By Adefolarin A. Olamilekan
The International Action Network on Small Arms, Safer world, and Oxfam International put it in perspective when they reported that armed conflict cost Africa $18 billion each year and about US$300 billion between 1990-2005. During this period, 23 African nations experienced war: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, and Uganda. Consequently, the Global Terrorism Index 2020 report ranked Nigeria as the third most terrorised country in the world. The indices have worsened in 2021 with some 80,000 Nigerians estimated to have died in recent months with close to three million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) spread nationwide.
Moreover, at the 21st Session of the Meeting of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS on 30 October 1998. The ECOWAS member states, including Nigeria, adopted a ‘Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation, and Manufacture of Small Arms and Light Weapons in West African region. The Moratorium is an unprecedented initiative that was the first adopted as a significant step in directly addressing the problem of illicit small arms proliferation in the sub-region.
Again, if we recalled that in 2019 the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) and the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM), conference through the National Consultation on Physical Security and Stockpile Management (PSSM) organized in Abuja revealed that Nigeria hosts 350 million or 70 percent of the 500 million illegal arms in West Africa. “In Nigeria, this has become a serious security challenge. There is general insecurity as most parts of the country experience high level crimes perpetrated using illicit arms.“The UN estimated that of the most substantial percentage of illegal arms that is in circulation in West Africa are in Nigeria.
Collaborating the above, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubarkar (rtd), spoke the obvious recently in Abuja, as he raised the alarm on six million-plus of assorted weapons in the hands of jobless, hungry and angry civilians. Unofficial estimates suggest that the toll could be more and in excess of 30 million guns and light arms nationwide.
The news last week that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of a National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) with Major-General A M Dikko as its pioneer National Coordinator. The Centre, which is to be domiciled in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to the President replaced the defunct Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons and shall serve as the institutional mechanism for policy guidance, research and monitoring of all aspects of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in Nigeria.
This gives a sigh of relief that the Nigerian state is alive to its responsibility to tackle free flow of firearms that could ultimately set the country on fire. According to Head, Strategic Communication, Office of the National Security Adviser, Z M Usman, as reported in major news media in a release last week Monday 3rd of May 2021, said the establishment of the Centre was part of ongoing restructuring of Nigeria’s security architecture to address emerging threats and strengthen regional mechanism for the control, prevention and regulation of SALW. Furthermore, the statement point out that the impact of the proliferation of SALW across national borders in Africa and the Sahel region has resulted in terrorism, human trafficking, organized crime, and insurrections in West Africa and Nigeria.
“Therefore, as one of the measures in tackling this threat, the new Centre will be fulfilling the requirements of the ECOWAS Moratorium on Import, Export, and Manufacture of Light Weapons as well as the UN Plan of Action to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit trade in SALW “The NCCSALW will serve as the National Focal Point on SALW in Nigeria and lead a multi-stakeholder process involving Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies and the Civil Society in implementing all national, UN and ECOWAS Plans of Action on the control of SALW.
“The Centre will maintain international cooperation and also operate zonal offices in the Six Geopolitical Zones to ensure quick response and effective mobilization of resources”.
This piece considered the current security challenges, causes by many years of underfunding, mismanagement, negligence and lack of political will to tackle the control of SALW headlong.
Meanwhile, we commends the president and his team for seeing wisdom in taking charge of the proliferation of small arms and ammunitions is driving the increasing rate of violence in Nigeria.
The way forward. Clearly, a country in which everyone strives to have a gun in anticipation of threats cannot be at peace. For, National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) to be effective, the president need to send a bill to the National Assembly so as to make NCCSALW more durable and sustain beyond just been a centre. Already there is a bill sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi APC – Kebbi North on Nigerian National Commission Against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons bill which has scaled second reading on the floor of the Senate. We hope the presidency can take advantage of this through amendment to accommodate NCCSALW objectives and vision. As a matter of national interest the elite must speak up against arms proliferation and the complicit political and economic class that continued to indulge in it. As this would serve as dis-incentives benefits to de-radicalize youths from the culture of drugs, cultism, guns, and violence. Fundamentally, any government lacking in public trust and confidence to fairly uphold law and order in accordance with Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) must deploy more intelligence to burst movements of arms and their masterminds and that what we Nigerians expects from NCCSALW.
Adefolarin A. Olamilekan
Political Economist & Development Researcher
Email:adefolarin77@gmail.com
Tel: 08073814436, 0810740787
