Nigeria Plans New Small Arms Survey To Address Outdated Data — Centre

The Director-General of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), retired DIG Johnson Kokumo, has disclosed that Nigeria will be conducting a new national baseline survey to replace outdated data on illegal firearms circulating in circulation in the country.

He spoke on the sidelines of the one-day workshop on lessons learnt from Nigeria’s 2016 National Baseline Survey on Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, on Thursday in Abuja.

“The last arms survey we had in Nigeria was in 2016 and released in 2021. We feel strongly that having a new small arms survey is long overdue.

“The 2016 survey can no longer address the current pattern of proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria,” he said.

Kokumo said the proposed survey would be Nigerian-owned and conducted primarily by Nigerian experts, with technical assistance and partnership from international organisations.

He said the survey would commence after the completion of the preparatory workshop, stressing the need to learn from the experiences and challenges encountered during the 2016 exercise.

“We want to have an arms survey conducted by Nigeria for Nigerians and owned by Nigerians to address the current state of small arms and light weapons proliferation in the country.

“This will help us tremendously in having enough statistics for policy purposes and planning purposes,” Kokumo said.

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, says proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons is sustaining banditry, terrorism and communal violence in Nigeria.

The NSA, represented by Mr Solomon Feyintola, Director, External Affairs, Office of the NSA, said illicit weapons also fuelled organised crime and strengthened the operational capacity of terrorist groups.

He described the proliferation of illicit weapons as “a deadly threat to the safety of our people,” stressing that government’s response must be based on credible evidence.

“It sustains banditry in the North-West, fuels communal and farmer-herder conflicts across the North-Central, arms criminal networks in our cities and sustains the operational capacity of terrorist and insurgent groups in the North-East,” he said.

Ribadu said the 2016 baseline survey provided Nigeria with a comprehensive picture of the scale and character of illicit weapons proliferation.

He said its findings led to the establishment of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons and guided the National Action Plan.

However, the NSA said Nigeria must critically examine the methodology, coordination and implementation challenges encountered during the 2016 exercise before embarking on a new survey.

“Before we launch into the next National Baseline Survey, we owe ourselves the discipline of an honest review. What worked? What did not? And what must be done differently this time?” he said.

Ribadu identified an accurate baseline as a strategic national security asset capable of strengthening counter-proliferation efforts and tracking the movement of illicit weapons across Nigeria’s borders and communities.

He called for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach involving security agencies, sub-national governments, traditional and religious institutions, civil society organisations and communities.

The NSA also acknowledged the importance of international partnerships, particularly the support of the UNODA and the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa.

He expressed confidence that the workshop would produce practical lessons and a roadmap for conducting a credible new national survey.

Also speaking, Dr Adedeji Ebo, Director/Deputy High Representative of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), said the available data was not nonexistent but outdated.

“It is not that there is no data. There was a baseline survey conducted on small arms circulation in Nigeria in 2016.

“That was a decade ago. Imagine Nigeria’s security landscape a decade ago and the security landscape today. A lot has changed,” Ebo said.

According to him, changes have occurred in the sources and routes of illicit arms, their storage, tracing and marking, as well as the activities of non-state armed groups.

He said accurate data was essential for effective national security planning, particularly as Nigeria seeks to strengthen its national threat analysis.

“If government is going to have accurate national security planning, they need accurate data.

“So what we have now is literally out of date, out of context,” Ebo said.

He said the new survey would update the 2016 baseline while incorporating lessons learnt from the first exercise to ensure a more rigorous methodology.

Ebo said the survey would also promote Nigerian and African ownership through a training-of-trainers approach.

“Small Arms Survey in Geneva will further train Nigerians in the conduct of the survey so that by the end of the survey, Nigerian experts are able to conduct these surveys ourselves,” he said.

According to him, the approach will enable Nigeria to develop expertise capable of supporting similar surveys across West Africa and Africa.

He said the role of international partners would consequently shift from conducting the survey to supporting a Nigerian-led process.

“So that when we are quoting the figures, we are quoting Nigerian data, not data by Small Arms Survey in Geneva.

“There’s a strong ownership element in this survey. There’s an element of African ownership,” Ebo said.

On UNODA’s support, he said the organisation would work principally through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, based in Lomé, Togo.

Ebo said UNODA would work with the Small Arms Survey to train Nigerian experts, provide technical support and bring in international experts to strengthen the process.

He added that the UN would support Nigeria in translating the survey findings into policies, stressing that the survey itself was only a means to an end.

“The survey is not itself the end. It is a means to an end. So we need to have a policy that will flow from that survey,” he said.

Ebo said UNODA would continue supporting Nigeria in implementing international disarmament and arms-control instruments, including the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and the Arms Trade Treaty.

He said the organisation would also support capacity building in areas including arms tracing and marking, policy formulation and engagement with civil society.

The UN official said UNODA’s broader mandate covered other disarmament areas, including chemical and biological weapons and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540.