Remours flowing everywhere, which I particularly read from the Eagle Eye Report blog says that the federal government of Nigeria under His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari,has revoked all gun licenses given to citizens through an executive order as from 1st of June, 2019. This automatically means that all owners of gun must find the nearest police station to them to drop their guns effective that day or be seen as criminals. While we don't question the powers of the president to give such orders and the intentions behind it, if they are genuine and not forced on him, it is my earnest believe that Nigerians must think critically about the after effect of the implementation of such orders whether it will bring peace or more unrestrained violence.
 |
| Former President Olusengu Obasanjo |
Different governments in Nigeria and at different times had set out to curb the proliferation of light arms and weapons and had set up committees for that. So, the new pronouncement is not entirely new but with different approach which if hollistically implemented could solve the problem. On how these arms and weapons came into Nigeria is a question the Nigeria Customs, Immigration, the Nigeria Police Force, the Army and other Security agencies must give answers to it, an answer they urgently owe Nigerians.
Let Nigerians know that no single Nigerian is licensed to own prohibited weapons whicg are automatic riffles like AK47 and guns similar to it. What individuals are licensed to own are pump Actions and Dane Guns which are basically for hunting and personal protections. In Nigeria, the only people licensed to handle prohibited riffles and other weapons are the Millitary, the Police, DSS and other government security agencies. The other groups with prohibited weapons though unlicensed are, Boko Haram, Bandits, Fulani Herdsmen, Armed Robbers, Millitants and Kidnappers. The Buhari' s Executive Order means that law abiding citizens with licensed to own Pump Actions and Dane Guns will have to return it immediately to the Police.
The Current security challenges facing Nigeria is not that of citizens who are licensed to use Pump Action and Dane Guns miss using it, but that of Unlicenced groups like Fulani Herdsmen, Boko Haram, Bandits, Armed Robbers and Kidnappers. If we like, we may extend it to those licensed to use prohibited arms but are not using it effectively to the purpose they were assigned that duty. In fact, the security agencies who refused to do their work and those who refused to equip them well are part of out problems.
In trying to solve this problem, the Buhari' s administration says she wants to collect all arms in circulation, mostly from licensed arms users. The question now is, having known the history of the Fulani Herdsmen and Bandits who are occupational force out to kill citizens and take their land and properties, having known that the prohibited arms with them are not licensed, how do we collect it from them? How do we collect arms in the possession of Kidnappers, Millitants and armed robbers? The attempt by the government to confront forcefully these unscrupulous elements have seen resistance and more killings of our security agencies and citizens in places like, Katsina, Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Zamfara etc. How do we think we can solve this problem by taking away the hope of little resistance from the citizens?
The Nigeria Security challenges is heightened by the fact that the activities of Boko Haram, Bandits and most especially Fulani Herdsmen are not just criminal but also an attempt to wipe away indigenous people and take their land. This then brings to question the statement of Fulanization of Nigeria by Fulanis by the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. The activities of Fulani Herdsmen in Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Adamawa, Kaduna and in Zamfara where they have turned to bandits goes a long way to confirm the assertion by President Obasanjo.
No matter how noble and well thought-out this idea of collecting Dane Guns and Pump Actions from citizens is, President Muhammadu Buhari should know that as a president of Fulani extraction, if the implementation of this policy leads to the overrun of Nigeria or part of Nigeria by the criminal elements from his tribe who he has not collected all the arms in their possession and may not be able to collect and whose mission is well known, which is kill citizens and take their land, posterity will not judge him well.
If these policy is that of Buhari and he wants to implement it, it should be holistical. He should start from Fulani Herdsmen, Bandits, Boko Haram, Kidnappers, Millitants. Collect all the arms in their possession and citizens will gladly submit theirs. But if it is the planed Fulanization of Nigeria by collecting arms from citizens to enable Fulani Herdsmen and Bandits attack and Overrun just like what Al-Bashir did in Sudan with Janjaweeds, he should then know that he will fail.
Like he Buhari said, "the world is watching"
Ekpenyong Isaiah,
Commander, Infantry Pen Battallion
isacool4good@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment