The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) Saturday said it would float a security outfit named ‘Shege Ka Fasa’ to compliment other security agencies’ activities in the region.
The group said it was now left with no other option than to resort to forming an Arewa Security Initiative to secure their people’s lives.
This is coming just as the apex northern socio-cultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said that no region has the power to establish its own security outfit.
But the northern group insisted that with the proposed “Shege Ka Fasa,” they were convinced that there was indeed a justifiable reason for Nigerians to seek to take extra measures for self protection and preservation in the prevailing circumstances such as the coming on board of ‘Operation Amotekun’ by the south-west state.
“This need is necessitated by the apparent failure of the government to discharge its primary duty of protecting the lives and property of all citizens,”the group said.
This is just as the group in a statement signed its spokesperson, Abdul-azeez Suleiman, and made available to newsmen said, “Failure of the authorities to provide proof of its capacity to protect citizens in all parts of the north as minimum evidence that they are serious about their responsibilities, would leave people with no option than to resort to forming an Arewa Security Initiative to secure their people’s lives with the proposed code named, “Shege Ka Fasa.”
“In 2015, Nigerian voters trusted President Muhammadu Buhari to lead them out of these limitations, into a future in which we will live and pursue livelihoods in a united Nigeria whose human and material resources will be protected by our leaders.
“Regrettably, five years on, the story is that of poverty ravaging communities, hunger stalking millions of homes, inflation making life difficult, people losing jobs, businesses closing down, infrastructure decaying, young Nigerians losing hope, which are responsible for the current security situation.
“Worth recalling also, is that long before the current deterioration, the government has been advised severally to take definite steps to end the conflict between farmers and the pastoral communities which it shunned.
“Instead government came up with various ambiguous policies in the form of Ruga, Livestock Transformation, etc that all ended in controversy, and were never implemented.
It stated also that at a point, the CNG and Northern Elders Forum (NEF)were compelled to consider advising the pastoralists to return home to safety at which the presidency intervened by renewing the vow to protect all citizens’ rights to live and thrive anywhere in the country.
“Having evidently failed to do that, the ensuing level of fear and uncertainty pervading the country now spark concerns that government’s willingness and the quality of coordination of efforts, management of resources and the capacities and integrity of the mechanisms charged with the nation’s security do not do justice to the magnitude of the problems, or address the sense of urgency in dealing with an escalating disaster.”
On the Amotekun, CNG said, “While we do not dispute the right of the south- west to initiate the Amotekun as a necessary alternative to secure their safety in the face of government’s control lapses, we nevertheless understand the need for such measures to abide by due processes that conform with relevant laws of the land.
“In this regard, CNG recognises the authority of the federal government to take steps to disband all militias and armed groups everywhere in Nigeria to ensure that no group has the capacity to challenge the state in its prerogative to maintain law and order, and protect citizens’ lives and property.
“The acceptable position remains that only legally constituted outfits and lawfully sanctioned organisations under the direct control of the federal government, as recognised by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, can be so organised, armed and fitted.
“Any extra judicial arrangement by which regions set up state-sponsored armed militia groups may therefore not be tolerated as it only confirms suspicions of a wider agenda similar to that of IPOB, to cajole other parts of the country to submit to their ambition for political ascendancy.
“If indeed the aim of the south – west leaders is to use Amotekun as weapon to coarse the nation into ceding the presidency to them in future, CNG finds it pedestrian and tactless as brigandage will only jeopardise their chances the way IPOB did to south-east politics.
“On the contrary, any section of the country that is able to present a credible alternative shall certainly gain the support of Nigerians without the need for resorting to bluffing.”
CNG also averred that, “In the prevailing circumstances, the north is even more genuinely entitled to be angry at the rate its people are attacked, killed, towns and villages vandalised, innocent citizens including children abducted, and terrorised, families traumatised and communities displaced on a daily basis.
“All this while the north has persevered in a dangerous security environment fuelled by outside interests that thrive on the supply of such deadly merchandise as hard drugs and other harmful substances and the proliferation of arms into the region.
“With the current level of anger, frustration and uncertainty that is fueling communal disharmony and mutual distrust, CNG believes that the north should as well take similar steps to arrange for the protection of the region and its people from these daily attacks and destruction.
“ Thus failure of authorities to provide proof of its capacity to protect citizens in all parts of the north as minimum evidence that they are serious about their responsibilities, would leave people with no option than to resort to forming an Arewa Security Initiative.
“Finally and for the avoidance of doubt, notwithstanding that Nigerians may not have quarrels with any region taking measures to protect its people, they are at the same time unlikely to give in to calculated manipulation, coersion, intimidation, aggression or undue show of force in whatever guise.
“On its part, the north remains confident that it will not shy away from any process leading to any form of national reassessment that may arise now or in the future, in the context of a genuine dialogue without hidden agendas or preconditions.
“It will however not accept any proposal for a national conference that fails to take all acceptable indices of our national demography into consideration; one that clearly aims at achieving dubious political goals; and one that would be clearly designed to weaken our region,” it stated.
Meanwhile, the ACF secretary general, Anthony N Z Sani, said geopolitical zones were not listed in the constitution.
“As a result, no one can say south- west is a constitutional unit that can make law to back Amotekun security outfit contemplated by the governors of the region.
“And since south- west can boast of constitutional lawyers the most in this country, the six governors in the zone are at liberty to challenge in a court of law the federal government’s declaration of Amotekun as illegal.
“That is how democracy works. It is a contest of ideas and reasons, and not a bullfight. I believe state governors should address the underlying causes of insecurity which includes poverty that comes with unemployment and endemic ignorance.They should also pressure the federal government to provide enough number of trained soldiers who are adequately equipped. The same with number of police personnel who are presently inadequate and not equipped enough to police the country,” Sani said.
The ACF scribe said, “If we had insufficient number of state police who are not trained sufficiently and not equipped for the tasks tomorrow, they would still not be able to deliver on the promise of their mandate. So let Nigeria have sufficiently – trained and adequately -equipped number of police personnel as a condition for expecting them to police and secure the nation. Multiplication of security outfit is not the solution,” Sani added.
source- dailytrust