BB - Operation Rainbow Matters Arising - 8th Sept 2021

Building Bridges On JayFM 101.9

The agitation and call for local security initiatives (State and community police) to better protect lives and property within communities has birthed different security outfits across the country. Such as the neighborhood watch, Vigilante and hybrid security operations in other parts of the country where local vigilantes have been working hand in hand with the security agencies to provide relevant information and collaboration for effective provision of security of live and property. One of such security outfit on the Plateau is the Operation Rainbow. A hybrid force established in June, 2010 by the Plateau state government under the leadership of former Governor Jonah David Jang to increase the peace-building effort to help curb that of the joint tasks force (JTF), civil society’s organization (CSO’s) and non-governmental organization (NGO’s). Operation Rainbow with its neighborhood watch operatives was set to perform community policing duties in their various localities. They are expected to provide accurate and timely information on the security situation in their wards to enable proactive action by government security agencies.

With the coming of the current administration, the security outfit seem to be a shadow of itself while security situation worsened by the day. Although several community dialogue efforts; state and non-state actors round table have been engaged for lasting peace by the current administration on the Plateau. This was complemented by the creation of the Plateau Peacebuilding Agency in 2016 for further community engagement on building lasting Peace. While this peacebuilding initiatives are commended, events in recent times suggests more needs to be done to better protect lives and property.

Consequently, many commentators and callers on this platform have called for the full resuscitation and empowerment of operation Rainbow to meet emerging security challenges in collaboration with state security outfits on the Plateau. Recall that the Plateau State house of assembly in its august Resolution had also called on the executive arm to put words to action on the resuscitation and empowerment of Operation Rainbow.

While these remain, what are the challenges facing the security outfit back? What are the hurdles and matters affecting the full operation of the security outfit? How can the outfit be better repositioned for effective protection of lives and property on the Plateau? How effective and efficient can the outfit be in delivering on its mandate as designed? These and many more will form the basis of our discussion with two experts: Dr. Obadiah Samuel and Mr. Anthony Boniface