Maximise Amotekun gains, pan-Yoruba group tells South-West governments

Against the constraints of Nigeria’s federal system, a group, the Yoruba Leadership and Peace Initiative (TYLPI), has implored the six South-West governors to adopt the principle and ideal of the quasi-regional security outfit, code-named Amotekun Corps, to address the inadequacies and challenges associated with the over-centralisation of basic responsibilities that were better handled by the federating units by the Federal Government.

The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural think-tank and advocacy organisation, comprising prominent intellectuals, scholars, technocrats and entrepreneurs, gave the charge in a congratulatory letter to the Chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum and his Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos colleagues on the successful launch of the security outfit in response to a surge in insecurity and violent crime wave in the region last year.

The group noted that before Amotekun, the escalating violent criminal acts and security challenges ravaging the geo-political zone alongside various parts of the country, including herders-farmers’ clashes, kidnapping and banditry, had persisted without the police and security agencies being able to arrest the situation or bring the perpetrators to justice due to over-centralisation of authority in the nation’s internal security and federal policing system.

The group, which urged the governors to build on the achievement by exploring and exploiting the Amotekun principle for potential benefits in other sectors as part of holistic strategy for advancing the socio-economic growth of Yorubaland, said that it would partner with the state governments to extend the gains of the initiative, which in its innovativeness, “has once again set the Yoruba apart as pace-setter in strategic thinking and problem-solving in development issues.”