Findings by former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s National Peace Committee that 80,000 lives have so far been lost to insecurity issues while six million small arms of various descriptions and calibre are in illegal circulation in Nigeria should alarm us all.
For a country to lose so many lives in a war situation is bad enough. For a country to lose this number of lives to internal insecurity incidents is clear proof that we are indeed living in dangerous times. It even scarier still that the six million small arms in circulation are mostly in the hands of non-state actors who have used these to institute a reign of terror, kidnap for ransom and senseless killings of innocent citizens.
Some unscrupulous, criminally minded businessmen are illegally bringing arms into the country and reaping huge profits not minding the huge cost in lives that results from it. Unless we stem the flow of small arms into our country, the internal security situation could only get worse.
That such large quantities of arms and ammunition have been pouring into the country without detection and prevention by security agencies charged with responsibility to do so is a serious cause for concern. The inability of security agencies to detect most of the illegal inflow emboldens the merchants of death, leading to continuous spikes in insecurity in the country. Highway robbery, siege on communities, insurgency, kidnap for ransom and banditry have together snuffed out countless lives using these arms in circulation.
It is time for the Federal and state governments to find and agree on ways to concertedly curb them. General Abdulsalami committee’s report is one of the many that the authorities have at their disposal to address this serious matter. Other committees, made up of security experts and even former Police Inspectors General, have studied this problem at various times and made many recommendations. It is time to bring these reports down from the shelves and act on them.
The first step should be to stop any further arms inflows. The next step should be to immediately mop up all the illegal small arms in circulation. These tasks should be promoted to the top of the national security agenda.
