Security, Ingredient of Development

By David Adekunle

Fellow Nigerians and Amotekun faithfuls, my faith in this Awareness Platform will continue to propel my thinking faculty to focus more on the area of needs, I mean things to be done but ignorantly left undone. I have said it times without number the inalienable roles security plays in the life of a country. Who is a foolish investor to invest his life savings in a country bedeviled with terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and all sorts of criminal activities? It is a daydream to expect a foreign investor to plunge into an ocean of investment jeopardy such as ours.

The Nigerian constitution, not minding its fraudulent base places some vital roles on our State Governors as Chief Security Officers of their respective states. I, like many other discerning citizens of that country, ought to be bewildered of that section of the constitution that created an army General without access to foot soldiers.

This is a call on the State Governors to assume fully their constitutional responsibilities of protecting their states and their people. The Southwest geopolitical zone Governors have set the ball rolling by creating Amotekun Western Nigeria Security Network. It is a good move in the right direction but more is crying for inclusion in the area of teeth-cutting for the Amotekun men and women to avoid being tagged toothless bulldogs

The challenges the Amotekun Security operatives will face will determine the level of preparedness to match force for force. This is where the security vote will play a role by channelling same to mass production of local arms and ammunition by our blacksmiths across the state. It will be massively produced to merge the quantity of illegal arms of the enemies all over our forest.

If there is a need to produce machetes of different shapes and sizes to complement our arsenal, it is all well and good. Nobody should have a monopoly of violence over another such as is now happening across the country. The nation has failed to secure its citizens. We are human beings, not chickens, not goats or cows to be slaughtered at will. It has got to a stage where self-defence is logical, necessary and desirable.

What purpose does it serve for monthly or weekly security meeting of security architecture with ethnic bias? Money to be shared among these security chiefs who owe their allegiance to the government at the centre is better used for useful projects that benefit the people in the state.

I have spoken. God bless those who love and pursue peace.

Mr. Adekunle, a security expert, writes from Indianapolis, USA