NIGERIA’S security architecture recently took the worst hit ever when the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, knocked policemen and soldiers pilfering arms and ammunition from the armouries of their various formations and selling same to criminal elements, describing the culprits in  unprintable words, while in the same breath, assuring Nigerians that efforts will be put in place to check such nefarious and unpatriotic activities.

RIBADU’S shocker  came on the heels of the destruction of arms by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, as an expression of concern regarding the rate at which illicit weapons get  into the hands of unscrupulous elements who are purveyors of crime in the society.

THE HOPE wishes to state unequivocally that proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons remains a major threat to Nigeria’s national security, exacerbating worrying issues such as insurgency, banditry, and other violent crimes.

ACCORDING to media reports, multi-billion naira illicit arms entered Nigeria 23 times in the last seven years. Findings further showed that those arms and ammunitions entered the country through Tin Can Island and Apapa Ports, in Lagos State; Enugu and Cross River land borders; Bukoro axis of Baruten Local Government Area, Kwara State; Igboora axis of Oyo State; Idiroko in Ogun State, among others, and are mostly smuggled into the country through private jetties that are not regulated by the government.

RIBADU brought the dire state of our national security forcibly home when he stated bodly that a sizable number of illicit arms being used to commit crimes in the country originally belonged to the government.

MAKING a stab at assuring the people of the government’s political will, Ribadu said the destruction of arms was part of efforts to address the challenge of arms proliferation in Nigeria and that by destroying unserviceable, obsolete, and recovered arms, the government was demonstrating its commitment to secure the future for all Nigerians.

ACCORDING to the Nigerian government, the arms destruction exercise was the third in a series, as the proliferation of arms was one of the major threats to peace and security in Nigeria and the West African sub-region. The exercise is billed to witness the destruction of over 2,400 illicit weapons, comprising a mix of unserviceable, decommissioned, and recovered arms, including the weapons recently recovered by the Nigeria Customs Service in Port Harcourt, after the conclusion of the proceedings in court.

THIS  exercise is a welcome development, because by obliterating these arms from circulation, the risk they pose to our communities will be mitigated, sending a clear message that Nigeria will not tolerate the illegal trafficking and possession of small arms and light weapons. Nigerian law prohibits the production and trade in firearms without a licence from the Inspector General of Police, and punishes any violation with a minimum of 10 years imprisonment. It is a known fact that Nigeria’s security agencies have been consistently strict in enforcing this gun law.

NIGERIA has a plethora of extant laws and regulations relating to illicit arms control. Some of them are as follows: Firearms Act of 1959: A major framework for addressing the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW); Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons Act, 2021: A law that regulates the possession, sale, and transfer of firearms; Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act: A law that sets penalties for the illegal possession of firearms. Other regulations are the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011: A law that addresses the issue of illicit arms, and the Criminal Code Act: A law that addresses the issue of illicit arms.

DESPITE  these regulations, the proliferation of arms continues to constitute a severe threat to human safety, and direly affects food security, as the savage atrocities of Fulani herdsmen explain the alarming trend towards unrestricted and uncontrolled access to possession and use of small and light arms.

ALTHOUGH  herdsmen play a vital role in ensuring food safety in Nigeria, available statistics show that 1.3 million cattle are slaughtered for public consumption, accounting for 30 percent of meat consumption by more than 170 million Nigerians annually. However, this feat by the herdsmen has been vitiated and even seriously being eroded by the country’s fragile unity, as lives and property are all threatened by their life-threatening activities and actions.

COUPLED  with this, the proliferation of arms has contributed largely to the increased incidence of kidnappings in many parts of the country.

HENCE, the NSA’s claim might not be far from the truth, going by past experiences when some security operatives were caught in the act of taking out government weapons and giving them out to criminal elements.

DESPITE  the nefarious activities of some bad eggs within the security outfits, it is necessary to commend the various efforts of the Immigration and Customs services to retrieve and mop up illicit arms from circulation. Without these efforts, the situation may   spiral  out of control.

THE HOPE therefore calls on the Government to probe deep into the matter, unmask those behind such dangerous acts  and prosecute them, to serve as a deterrent to other unscrupulous security officials.

THE ugly development brings forth pertinent questions such as: do the security agencies not take stock of the weapons in their armouries? When there are slips and weapons go missing, are there no reprimands? The proliferation smacks of a situation where bad eggs among our security operatives seem to be having a free rein.

WHILE The Hope commends the government over its several efforts to fight insurgency such as the purchase of the Tucano jets and the planned acquisition of 50 new aircraft to strengthen the crusade, we equally urge the government to intensify efforts in securing its armouries from unpatriotic security operatives and other enemies of the nation.