Alarming arms proliferation in Nigeria

At the National Consultation on Physical Security and Stockpile Management (PSSM) in Abuja, organized by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) and the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM), it was revealed that Nigeria hosts 350 million or 70 per cent of the 500 million illegal […]

At the National Consultation on Physical Security and Stockpile Management (PSSM) in Abuja, organized by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) and the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM), it was revealed that Nigeria hosts 350 million or 70 per cent of the 500 million illegal arms in West Africa.
UNREC’s director, Ms Olatokunbo Ige, provided the statistics during the consultation in Abuja and said that these Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) are in the hands of non-state actors who use the weapons to threaten lives and property of their compatriots.
“The illicit proliferation of SALW,” Ige said, “has had a dramatic impact on peace and security, as well as lives and properties of the people.  Nigeria is one of the countries that is experiencing some of the most devastating effects of the proliferation of SALW as a result of spillover effect of the recent crisis in Libya and Mali, as well as unresolved internal conflict in different parts of the country, especially in the North-East, Niger Delta and Southern regions.”
The essence of Ige’s warning is that weapons used by our neighbours find easy access into the country and a ready market in Nigeria to increase the tempo of our own internal conflicts. But that’s not the only culprit.  Actually, the origins of the illegal arms proliferation could be reduced to three chief sources. One is the ineffective management of our borders.  The second one is the stockpile mismanagement by our security agencies where weapons meant for government work are lent or sold to armed robberies and non-state agents.  The third one is the obsolete law used in regulating the arms.  The current law is the 1959 Firearms Act.
In this regard, the Resident Coordinator of the UN Systems in Nigeria, Ms Jean Gough, said that “the elaboration of laws and procedures which are adapted to the current reality, aiming to provide the necessary framework to better prevent the occurrence of eventual theft, loss, diversion and explosion in national weapons and ammunition storage has become an essential requirement.”  She added that international partners are committed to preventing the non-state actors from illegal use and abuse of arms.
Also speaking at the occasion, the chairman of PRESCOM, Ambassador Emmanuel Imohe said his committee collaborated with relevant agencies and came out with a repeal of the firearms bill, which is yet to receive attention from the National Assembly.  “Using the 1959 law to tackle the 21st century security challenges is ineffective,” Imohe said.
We find disturbing, the statistics that says 350 million illegal arms are floating in our nation.  A simple average shows that we have 478 illegal weapons per local government area in Nigeria. No wonder little problems snowball into catastrophic events.
We call on the National Assembly to fast-track the process of strengthening our laws concerning this menace.  Our security agencies should also accept the technical assistance that the international partners are offering on the stockpile management.  A government that allows room for its agents to give weapons to non-state actions to foment trouble, is not only creating unnecessary distractions for itself but also destroying its people and the little development accumulated in the last 50 years.
The Customs Service and other agencies at the borders must also fashion effective protocols that would make the inflow and outflow of illegal weapons impossible.  Then anybody who contravenes the laws must be prosecuted and punished according to the degree of their infractions; because the laws that are only observed in the breach (which is true of many of our laws) are pointless.