Nigeria as a sovereign state is governed by extant laws guided by principles of checks and balances within the three arms of the government; the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.
The 1999 constitution (as amended) circumscribed and shared governance power among the three tiers of government with exclusive power reserved at the federal level that steers the activities of the other federating units.
However, the defense of the country is the ultimate and one of the exclusive powers of the federal government.
Based on the foregoing, the kerfuffle that greeted the declaration of Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun) as illegal by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, is one that lent no further credence to the fact that most of the arguements over the Federal Government’s stance were basically in line of political mileage or, on the basis of regional sentiments.
The debate is simple. The Attorney-General has made it clear that our Constitution does not recognize the provision of any security outfit of such nature having abolished by the 1963 constitution to 1979.
Amotekun is a regional police both in nature and in their prospective mode of operation, hence, its legality must be questionable. By virtue of our Constitution, any regional security outfit will not be recognised because we don’t have regional legislative bodies in the country that will enact laws to cover it.
Therefore, for any entity to operate beyond state level, it must be recognize and registered by the Federal Government. The comparison of Amotekun with that of Hisbah in some Northern states differs both in nature and operation.
Hisbah operates pursuant to a legislation by their respective state assemblies which are duly assented to by their state governors. And, they operate within their legal jurisdiction.
That is to say, a Kano Hisbah can not go to Zamfara and operate legally. Any legal entity that operates beyond a single state in Nigeria contravenes Chapter 6, section 214 CFRN1999, hence it becomes illegal.
For Amotekum to continue existing, the South West governors must enact an enabling law specifying their mode of operation within a purview of the state and the mode of operation should be one that does not in any way clash with the work of the Nigeria Police.
Rabiu Musa is a final year student, Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University, Kano.And can be reached at: [email protected]
