Gatekeepers

The spate of security challenges in Nigeria continue to stretch the personnel and resource capabilities of the Nigerian security agencies, occasionally leading to ineffectiveness, and in worst cases, ungoverned spaces. Government’s apparent inability to provide public goods – governance and security – in some areas of the country have led to a community-based approach whereby people take up the responsibility of providing for their basic needs, securing their lives and protecting their properties from security threats. This has been more prominent in areas rampaged by or have experienced some degree of violence without effective government’s reaction to checkmate its reoccurrence.

Individuals in such ungoverned spaces have taken up the responsibility of policing to secure their lives and properties. While some have taken to the use of firearms, thanks to the proliferation of small and light weapons, others have employed weapons like machetes, clubs, cutlasses, bows and arrows, etc. These groups have metamorphosed into vigilante groups, hunters’ association and Civilian Joint Task Force (C-JTF), filling the gaps created by government’s inadequacies. In some communities they are referred to as gatekeepers – monitoring  movement of persons and maintaining internal security within specified areas.  For instance, a study by Centre for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) reports that Civilian Joint Task Force (C-JTF), also known as Yan gora’, has been helpful in the mitigation and protection of civilians, as well as areas some members of the groups have themselves committed harm.

These security groups have tremendously helped to relatively secure most communities from danger, especially in the Northeast region. Going forward, what are government’s post-conflict plans for the civilian joint task force in the Northeast? The state’s continued levity towards these areas and failure to completely incorporate these groups into the formal security structures for regulatory purposes expose some of them to criminal elements, and in turn empower them to cause security havoc in communities they are meant to protect.

Caging the Genie disaggregates the issues inherent in soldiering members of C-JTF, and proffers suggestions for the disarmament and demobilization of the group. In other parts of the country that are not terror-ravaged, vigilantes are evidently established as an extension of the security apparatus of such states. It is interesting to note that, vigilante groups are arguably unofficial state and community policing structures of state governments. If that is so, with the demand for state and community level policing, state governments with such existing establishments should work with relevant actors to design modalities for the regulation and requisite training of qualified candidates to be incorporated into the much talked about state police.

For Further Reading, Click: Governing Ungoverned Spaces
: C-JTF: Cagng the Genie
: Vigilante Groups: Protectors or Predators?
: SALW: Cage the Demon