Between vigilantism and ethnocultural preservation: An investigation into the legitimacy of the non-state policing activities of the Ombatse group among the Eggon people of Nassarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACTPostmodern contradictions in postcolonial Nigeria have led to the fetishisation of alternative local security measures often labelled as vigilante activities. The profiling of these groups as ethnic militia often undermines their essential bid to provide security while delimiting security needs to the physical. The fallouts of such profiling are frictions between federal security agents and ethnic-based security groups, often resulting in violence, as exemplified by the 7 May 2013 incident between the Nigerian federal security agents and the Ombatse. This study focuses on the emergence and activities of the Ombatse as an alternative security apparatus of the Eggon. It presents three years of field research which entailed the use of ethnography, key informant interviews and observation. The findings reveal that the Ombatse emerged to assert historical legitimacy for both the physical and spiritual securitisation of the Eggon through a return to the ancestral ways of social engineering. The study considers the security challenges in Nigeria, and also situates the Eggon historical context within political, religious, sociocultural and economic intersections of securitisation. It concludes that the Ombatse situates its legitimacy within the Eggon past and retains its relevance through the holistic focus of providing both physical and spiritual security.