The Nigerian Government has announced the creation of a National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Centre will be domiciled in the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). In a statement issued on May 3, the NSA\u2019s office announced that the Centre would replace the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Centre will provide policy guidance and research on small arms and light weapons in Nigeria, with zonal offices in the six geopolitical zones. The statement also announced\u00a0 that the Centre will be headed by retired Major General A.M. Dikko. The illicit influx of arms and its\u00a0 spread across Nigeria is bewildering, with research by experts indicating that 6.5million small arms and light weapons are in circulation in Nigeria. Out of this number, 586,000 are said to be in the hands of law enforcement agents, while over 5 million \u00a0are in the possession of non-state actors.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be recalled that member states of the Economic\nCommunity of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted the ECOWAS Convention on Small\nArms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and other Related Materials on June\n14, 2006, to check the proliferation of\nsmall arms and light weapons in West Africa, with a view to tracking and\ncombatting illicit circulation of such weapons. The Convention seeks to promote\nthe establishment of a regional database of arms, enhance weapons control at\nborder posts, review and harmonise legislation and administrative procedures\ngoverning small arms, as well as the destruction of surplus and unauthorised\nweapons. Among other things, the Convention seeks to promote a culture of peace\nand facilitate education and public\nawareness on the issues of small arms and light weapons. The Convention also\nprovides for institutional arrangements to implement its provisions, including\nthe establishment of National Commissions and National Action Plans,\nreinforcement of state security forces and promotion of sub-regional\nco-operation and partnership with civil society. It was pursuant to this that\nseveral bills have been introduced at the National Assembly, since the 7th<\/sup>\nAssembly with the most recent bills introduced in the House of Representatives\nin 2018 and in the Senate in 2020, seeking to establish an independent National\nCommission against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. However,\ninstead of an independent Commission, the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration\nhas established a Centre under the NSA to tackle the issue of small arms. This\nis contrary to the ECOWAS Convention, which provides that the Commissions be independent\nin their operations and funding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Nigerian Government has announced the creation of a National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Centre will be domiciled in the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). In a statement issued on May 3, the NSA\u2019s office announced that the Centre would replace the Presidential Committee on Small […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[334],"class_list":["post-2089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-proliferation-of-small-arms-forces-creation-of-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}