Towards enhanced security in Edeland

An address delivered by DIG Adedayo Adeoye (rtd) at the security summit conveyed by the Ede Council of Elders

I am glad that we are here today to address the passionate and burning issue of peace and security in Ede and proffer lasting solutions toward having enduring peace and security in our dear fatherland, Ede. My presentation requires me to speak around a chosen theme: ‘Reimagine, Redefine and Reinvent. A New Paradigm for Edeland’ with a view to highlighting the socio-cultural, political and security realities in our community, by discussing challenges and opportunities involved in a peaceful environment, that Ede was renowned for in years past.

The recurring occurrences of violence in Edeland need not be our lot for whatever reason(s) even if other communities are so involved. Ede is noted for positive development for a very long time, with her indigenes doing it proudly in their various endeavours globally. What then snapped? Where did we get it wrong?

As far as the Ede community is concerned, we have had enough of negative publicity before the nation at large. We don’t deserve it. There is therefore an urgent need to bridge the gap between the unruly attitudes of a few bad eggs in our midst and the general well-being of patriotic citizens, who go about the pursuit of their daily bread innocently but are sometimes, unjust victims of the wrong behaviours of the few miscreants. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

I commend the efforts of our various security agencies in rising above the challenges posed by the activities of an evil-intentioned few in our midst even at great risk to their lives. They are enjoined not to relent, but do more in the areas of intelligence gathering to nip in the bud, the activities of the so-called “Joint Boys or Cult Boys”. I also praise the efforts of the south-west governors in establishing the Amotekun outfit. A step that has gone a long way to complement the laudable efforts of conventional security agencies. May the good Lord, continue to put you all under the canopy of his divine protection.

The relative peace we are presently enjoying in Ede should be strenuously preserved. Our politicians, should in this regard, discourage the untoward actions of engaging our youths in thuggery while they protect their own children and siblings in a far away cosy environment. This, in some ways, unduly encourages the existence of youthful gangsterism, which in course of time, becomes uncontrollable to our consternation. There are good roles waiting for the enterprising young men and women to live a clean life that would make them worthy citizens of Edeland, nay, Nigeria. They should embrace such noble roles as a departure from the present ignoble roles as misguided few youths among us.

Community policing as practised in the years past, through the Ode-Isona (native hunters’ participation) should be effectively revived to curb the activities of night marauders. The Ode-Isona were well versed in their areas of operation and also very dedicated. They give their services very selflessly. Efforts should be made by the local governments to encourage them with reasonable allowance as a form of encouragement. This is not to lose sight of the commendable roles of other local vigilance groups such as the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Yah Salam Outfit among others. These aforementioned local security groups should complement their various roles without friction since they are working towards the same goals of absolute peace in Edeland.

There is every need to call on parents to be alive to their responsibilities of giving sound moral education and guidance to their children, more vigorously, than ever before. All the vices now prevalent in our societies are to a larger extent products of bad upbringing and ineffectual counselling on the part of some parents. The youthful gangsterism now the vogue in town is the product of some bad homes. They are not ghosts.

May I also call on our religious bodies to use their various outlets to sermonise the gangsters in our midst of the need to evolve better characters and desist from their evil ways, but rather emulate their fellow citizens who are industrious and committed to their various professional skills and endeavours. I should not fail to appraise this summit of the nefarious activities of some Bororo Cattle Herders, who recently, have constituted themselves into a nuisance under the pretext of cattle grazing, thereby destroying farmlands along their routes or even deliberately intruding into vast expanse of fenced farmlands of agricpreneurs along Loogun/Egbeda axis of Ede south local government area and Oke Osun in Ede north local government area. I was a victim. It was not the best time for the farmers involved.

Security is everybody’s business. We simply cannot ignore it. Doing so is at our own peril. Let us show love to the few dissidents creating trouble in our community and guide them to the path of sanity and take them out of rascality. The federal government should allocate more money to the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to increase their capacity to make them more confident as crime-preventing and crime-bursting security agencies. This brings me to the question, what are the key areas upon which to improve the Nigeria Police? Majorly, the Nigeria Police is long overdue for decentralisation in such a way that state police will eventually emerge. Power should reside in the states.

My position on the need for the creation of a state police was further boosted by support from eminent Nigerians of different persuasions i.e. years ago. Alhaji Umaru Aliyu Shinkafi said in The Punch edition of January 31, 2012, and I quote; “the worsening insecurity situation in parts of the country could only be effectively tackled through the creation of state police”. The country could not continue to shy away from state police, especially with the menace and threat posed by the militant Islamic sect to the nation. Shinkafi was a former director general of the defunct Nigeria Security Organisation.

It is my strong belief that citizens’ lives and properties would be better secured by state police because obviously, the citizens are likely to be familiar with the policemen choosing from among them. And the police in turn will know their historical background, tradition and culture, leading to effective policing, with the attendant security of lives and properties of such community. The constitutional framework in my view, which recognizes only the federal police and in turn empowers the federal government to have absolute control over policing in all 36 states is long due for review by the national assembly.

Notable Ede indigenes should see this time as one that calls for their total involvement in seeing that we remain one indivisible and loving community. They should rise up to the occasion of the present security challenges and be on the side of history positively. Their pragmatic approach to solving all issues at hand will not give the poor men and women among us unnecessary upheavals in our community.

Finally, we should all walk the talk of whatever resolutions or suggestions that would be put in place at this summit with grim determination to make Ede community security our collective goal all year round. We should live closer to the community and relate closely to happenings around it. Security is a total package in itself. Let us unfold the package and use its contents meaningfully for permanent peace in Edeland. Ede ni mi, tokan tara.