that we can continue the same way, or
that he is unfamiliar with the merits of state police.
There’s a familiar trope against it, and I have heard it
over and over again: that state police in the hands of the
states would be used by governors against their
opponents. That’s a genuine concern, especially in a
country where governors behave as if the states were
their fiefdoms. But isn’t it warped to argue that it’s OK
for the Federal Government to use the Federal police
against its own opponents in the centre and in the states
while we’re all held hostage by the fear that the states
would abuse it?
Bull by the horns
In the case of Miyetti Allah’s nomadic service, which
potentially is worse for regulation than Amotekun which
is at least under the control of the states, whose weapon
would the vigilante be? The Federal Government’s, the
states’ or the battering ram of an unrepentant ethnic
militia called Miyetti Allah?
Ethnic militias are festering because the elite, especially
members of the National Assembly, that are supposed to
take the bull by the horns have refused to do what they
should do to emplace structure and regulation by
amending the constitution to allow the states play a
more active role in policing.
Tinubu cannot afford to allow the drift to continue. He
cannot manage the country’s security the same way that
Buhari did for eight years and expect a different result.
Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP