A statutory report presented to the National Assembly by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation on the number of firearms that could not be accounted for in the country has jolted Nigerians. The 2019 report revealed that 178,459 firearms, mostly AK-47 rifles, were missing from different police formations nationwide. These weapons include 88,078 AK-47 rifles that were unaccounted for as of December 2018. In addition, some 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols remained missing as of January 2020. In a country awash with illegal arms, the auditor-general?s report is very alarming.

Unfortunately, the Police response is typically knee-jerk and defensive. But that is unhelpful. What is required is a thorough investigation of the report. A few years ago, the Kaduna State Police Command paraded its armament officer, and two gunrunners arrested during an alleged attempt to steal firearms from the command?s armoury. There have been many such cases in recent years. Besides, this is not the first time the report about missing arms was laid in the public domain. Indeed, there is hardly any accounting year that the AuGF report would not detail cases of high numbers of weapons that could not be accounted for by the Police.

Previous administrations never even considered the reports important enough to put in words of assurance to calm an anxious public. The response was typically always from the police. Beyond the usual noise that lasts no more than a few days, even the National Assembly never acts on the report, despite passing the Firearms Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, and increasing the fines and other punishment for illegal importation and sale of firearms. Even from the public, after the initial outrage, everyone goes to sleep. We hope President Bola Tinubu will seek an independent investigation of this vexatious issue that has serious implications for our national security.

Nigeria, according to reports, accounts for at least 70 per cent of the illegal Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) circulating within the West African sub-region, most of them in the hands of sundry criminal cartels and lone wolves. Research findings from Conflict Armament Research, a UK-based non-profit organisation, once revealed that many weapons recovered from bandits in Zamfara State belonged to Nigeria?s security forces. ?Countries that are experiencing conflict or widespread armed violence tend to lose control of ammunition in their national stockpiles, be it through theft, loss, or battlefield capture,? the report noted.

With access to abundant illegal weapons the rogue elements in our midst have become more fortified and hence less amenable to entreaties to make peace. It was such easy access to SALWs by some unscrupulous elements that resulted in total breakdown of law and order in some of the failed states in Africa of which Somalia is a prime example.

With these illegal firearms, violent crime is no longer just social deviance but a thriving enterprise by many unscrupulous Nigerians with dire consequences for peace and national security. To counterbalance the threat to life and property by these armed criminals, individual citizens have resorted to the acquisition of arms for personal security and protection. In several communities across the country, the deployment of armed vigilantes and traditional hunters armed with modern weapons has become commonplace.

The security situation is worsened by the free flow of firearms from the country?s numerous porous borders. Too many arms are in the hands of civilians and non-state actors. The Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) seizes large cache of arms and ammunition on regular basis from the country?s seaports. Indeed, former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is also the Chairman of the National Peace Committee (NPC), noted not long ago that over six million illegal weapons are currently traced to civilians, many of whom are jobless and angry.

The proliferation of arms in private civilian hands is perhaps the readiest sign that the Nigerian state has vastly receded in terms of inability to defend its territory as well as the lives and property of citizens. The least the security agencies can do is to ensure that the weapons in our armoury are safe, and used for the purpose for which they are bought: to secure the nation. (THISDAY Editorial)

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