When six states in Nigeria’s South-West zone came together in January 2020 to create Amotekun, a regional security outfit to confront social ills spreading across the region, they weren’t reinventing the wheel, despite the political fanfare.
They were re-enacting a past that seemed so far back it had been forgotten altogether – a policing structure that died in 1966, after the Unification Decree abolished Nigeria’s federalism. That decree consolidated political, social and economic structures into a single chain of command and control, following the termination of the First Republic in a military coup.
Once Upon a Refuge
It is noteworthy that when Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Chukwuma Nzeogwu and co. struck, the most senior military officer at the time, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi, took refuge not at any army barracks but at the Police Headquarters in Lagos, from where he plotted a counter-offensive. The Police were that resourced.
That coup officially marked
