In October 2010, a mysterious and illegal consignment
of 13 containers was intercepted at the Lagos Wharf in Apapa. According
to media reports, the shipment contained grenades, rocket launchers,
assorted explosives and other forms of weapons of mass destruction. It
had already reached the country when its suspicious labelling aroused
the attention of security officials and gave the importers away. Earlier
this year, three Ghanaians and two Nigerians were arrested in the
suburbs of Accra with a truck load of arms allegedly en-route to
Nigeria.
Similarly in March 2011, the Nigerian secret police seized a
truck loaded with bomb making material in Jos en-route to Kaduna. The
truck contained fuses, detonators, and large amounts of ammonium nitrate
fertiliser which are used in making Improvised Explosive Devices. In
June, a Customs comptroller was reportedly implicated alongside two
police officers in connection with the constant disappearance of
ammunition from the police armoury in Niger State and the resale of same
to robbers and arsonists in Jos. Finally, in July, security agents
intercepted a large consignment of arms, which included rocket launchers
and grenades, at the Nigeria-Chad border in Borno State.
These disturbing incidents raise several questions:
Could any of these seizures be connected to the mayhem that is being
unleashed on Abuja, Kaduna, Jos, Damaturu, Maidugiri, Potiskum, Sokoto,
Okene and other parts of Nigeria in recent times? Are these arms being
channelled to terrorist or militant groups in Nigeria? Could it be that
there is a predetermined agenda that is gradually playing out? And
finally, who is behind these shipments? Who is after Nigeria? Who is
after my dear country?
In order to understand this issue further, it is
important to understand the cost of these arms. A quick internet search
took me to several sites that gave me a rough idea of the global price
of these arms. The prices of guns for instance are as follows:
AK47(Russian made) costs about $400 about N60,000; and AK 47(Romanian
made), $275, about N41,250. A Beretta 92F costs $600, about N90,000
while an automatic .45 gun costs $2000, about N300,000. These are some
of the guns allegedly reported to have been seized in transit or
retrieved from some of the hoodlums who have been unleashing terror on
the Nigerian public.
There are several aspects to this disturbing
incidence but I will try to consider just three of them. The first is
that from the estimated cost of the items, they do not come cheap and so
no poor man can afford them, especially not truck loads and full
consignments of them. This begs the question: who is buying these
expensive items and for what purpose? The second aspect is that most of
these guns are not made within the country and from the frequency of the
usage of these guns, it is certain that we have a significant number of
them already in the country. This begs yet another question: How did
these arms get through our borders, airports and seaports? Given that
these items are not as small as mobile phones, how have the users of
these arms managed to transport them freely from and how are they able
to slip through the numerous checkpoints and quantum supply of security
officers that litter Nigeria’s roads — especially in places such as Jos
and Kaduna?
The third and final aspect of this issue concerns the
core legislation against the proliferation of arms, which is the
Nigerian Firearms Act of 1959. First, is it not preposterous that we
have such a colonial law in our law books and especially for such key
issue of concerns? Section 7:2 of the law allows anyone above 17 to
obtain a licence to possess ammunition. Our National Assembly must be
told such should now be reviewed in line with global good
practice.Nigeria has literally become a dumping ground and receiving
port for all sort of things, from the very rejected to the very weird
and sometimes nauseating. The inflow of arms at an alarming rate just
shows we are living up to our new label — ‘the jungle of the absurd’. I
raise these issues because the security challenge in Nigeria is
ballooning out of hand. Some people continue to treat this issue with a
dismissive us and them attitude or with the NIMBY(not in my
backyard)syndrome. I am sure the multi-directional attacks of the last
few weeks are a wake-up call for everyone. The unlawful circulation and
stockpiling of arms in our communities and country will do NO ONE NO
GOOD. It is simply unacceptable. Many people who associate it with the
2015 elections should be told that it is still three years away. Even at
that, are we /they preparing for war? Those who are aiding and abetting
all of these should have a rethink. We all have a role to play. We must
arise and do our bit urgently before Nigeria goes up in flames. The
time to act is now.
•Igwe, a governance expert, wrote in from Institute
of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, via
ucheigwe@gmail.com
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