Bí ekòló bá júbà ilẹ̀, ilẹ̀ á la’nu. Bí ọmọdé bá mọ ọwọ́ wẹ̀, á bá àgbà jẹun. Mo júbà ọmọdé, mo júbà àgbà. Mo júbà ọkùnrin, mo júbà obìnrin. Mo kí gbogbo orí adé tó wà ní ìkàlẹ̀. Adé á pẹ́ l’órí, bàtà á pẹ́ l’ẹ́sẹ̀, ìrùkẹ̀rẹ̀ á d’ọkinni. Èmi Bamidele ni Jìgbìnnìjigbinni Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn. À dúpẹ́ púpọ̀ l’ọ́wọ́ àwọn gómìnà wá ní ìhà ìwọ̀ oòrùn Naijiria, ní ilẹ̀ Yorùbá, pé wọ́n gbé eto náà jáde. A dúpẹ́ l’ọ́wọ́ ẹ̀yìn ayé pé ẹ tẹ́wọ́ gbáà. A júṣe fún wa ní’lẹ̀ Oòduà.
Before the security summit that birthed Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn, economic activity outside Lagos was weakening. Our food security, economic security, cultural security, environmental security and political security was threatened. Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn was conceived to help maximize public safety and restore confidence to all living and or doing business in the region.
Let it be known that Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn is a value system whose primary organizational goal is working cooperatively with citizens as individuals or groups to prevent crime, identify criminals and report criminal activity affecting the livability of each state in the West of Nigeria.
As custodians of our history and culture, traditional rulers fit into the Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn model. The Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn model is antithetical to the traditional image of reacting to crime. Its principles infuses confidence, and it is predicated upon the prevention of crime and peacemaking. That is the role our royal fathers are quite at home with. To the Yoruba, Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn is an ideological change in combating crime. Given the terror of 2018-2019, it is obvious that public safety and protection cannot continue to be the exclusive concern of the Nigerian Police, but the concern of the entire community. Security is collective responsibility. Since our traditional institutions are the focal point of the people, maintaining internal security will naturally depend on their cooperation and collaboration with security agents. Traditional rulers should be given significant roles in the face of new security challenges. Traditional institutions served and will continue to serve important roles in the maintenance of justice and order.
Food Security
A robust quality of life in the Southwest depends on our ability to feed our people and guarantee their health. Commitment to enhancing agriculture as a means of improving access to food, for people in the region is the only way to achieve food security. Between February and May in the Southwest, just before the year’s crop of maize hits the market, rural farming communities face shortage of food. This conforms to the defining characteristic of low food security, which means; the food intake and normal eating patterns of many households are reduced and disrupted because the household lack money and other resources for food at certain times during the year. A people are food secure when safe, nutritious food, needed to maintain a healthy and active life is available, accessible and sufficient at all times. In 2009, the World Summit on Food Security stated that the “four pillars of food security are availability, access, utilization, and stability”. The Southwest is failing on all four measures. To improve, we need to increase crop yield, use fertilizer more efficiently, device appropriate rain water use and good irrigation systems, target food for direct consumption and reduce food waste. Traditional rulers should work hand in hand and transparently with Governor’s on the need to educate our farmers and help them secure funding under the CBN guaranteed loans for small scale farmers.
Economic Security
The economic security and prosperity of the Southwest depends on the flow of goods, services, people, capital, information and technology across our borders. Meanwhile, competitiveness within the entrepreneurial class has been eroded due to lack of indigenous capital. It is painfully obvious that long term finance like what obtains in the heydays of long term development institutions in Western Nigeria is no longer available. The flow of the little that is available are targeted for exploitation by adversaries, including terrorists and criminals. It is our role to identify vulnerabilities to our region’s economic security, and find ways to spur indigenous capital and collaborating between the states to secure them. Every traditional ruler has access to eminent and wealthy sons and daughters of their community. About time you reach out to them not for yourself or your family but to the community.
Cultural Security
Culture is central to how we view the individual and the family unit. It is through culture, that we can measure the wellbeing and health of our communities. Today the Yoruba faces cultural erosion and onslaught from different frontiers. We are challenged to preserve and protect Yoruba cultural heritage, language, values and identity against the negative influence of foreign popular culture; in the face of modernization and globalization. How do we safeguard our beliefs and traditions against corruption or even extinction? How do we enhance or shape practices according to our political, economic, or social needs? Culture is property. If culture is property, to secure it, we must protect, distinguish or exclude it, depending on the situation. When culture is defined as property, we must seek to protect it; when we understand and appreciate its power to influence we must seek to distinguish it; whenever and wherever it threatens to shake the foundation of our society, we must seek to exclude it. In our region, we must guard the rights of individuals and create definitions of culture through common identity, politics, economics, and society and ensure respect for each of these identities, to accomplish security for all. The legacy of our culture is our future. This is almost exclusive to you Kabiyesis.
Public Security
Our towns and cities should be a place where people are able to live, work, and play in safety and comfort while also coexisting in harmony with the environment. For socio-economic development, the Yoruba homeland needs peace, security and political stability. Within the framework of human rights, member states need to develop mechanisms to evaluate and strengthen institutional capacity to deal with security threats. Such mechanisms must focus on strengthening of security legislation, the improvement of law enforcement coordination and practices, the prevention of crime and violence, victim assistance and social reintegration of convicted criminals.
Environmental security
Our homeland faces the threat of environmental degradation due to the depletion and degradation of natural resources such as air, water, land; unwise development, unsustainable land use practices that may contribute to societal, political or economic instability or conflict. This is a regional security problem. How can we mitigate environmental security concerns from waste; threats to energy resources; contamination, degradation or depletion of essential environmental resources; or environmental problems from failing infrastructure as may threaten our security or undermine regional stability?
Energy Security
There can be no development without access to the requisite volumes of energy at affordable prices free from disruptions within reasonable time. The Southwest must be concerned with its macro-economy and the management of its strategic interests. Many industries have left our region because of energy failure. To ensure energy security, we need energy policies and standby measures that can be implemented in the event of a supply disruption. Such policies must include alternative and clean energy provisions, energy supply diversification and a maintained volume of energy stock. We need a regional policy to manage the macroeconomic effects of a major supply disruption, including price shocks, inflation, and loss of jobs in energy intensive industries.
Political Security
How can the Southwest defend itself against all forms of political oppression, repression, systematic violation of human rights and threats from militarization within the national framework? Interventions must seek to strengthen the region through supporting institutions and processes that ensure transparency, accountability and equity. This includes; working on approaches to deepen regional cooperation and integration between institutions of governance, law and justice and human rights. We must look at the depressing scenario of people moving into our region while we are moving abroad. Lagos and other big cities are under siege!
Securing Our Future State
Our environment is undergoing transformation through rapid changes. Within the region, we need strategies to deliver better quality of life through sustainable development. We will need a combination of education and advocacy strategies to promote education, create hyper-modernity, remake the Southwest as the new hub for knowledge economy, increase our regional economic capital, invest in our people and prevent crime. If we continue to make the wrong choices now, future generations will live in intolerable climate, depleted resources without trees and biodiversity for improved standard of living and quality of life. We need to make the right choices to secure a future that is fair, where we can all live within our environmental limits.
Finally, Yoruba understands its role as the conscience of Nigeria. We cannot afford becoming an engine room of misery and failure. We have an existential and emotional attachment to Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn. Our governors simply rose to the yearnings and aspirations of law abiding indigenes and residents of the region. Safety and security is a fundamental right. May God bless the Yoruba, may God bless Nigeria

By Bamidele Ademola-Olateju