Security
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President Goodluck Jonathan at a three-day national stakeholders forum on illicit arms and light weapons has said that Nigeria is committed to implementing the UN’s Arm Trade Treaty
| By Maureen Chigbo | Jun. 16, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
NIGERIA is committed to implementing the United Nation’s Arm Trade Treaty, ATT, of April 2013, and is the first country in the ECOWAS region to ratify the treaty followed by Mali. President Goodluck Jonathan, who made the pledge at a three-day national stakeholders consultative forum on illicit arms and light weapons on June 2, in Abuja, said the ATT was in the best interest of Africa and urged countries that had not done so in the continent to expedite its ratification to enable it enter into force. The forum on Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation was organised by the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons, SALW. Participants were drawn from the security forces, academia, civil society and from among international partners.
Jonathan blamed the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons on the 12 major conflicts in Africa between 2000 and 2009. According to him, the illicit arms were not mopped up during the subsequent demobilisation, disarmament and rehabilitation exercises. Represented by Abba Moro, minister of interior, Jonathan said West Africa had borne the brunt of those proliferations of arms as exemplified by the various crises that had engulfed the region since the 90’s.
In his welcome address, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, president of the ECOWAS Commission, recalled the regional efforts to regulate arms transfer in the region included the 1999 decision of heads of state and governments that established the National Commissions on Small Arms as the coordination point in the fight against proliferation of SALW. He also observed that this led to the 1998 Moratorium on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Material being transformed into a convention on June 14, 2006.
Ouedraogo characterised the adoption of the ATT as one of the greatest achievements since the creation of the UN, noting the valuable contributions of the ECOWAS member states in the negotiations leading to its adoption while congratulating Nigeria for being the first ECOWAS member state to ratify it.
The president of the ECOWAS Commission seized the opportunity at the forum to commiserate with the government and people of Nigeria over the ‘unnecessary loss of lives and property due to the barbaric attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram. Ouedraogo, who was represented by Khadi Saccoh, commissioner for Finance, said that the ‘ECOWAS Commission identifies with Nigeria at this difficult moment and wishes to condemn in the strongest terms, the abduction of the Chibok Girls’ by Boko Haram insurgents.
Also speaking, Emmanuel Imohe, an ambassador and chairman, Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons, recalled some of the activities of the committee to include doing a baseline assessment of the SALW situation in Nigeria, coordinating the training and capacity building programmes for security agencies in stockpile management procedures, border security management, maritime security management and security sector reforms.
He said that committee aimed at complying with global best practices similar to those applied by international partners such as the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, UNODA; the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, UNODC; the Country Offices of the UNDP; International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, and the United Nations Africa Regional Centre, UNREC, based in Lome, Togo. According to him, the committee was currently focused on mopping up excess weapons, preventing entry of SALW into Nigeria, improving stockpile management, regulation of brokers, monitoring local manufacturers and reviewing existing legislation among others.
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