The Nigerian Navy may have finally cracked the long unanswered question of why there is proliferation of arms in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa.
Commodore Jamila Sadiq Abubakar, who represented Chief of Naval Staff, Awwal Gambo, said Chadian soldiers, when broke, pawned guns for as cheap as $20-$30.
“They do not have armoury. So most of their arms that are being donated by — I don’t want to be specific — the developed countries in the name of assisting us are compounding our problems in Nigeria because you find out that each average Chadian soldier has 20 to 30 arms underneath his bed.
“When he is broke, he brings it out and sells it for $30, $20. I am here, I am standing here, and I am saying it”, she said.
Abubakar, an international maritime lawyer and the first female Commodore in the history of the Nigerian Navy spoke on Monday at a public hearing.
It was organised by the House of Representatives committee on national security and intelligence on the consideration of four security bills.
While making a contribution to the bill seeking to establish a national commission against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, Abubakar said the weapons donated by developed countries to neighbouring nations are “compounding” Nigeria’s security challenges.
She said the lack of armouries in some of the neighbouring countries makes arms available to their security operatives who in turn sell it off when they are “broke”.
“Section 9 (1) suggests an additional function of proposing a seized weapons and arms be used by security agencies; I think we can look at the provisions of the international convention on the issue of how the arms should be used when seized,” she said.
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Very good
Nice idea