By Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani

The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), on Thursday in Kaduna, destroyed over 3000 small arms and light weapons recovered across the country.

In his address at the destruction excercise at the Nigerian Army Command Engineering Dopot, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, said it was a fact that proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) constituted huge threat to Nigeria’s security.

He was represented by Amb. Aminu Lawal, Director Policy and Strategy, Office of the NSA.

He said the proliferation of SALW was a major source of vulnerability in our society and stood out as a key driver of violent conflict, crime and terrorism within and beyond Nigerias borders.

He noted that failure of the global community to control the availability of illicit SALW, had continued to undermine global peace and significantly hinder development especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We recognise the complexity of the challenge of controlling the proliferation of SALW in Nigeria and the requirement for concerted action between the government, international community and all well-meaning Civil Society Organsations.

“Nonetheless, we are resolved to galvanise our strengths and unity as a nation to confront this monstrous challenge and I am optimistic that we shall overcome it,”he said.

Mungono added that establishment of the Centre in 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari was a historic step towards addressing the problem of small arms proliferation through an institutional platform.

He explained that establishment of the Centre would structurally address all underlying contributors to the national security threat within the framework of the various international protocols and instruments to which Nigeria is committed.

“This action was also a demonstration of Nigeria’s commitment to the provisions of Article 24 of the ECOWAS Convention on SALW which requires all member states to establish national commissions to promote a multilateral approach to stamping out unregulated or uncontrolled circulation of SALW in the Sub-region.

Mungono further said that the weapons destruction exercise gave a practical expression to the months of hard work and sustained engagements with key stakeholders since the establishment of the NCCSALW.

He also said the Government is working assiduously and engaging the NASS to ensure the expeditious passage of the bill establishing the Centre, to provide required legal framework to support a more robust discharge of the Centre’s mandate.

He restated President Buhari’s commitment to providing necessary support to strengthen the Centre’s capacity to deal with the multifaceted challenges confront it.

“This event today is a reminder to all Nigerians of our collective responsibility to support the security agencies and by extension the Government in our fight to defeat criminality, terrorism, banditry and all forms of behaviours that threaten our national wellbeing.

“As we draw closer to the general elections, it is important that Nigerians continue to uphold our culture of peace and resist overtures from those unpatriotic elements who have a penchant to heat up the polity and create a false sense of insecurity among our people during this season.

“We must eschew violence, shun political vigilantism and thuggery and discourage the proliferation of illicit SALW in all its forms as the Government will bring the full weight of the law upon lawbreakers”,Monguno said.

He commended the Centre for the successful operationalisation of its zonal offices across the country.

“I am confident that by this action, a robust framework has been established for effective grassroots impact in our quest for a whole-of-society effort to eradicate illicit SALW”.

He also called on Nigerians to unite and work together to protect the country’s peace, political stability, socio-cultural harmony and fledgling democracy in order to help government realise the vision of a safer Nigeria and to promote the socio-economic development.

Earlier in his remarks, the National Coordinator of the NCCSALW, Retired Maj.-Gen. Abba Dikko, said the event was the first arms destruction exercise organised by the NCCSALW since its establishment.

He said the key objectives of the exercise was to prevent captured illicit weapons from being recycled into the society.

He said it was also to meet Nigeria’s obligations on weapons destruction under various international instruments, to promote transparency in the Government’s SALW control regime and to contribute to the Centre’s advocacy for an illicit arms-free society.

Dikko explained that the exercise highlighted the dangers of excess, poorly secured, and illegal weapons as well as the importance of small arms destruction as a vital measure to reduce the proliferation and misuse of firearms.

“It also underscores the Nigerian Government’s commitment to transparent documentation and destruction of captured, surrendered and recovered illicit firearms,”he said.

He further said the Centre had made remarkable strides in its effort to establish a national SALW database which upon full operationalisation would integrate or interface closely with the weapons databases of all security agencies in the country.

He disclosed that efforts had reached advanced stages to create robust database of all gunsmiths and related artisanal tradesmen in the country with a view to establishing a regulatory regime for their activities or integrating them into the state weapon production architecture.

“The Centre notes with concern the growing prevalence of craft weapon production across the country and the contributory role it as continued to play in escalating the menace of illicit arms proliferation.

“Beyond its commitment to the multilateral collaborative framework established by ECOWAS for the control of the proliferation of SALW in the West African sub-region.

“The Centre has also continued to engage our Central African neighbours of Chad and Cameroon to stem the tide of cross-border arms trafficking,”he said.

Dikko noted that the effort was in view of Nigeria’s unique geo-political location as the bridge between West and Central Africa.

He thanked the NSA, service chief and other security Agencies for their support to the realisation of the centre’s mandate.

He also thanked their partners especially in the areas of capacity building and improving the institutional capacities of their arms bearing security agencies for the physical security and stockpile management of their weapons.