By Owei Lakemfa
It was a triumphant occasion. The venue was the Muhammadu Buhari Cantonment, Giri, Abuja. The joyous occasion was the destruction of over 2,400 illicit arms. The chief celebrant was the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, NCCSALW. The five-star guests included the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, members of the National Assembly, representatives of the service chiefs, heads of other security agencies and top military brass.
The man given the honour to set fire on the arms, was the National Security Adviser, NSA, Malam Nuhu Ribadu. He waxed lyrical as he carried out this task. However, his claims that soldiers and policemen were selling arms to terrorists, bandits and criminals, were within days, challenged by the Defence Headquarters.
It is incredible that a security-challenged and
financially-strapped country that needs weapons to defend its citizenry and
territory, would destroy the arms in its possession. The weapons destroyed on
this occasion are enough to arm over two battalions.
Even if the argument were that
the destroyed arms are not standard issue in the Nigerian military, they should
have been given to other security forces like the Civilian Multination Joint
Task Force, JTF, which has been battling Islamic terrorists in the North-East.
There are also the militia established by state governments which need arms to
combat the bandits rampaging across the country.
As General Musa complained, even
when our-debt-crippled country was able to raise the funds to buy weapons, our
Western suppliers are sometimes unwilling to sell us arms for various reasons.
He had lamented that: “Even with our money, it is difficult getting (military)
equipment.” The Defence Chief claimed that the: “The Nigerian Armed Forces can secure
Nigeria (and) the entire region”, but that the lack of needed weapons limits
its capacity to do so. So how come a General with such knowledge find it
comfortable to sit at an occasion thousands of arms are being destroyed?
Denying Nigeria the freedom to
purchase arms even after raising the necessary funds, is not new. During the
1967-1970 Nigeria Civil War, the West refused to sell us the arms necessary to
keep the country as a single entity.
Even when in our current war
against terrorists and other criminals, we were desperately in need of arms,
many countries refused to sell us weapons. It became so frustrating that the
Jonathan administration tried to bypass countries by procuring cash and, flying
around the world trying to buy weapons directly from manufacturers and
suppliers.
On September 5, 2014, South
African security at the Lanseria International Airport, Johannesburg, seized an
invoice for helicopters and armaments intended for Nigeria, along with our $9.3
million cash for the intended purchase. About three weeks later, the South
Africans seized another $5.7 million arms money from Nigeria.
So, given our experience and the
fact that there are countries unwilling to sell us weapons, does it make sense
for our security chiefs to destroy weapons in their custody?
Yes, the Director General of the
Centre, retired DIG of Police, Johnson Kokumo, said the destroyed weapons
comprised a mix of unserviceable, decommissioned and recovered arms that had
been mopped up by security agencies across the country, but he also hinted that
the next batch of weapons to be destroyed would be brand new ones.
He told the press that the National Centre has in
its custody some seized weapons undergoing tracing, investigations and legal
processes. Kokumo said: “These include the illicit weapons handed over to the
Centre by the Nigeria Customs Service.” As is common knowledge, the weapons
seized by the Customs and Excise are new manufactures imported into the
country. He announced that: “These weapons categories would be destroyed upon
completion of the proceedings during subsequent routine destruction exercises.”
So, what kind of thought process
makes the security chiefs destroy weapons we need, but do not produce and,
would need to buy?
Is it the same mentality that
guides the propensity to award contracts for arms purchase rather than produce
our needs and utilize what we have?
What is even more painful is
that we have good pre-colonial and post-colonial skills in arms manufacture
which have been conveniently repressed in preference for imported weapons and,
dependence on imported arms.
In pre-colonial Nigeria, Awka
was a major centre for arms production. The British colonialists set about
destroying the home-forges for local gun production. So while the Europeans
continued to improve their gun production like modernising those produced by
the Danes which were known as the Dane gun, local gun manufacture was
criminalised.
Although we became independent
64 years ago, all governments we have had continue to criminalise local gun production
except that by the military.
But the local gun production
knowledge in Nigeria has not only survived about two centuries of repression,
but has also been vastly improved. This is to the extent that today, a wide
variety of rifles, pistols, silencers and revolver shotguns recovered from
criminals by the police, are locally made.
So, what stops government from
organising such arms manufacturers into cooperatives, assisting them to improve
their skills and, produce arms for the country?
The clearest evidence that we
can manufacture world class weapons if only government would invest in local
production rather than be stuck with an import mentality, was during the Civil
War.
The Production Organisation of
Biafra, RAP, headed by outstanding men like Colonel Ejike Ebenezer Aghanya,
Gordian Obumneme Ezekwe, Felix Oragwu, Garrick B. Leton and Seth Nwanagu,
produced wide variety weapons, including command detonation mines,
rocket-propelled missiles, grenades, IEDs, landmines, surface-to-air and
surface-to-surface missiles under a weapons system called Ogbunigwe.
Our attitude to arms production
is like that to oil production, our principal means of economic survival; after
67 years we still export it in its crude form. For over 30 years, we have been
unable to refine even for our local needs.
Now, what we are doing is to
transfer state monopoly on fuel, to private monopoly.
This is why Dangote Refinery would go to court seeking N100bn from our collective wealth because the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, MDPRA, dared to issue licences for the importation of refined petroleum products. As far as Dangote is concerned, it is the only company in a country of over 200 million people that can sell these products. Dangote wants the courts to grant it monopoly.
Isn’t it claimed that capitalism is about ‘choices’?
What kind of monkey business is
it that the locally refined petroleum products system is afraid of the
imported? Since the locally refined producer buys crude oil in Naira, does not
incur freight, insurance, off-shore loading and port charges and, has no
demurrage, why is it not cheaper?
Doubtlessly, our thought process
is faulty, we need realignment.
*Lakemfa
is a commentator on public issues
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