In 2020, the Attorney General of the Federation challenged the South-West governors’ Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun), citing exclusive federal power over security and defence. This came amid herder violence that national agencies seemed unable to contain. The eventual compromise permitted Amotekun only on a state-by-state basis, destroying its original “network” logic. An obsession with constitutional division of powers as an end has turned Nigeria’s house of 36 mansions into one where doors reinforce separation rather than create linkages.