The Pivot
November 22, 2025
By Steve Otaloro
In the dark days of 2019, when forests in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos had become killing fields, when herdsmen turned farmlands into grazing reserves by force of arms, when kidnapping became a daily industry and the Nigeria Police overstretched, under-equipped and centrally controlled from Abuja could only watch helplessly, one man stood up and declared: “Enough.”
That man was Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN, CON – Aketi the fearless former governor of Ondo State and Chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum. He saw tomorrow when others were still sleeping. He foresaw a region on the brink of economic strangulation, its status as Nigeria’s commercial heartbeat threatened by bandits and terrorists who operated with impunity. And he acted.
What Aketi birthed in January 2020 was the Western Nigeria Security Network Operation Amotekun. A local, community-rooted security fence designed to complement, not confront, the federal police. A rapid-response outfit drawn from hunters, OPC members, vigilantes and trained youths who knew every footpath, every forest trail and every village secret.
The Federal Government, through the then Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, declared it illegal. “Unconstitutional,” they thundered. Some whispered it was a threat to “national unity.” They tried to kill it at birth.
But Aketi was no ordinary governor. He was a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, a legal colossus who had dined with the Constitution for decades. He dusted the very document his detractors quoted, pointed to the concurrent legislative powers of states on security matters, rallied his brother governors, and refused to blink. Amotekun did not die. It roared to life.
Five years later, the results speak louder than any political noise. Farmer-herder clashes have plummeted. Kidnappings along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Ife-Ilesha Road, and the Akure-Owo Highway have been drastically curtailed. Forests have been cleared of criminal camps. Farmers now sleep with both eyes closed. The economic engine of Nigeria kept running because one man refused to let it be switched off.
Without Amotekun, the Southwest home to Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital would today be a shadow of itself. Investors would have fled. Food inflation would be far worse. The entire country would feel the ripple.
Yet Aketi did not do it alone. Sitting beside him through every stormy meeting, every negotiation with the Federal Government, every strategy session, was his loyal deputy, Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa.
Aiyedatiwa was not a spectator; he was a co-architect. He knew the blueprint by heart. When fate thrust the mantle upon him after Aketi’s painful passage on 27 December 2023, Governor Aiyedatiwa did not just continue Amotekun – he upgraded it. Under Aiyedatiwa, Amotekun in Ondo State has received enhanced funding, better logistics, improved training and more modern facilities.
The corps now boasts better-equipped patrol vehicles, advanced communication gadgets and deeper collaboration with the military and police. Its personnel have earned national and international applause for their discipline, bravery and professionalism.
Farmer protection programmes have expanded. Highway patrols are tighter. Crime detection and response times have shortened dramatically.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has proven that loyalty is not blind followership; it is understanding the vision so deeply that you can run with it when the visionary is gone.
He kept the structure intact, retained the personnel and elevated the legacy. Today, Amotekun stands taller because Aiyedatiwa honoured the feast his boss prepared and added his own rich ingredients.
History will record that decentralised, community-driven policing works. A central command in Abuja cannot smell the smoke in a remote village in Ipele or in Idoani township. Only local boots on the ground can. Aketi’s struggle against federal might and legal encumbrances was the price paid for that truth.
What is left now is for the National Assembly to immortalise this giant by bringing a bill let it be called the Akeredolu State Police Bill that finally allows every state to establish, fund and run its own policing system tailored to its peculiar threats. If that happens, banditry will shrink, killer-herders will be chased back, and the Nigeria Police can focus on interstate and international crimes while terrorists from across borders get the full federal hammer.
Imagine a Southwest without Amotekun today: empty farms, deserted highways, fleeing industries, a Lagos under siege, millions displaced. That nightmare never happened because one man saw tomorrow and built a wall against it. And because his successor refused to let the wall crumble.
In the end, as the Yoruba adage translation says, “ it is the head of the fish that enables it to enter the fisherman’s pocket. Aketi was that head. Aiyedatiwa kept the body strong.
Aketi did not just govern. He saved a region. He rewrote Nigeria’s security conversation. And for that, he deserves not just remembrance, but a permanent monument in the architecture of a safer, truly federal Nigeria.
Rest on, Arakunrin. The leopard you unleashed still prowls – fierce, fearless and free.
Steve Otaloro is a public affairs analyst and political commentator.
