In a new Bill for an Act to Provide for the establishment of the National Commission against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Nigeria’s federal lawmakers are pushing for a more coordinated handling of arms in the country currently bedevilled by increasing insecurity.
Experts see the bill, which passed second reading in the House of Representatives, as a welcome development and now question the efficiency of committees and task force set up to check the multiplication of arms in the country.
The Bill is being sponsored by Mohammed Monguno, House Chief Whip and member, representing Monguno/Marte/Nganzai Federal Constituency of Borno State, and has been referred to the Committee on National Security and Intelligence of the House for fine-tuning preparatory to the third and final passage.
The Commission, which the Bill seeks to establish, shall principally be responsible for the collection, storage, destruction, management and stockpiling of small arms and light weapons; registration of arms for peace operations, and control as well as manufacture of small arms and light weapons.
The Bill among others provides that, the National Commission shall collect: small arms, which are surplus to the national needs or have become obsolete, seized weapons, unmarked light weapons, illicitly held light weapons, small arms collected in the implementation of peace accords or programmes for the voluntary handing in of weapons.
All small arms collected under subsection (1) of this section shall be registered and securely destroyed.
It shall promote and carry out programmes of voluntary handing in of small arms and light weapons. The Commission shall take the necessary measures to ensure the safe and effective management, storage and security of national stocks of small arms and light weapons, while it shall establish effective standards and procedures for the stockpile, management, storage and security.
It shall control the manufacture of small arms and light weapons within Nigeria, regulate the activities of local small arms and light weapons manufacturers and adopt strategies and policies to the reduction or limitation of the manufacture of small arms and light weapons so as to control the local manufacture as well as their marketing within ECOWAS States.
According to experts, such a Commission would have more legal backing and capacity to mop up arms, unlike the Presidential Committee and Taskforce on Recovery of Small Arms and Light Weapons, which has not live up its mandate.
Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, observes that though there are existing laws and there is even a taskforce charged with the confiscation of small arms and light weapons and yet, the country has continued to witness the continuous proliferation of these categories of arms, which have increase activities of killers in the North-Central, bandits in the North-West, and Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
Dahiru says, “Experience has shown that it is not how beautiful a legislation is but the implementation and fidelity to the intention behind the legislation” and called on the National Assembly to ensure the full passage of the Bill while the Executive should assent and implement it.
He also calls for a legislation and enactment of a law that allows for civil armament programme to enable responsible citizens acquire arms for self-help as the security in the country has obviously overwhelmed the security agencies.
Christian Okeke, a lecturer, Nnandi Azikiwe University, Akwa, notes that the Bill seeks to include citizens in the process of small and light weapons management, but cautions that we need duplication of functions of existing agencies with Commission to be established by the Bill.
Okeke states, “Some African countries like Republic of Benin have established National Commissions on Small Arms as part of the responses in that regard. And so Nigeria setting up its own Commission may not be out of place. After all, the move is a product of many brainstorming sessions regarding the challenge.”
On the other hand, Mike Ejiofor, a retired director with the Department of State Services and chairman/CEO, Apex Safety and Security Consultants, questions the essence of sponsoring such Bill when there is a Presidential Committee on the Recovery of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
Ejiofor says the concern of the National Assembly and particularly the sponsor of the Bill should be to find out how many arms have the Presidential Committee recovered, interface with the Committee, identify its challenges and provide the necessary intervention for the Committee to realise its mandate, rather than attempting to duplicate more agencies when existing ones are not adequately empowered.
“My candid opinion is that all these proliferation of Commissions and Agencies are not necessary. Strengthen the existing ones. The Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons, what have they done? What have been their challenges? They should interface with such bodies to know whether they have problems before going to sponsor such Bill,” he states.
Equally, members of the House of Representatives in their debate during the second reading of the Bill, said it was timely even as they cautioned on the need to avoid supplication of functions with other government agencies.
For instance, Mohammed Bago (APC, Niger) supported the Bill, but queried the need to create a Commission to handle what should be handled by the Police and reduce the cost of governance.
Similarly, Aminu Suleiman (APC, Kano) argued that if the Police was overwhelmed they could be assisted through Legislation for additional manpower, appropriation or any other assistance within the purview of the Legislation.
Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa) supported the setting up of the Commission as the police had not been able to deal with the issue else it would not still be a problem plaguing the Nigerian society.
