Examining Public Sentiments in the Self-help Security Initiatives Introduced by Operation Amotekun

Abstract

In Nigeria, widespread security breaches have been systematically destroying human lives and property for decades. On January 9, 2020, the governors of Nigeria’s six southwest states launched Operation Amotekun, commonly known as Amotekun, in response to the ongoing security infractions in the southwest geopolitical zone. Amotekun, a regional self-help security initiative, aims to assist the federal government in addressing security challenges through local enforcement. Since its launch, Amotekun has generated research and media interest. In particular, mainstream media and social media sites like X (previously Twitter) have a significant influence on the sentiments that are trending around security. It is unclear, though, what public perspectives exist about Amotekun on social media. This study explores public sentiments regarding Amotekun through the prism of neorealism. 153,300 unique tweets were collected from X users that matched the keyword #Amotekun and cleaned to remove redundancies and repetitions. The data were analysed using the NLTK libraries. Findings reveal that public sentiment towards Amotekun was predominantly positive, with 69,894 (45%) tweets, followed by negative tweets at 48,925 (32%), and the least, 36,212 (23%), tweets representing neutral sentiments. These findings indicate a general approval of the initiative, suggesting its acceptance among the public. The study contributes to the understanding of self-help security initiatives and their impact on public sentiments, highlighting the broader implications for regional security policies.