PLEASE STOP THIS CARNAGE: INTERROGATING GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSES TO SMALL ARMS PROLIFERATION IN NIGERIA, 1970 – 2015

Abstract

It is an incontestable fact that since the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war in 1970, illicit small arms proliferation has witnessed an exponential surge in the country. The factors that explain this situation are traceable to the nature/exigencies of the war, as well as the poor demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) of combatant troops and civilians at the end of the war. Besides, the poor security architecture of the post-war Nigerian society, coupled with the intensifying culture of ‘quick wealth’, among others have made small arms and light weapons to become the real weapons of mass destruction in Nigeria. Whilst scholarly efforts at x-raying the existential realities, as well as the implications of small arms proliferation in Nigeria have been made by scholars of several disciplines, there appears to be a dearth of researches that focus on the institutional responses of the Nigerian state to the challenge of illicit small arms proliferation. Following from the foregoing, this study historicises the institutional responses of the Nigerian government(s) to the menace of illicit small arms proliferation. The study discovers that various Nigerian governments have paid little attention to the growing threat of small arms and light weapons proliferation; most governmental responses tended to have been ad-hoc in nature. The study recommends measures to build an institutional capacity in the war against illicit small arms and light weapons proliferation in Nigeria. Information for the study depended on primary sources such oral interviews, archival documents, as well as, extant secondary sources in journals, newspapers, among others.