AMOTEKUN & THE DANGERS OF AN UNRATIFIED CONSTITUTION

Voice of Reason (VOR) acknowledges with respect and admiration, all who have spoken out against the declaration by the Attorney-General of the Federation of the illegality of Operation Amotekun, the newly established security outfit of the South West region of Nigeria.
State Governors, traditional rulers, members of the inner bar, legal practitioners, members of Yoruba and other ethnic socio-cultural associations, civil society organisations, students, trade unions and public commentators have all lent their voices to the unequivocal condemnation of the provocative and presumptuous statement of the AGF. Rarely in the history of our nation have so many voices, simultaneously, spontaneously and stridently spoken truth to power on a single subject with a force of such compelling magnitude.
VOR salutes with pride and admiration, the courage and forthrightness of all who have made their principled stand known. We are reassured by this reaction, of the dictum, that no power on Earth is greater than the collective will of the people.

Whilst commentators have examined the Constitutional powers of the AGF vis-à-vis the legality or otherwise of Amotekun, VOR believes that the action of the AGF is merely one of the symptoms of a deep seated malady which we choose to call the Unratified/Unvalidated or Illegal Constitution Syndrome.
Democracy is an invention of the Ancient Greek Civilisation and was first practiced more than two thousand five hundred years ago in the then city state of Athens. Essentially, Democracy is a form of Government which allows a group of people to determine the way they want to be governed and the people who would perform the governing.
After a decline of more than two thousand years, it fell to the thinkers of enlightened Europe to redefine and re-awaken Democracy. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) believed that there exists a tacit agreement between those who govern and the governed, which forms the basis
for the process by which individuals relinquish their God given freedoms, in exchange for security and safety. Hobbes named this process “The Social Contract,” the lack or loss of which leads to a descent into a Hobbesian State where life is “nasty, brutish and short.”
Writing almost contemporaneously with his older compatriot, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke (1632 – 1704) opined that the purpose of Government was to protect the fundamental natural rights and promote public good.
Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) articulated the principle of separation of powers, which is the underlying principle of Constitutions in all Democracies of the world.
The thoughts and principles advanced by these great thinkers and others, formed the bedrock of the Constitution of the first modern Democratic Government in the World, that of the United States of America. Ratified in 1788, the Constitution of the USA has proven to be a guide for all subsequent Democratic Constitutions.
“Constitution” is the System of laws and basic principles that a state, a country or organization is governed by. There are usually four stages involved in the preparation of a new Constitution i.e. Preparatory, Drafting, Consultation, Review and Adoption.
The 1999 incarnation of the Nigerian Constitution, enacted after a six-year military interregnum should correctly have gone through the 4 stages of preparation and painstakingly incorporated all extant principles necessary for the smooth-running of a multi-ethnic entity like Nigeria. This did not happen, rendering completely untrue, the preamble:
“We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Having firmly and solemnly resolved to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God……”
The 1999 Constitution was drafted by lackeys of the then military government and imposed on an oppressed and intimidated civilian populace.
VOR is persuaded that Operation Amotekun came into existence to fill a void in the architecture of Security in Nigeria and because of a failure of the Federal Government to perform the most fundamental function of Government – the security of lives and property.
Operation Amotekun became necessary because the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not a true reflection of the way Nigerians in all parts of the country and want to co-exist.
Let the word go forth from hence, that the forces of democracy and freedom should not relent until a Constitution acceptable to all Nigerians is Drafted, Reviewed and Adopted by Referendum.
Meanwhile, long live Operation Amotekun and all who support it.