ABSTRACT
Illegal transfer and ownership of arms has
contributed to conflict generation in West Africa. The proliferation of such weapons
across West African borders without a unified restraint to curb its menace led
to the formulation of the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons.
The
dimensions and persistence of conflicts has created a favourable outlet for the
sale of arms and other light weapons. In West Africa, the uneven implementation of regional
agreements leaves loopholes that arms traffickers can utilize for their
nefarious trade. These traffickers are usually quick to adopt trade routes
where national controls are weak, and often take advantage of insufficient
cooperation between border control authorities or differences in national
regulation.Hence, the study sought to investigate the usefulness of the ECOWAS
Convention and the importance of synergy between the states in the region.
The study is a qualitative research however it
adopted the descriptive mode of analyses. The interview method was adopted as a
primary method of data collection, while secondary data was obtained from
sources on the phenomenon of interest such as United Nations reports, books,
journals, magazines, newspapers and internet sources. The
researcher adopted the content analysis method to analyse the data collected
from the interview.
In advocating for the prospect for
ECOWAS in dealing with the challenge of Small and Light Weapons, it was
discovered that investment in tracking technologies for prompt border control
should be considered. It was also found that community orientation would help
galvanize massive support for winning the war against arms proliferation. The
need for feedback from communities was also noted while strengthening regional
security systems for better efficiency. Following
the findings, the study concluded that the proliferation of Small and Light
Weapons has not only crippled socioeconomic and political development but
worsened human security in the region.
Thus the study recommended the need for a routine
regional security meeting which will not only involve ECOWAS and Heads of
Countries but also leaders of security organisations. Such should assess the
current security situation at the time of the meeting and proactively seek out
means of dealing with the challenges, a need to build a broad based
relationship with communities living at the border for reporting suspicious
movement to ECOWAS Security Group and the need to strengthen the relationship
with civil society organisations and the media organisation for a comprehensive
media advocacy and campaign against Small Arms and Light Weapons and
instructing people on taking proactive measure.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The proliferation of small arms and light
weapons is one of the major security challenges currently facing Nigeria,
Africa and indeed the world in general. The trafficking and wide availability
of these weapons fuel communal conflict, political instability and pose a
threat, not only to national security, but also to sustainable development. The
widespread proliferation of small arms is contributing to alarming levels of
armed crime, and militancy.
The
increasing pace of violence across the globe, with major occurrence in Africa,
has brought about renewed focus on small and light weapons control. It is
estimated that there is an approximate of 875 million small arms in circulation
across the globe, including those stockpiled and in private procession, produced
by over 1000 companies and generating trade excess of US$8.5 billion (Karp,
2007). Out of this ominous volume, governments and state militaries possess 200
million while 26 million weapons are within the control of the law enforcement
agencies. Similarly, Chelule (2014) noted that there are about half a billion
military small arms around the world; each year between 300,000 to half a
million people around the world are killed by these weapons and every minute
someone is killed by a gun; 90% of civilians are casualties by small arms
because the civilians get access to purchase more than 80% of the arms produced
in the world. To establish the extent of this threat in Africa, Bah (2004)
asserts that out of an approximate of 500 million illicit weapons in circulation
worldwide, an estimate of 100 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa with eight to
ten million concentrated in the West African sub-region alone. This portentoustrend further reveals that Africa needs strategic
intervention.
Small
arms proliferation has been particularly devastating in Africa where machine
guns, rifles, grenades, pistols and other small arms have killed and displaced
many civilians across the continent (Allison, 2006). The result of this rapid
expansion of weapons according to Allison (2006) is that the weapons, their
parts and ammunition are more easily diverted from their intended destination.
Consequently, countries with fewer and less strict gun regulations become the
destination points. War-torn or post-conflict nations which are common in
Africa portend a profitable market for the sale of Small Arms and Light Weapons
(SALW). The guns have thus far fostered instability in the West African region,
worsened the security of the region, weakened the power of the government and
provided a motivation for poverty to thrive.
At the
national level, Nigeria continues to rely onthe National Firearms Act of 1959
as the legal instrument governing small arms possession, manufacture and the
use in the country as amended even though the Robbery and Firearms (Special
Provisions) Decree No.5 was promulgated in 1984 and later the Robbery and
Firearms (Special Provisions) Act. In July 2000, the Nigerian government
proposed and established a National Committee on the Proliferation and Illicit
Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons the purpose of which was to
determine the sourcing illegal small arms and collect information on small arms
proliferation in Nigeria. In May 2001, the government established a second
committee aimed at implementing the 1998 ECOWAS Moratorium. These two
committees were later merged into a single committee. The committee has
accomplished little due to lack of political will, financial support, technical
expertise, and institutional capacity. Consequently, there were renewed efforts
in 2007 to revive the activities of the Committee and legislation is being
written to convert the Committee into a national commission. It requested
support from the ECOWAS Small Arms Programme to conduct the survey and to
undertake other activities in support of the implementation of the 2006 ECOWAS
Convention (Hazenand Horner, 2007). Inaugurated in 2001, the NATCOM is
responsible for the registration and control of SALW, and granting of permits
for exemptionsunder the ECOWAS Moratorium (Chuma-Okoro, 2011).
Despite
these national-efforts, the rate of accumulation ofSALW is increasing and
becoming endemic as various forms of violence and casualties are in the recent
times recorded in the country. There is lack of capacity and strong legal or
effective institutional frameworks to regulate SALW and combat the phenomenon
of SALW proliferation in Nigeria, particularly Northern part of Nigeria
(Chuma-Okoro, 2011). More fundamentally, the Nigeria is yet to deal with the
demand factors of SALW proliferation preferring to dwell on the symptoms rather
than the root causes. The demand factors are the root causes of SALW
proliferation, because if there is no demand, there will not be supply. Consequently,
Nigeria now features prominently in the three-spot cline of transnational
organised trafficking of SALWs in West Africa: origin, transit route and
destination. Weapons in circulation in Nigeria come from local fabrication,
residue of guns used during the civil war, thefts from government armouries,
smuggling, dishonest government-accredited importers, ethnic militias,
insurgents from neighbouring countries and some multinational oilcorporations
operating in the oil-rich but crisis-plagued Niger Delta. Whenand where these
SALWs are deployed, human security has been the main victim.
These were the motivations for the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Convention of Small arms and Light
Weapons in 2006. The highlights of the Convention include the a ban on international
small arms transfers (except those for legitimate self-defence and security
needs, or for peace support operations); a ban on transfers of small arms to
non-state actors that are not authorized by the importing member state; procedures
for shared information; stringent regulatory scheme for anyone wishing to
possess small arms and strong management standards to ensure the security of
weapons stockpiles.
It is in
consonance with the highlight of the 2006 SALW Convention and other subsequent
attempt of ECOWAS to tackle the issues of gun control that this study attempts
to examine the challenges of ECOWAS in combating Small and Light Arms in
Africa.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The
dimensions and persistence of conflicts in West Africa has created a favourable
outlet for the sale of arms and other light weapons. Chiekh (2005) noted that these conflicts have had the combined effect of sucking in
millions of illicit small arms, making the Mano River Basin (comprising Guinea,
Sierra Leone, Liberia and, by extension, Côte d’Ivoire) an attractive and
profitable theatre for illicit arms merchants, mercenaries and other non-state
actors. These
unstable conditions make it difficult to regulate arms sales and movements.
More so, the dealings in Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) have been a
source of income for countries who are engaged in the production of guns. Apart
from the direct sales of guns and light weapons, weapons are traded with West
Africans for natural resources such as rubber, timber and, most importantly, diamonds (Chiekh, 2005).
This barter system has made the running of SALW beneficial to both parties.
In West
Africa, the uneven implementation of regional agreements leaves loopholes that
arms traffickers can utilize for their nefarious trade. These traffickers are
usually quick to adopt trade routes where national controls are weak, and often
take advantage of insufficient cooperation between border control authorities
or differences in national regulation. These trends have necessitated the quest
for a framework for the implementation of the ECOWAS convention and the need
for a broad based inter-sectoral platform and collaboration between government
and agencies, and local communities.So far, the ECOWAS convention is still
undergoing harmonization with local arms law in the various national
parliaments of member states.
About
350 million of the 500 million Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) in West
Africa are in Nigeria. This is a whopping 70 per cent of the West African sub-region’s
SALWs, 90 per cent of which are in the hands of non-state actors. Yet the
situation only promises to grow worse with the influx of weapons from the
residue of the conflicts in Libya and Mali (This Day, 2016). What this has
revealed clearly is that there is a growing market for SALWs in the country and
government ought to intervene more decisively to stem the ugly tide. The
insurgency in the North-East, the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta,
the menace of herdsmen in the North-Central and the rising wave of violent
crimes, including armed robbery and kidnappings, particularly in the South-East
and the South-West of the country are directly linked to the upsurge in SALWs
even as they demonstrate the concrete negative impact on national efforts at
integration and development.
To
deal with these challenges, government needs to key into the ECOWAS Convention
on Small Arms and Light Weapons. In light of this, it is pertinent to note that
while Nigeria is a signatory to the ECOWAS protocols, the National Assembly is
yet to pass the bill concerning the establishment of the National Commission
against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons. Indeed, Nigeria is
the only West African country that does not have the commission that is saddled
with the responsibility of tracking the spread of SALWs. In like manner, the
archaic 1959 Firearms Act that regulates the use of firearms in the country is
yet to be amended by the federal legislature.
These
challenges as it applies to states in West Africa have not only hampered the
economic development of the individual states but that of the region also,
putting both lives and property in danger. The proliferation of these small arms and the
new emergent trend in violence in the region put to question the efficacy and general
commitment of ECOWAS to combating this menace (Bashir, 2014). The research is therefore an attempt to
critically evaluate the challenges and prospects of ECOWAS in combating small
and light arms proliferation in the region vis-Ã -vis the effects of small and
light weapon proliferation in West Africa.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The main
objective of the study is to investigate the efforts and challenges of ECOWAS
in its bid to control the proliferation of Small and Light Arms in the West
African region. The specific objectives are to:
1. trace the flow and distribution of small and
light arms in West Africa;
2. assess the instruments used by Ecowas in
combating Small and Light Arms in the West Africa;
3. examine Ecowas border control methodologies and
its protocol on free movement of people and goods in light of the proliferation
of small and light arms in West Africa;
4. ascertain the extent to which Nigeria has
implemented theEcowas Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons and
5. probe the effects of domestic laws on the
general objectives of Ecowas Small Arms Control Programme vis-Ã -vis the extent to
which the Nigerian Fire Arms law has curbed the proliferation of small and
light arms in Nigeria.
1.4 Research Questions
The
following research questions would be addressed in the course of the research,
serving as a guideline to the attainment of the research objectives:
1. How are Small and Light Arms distributed across
West Africa?
2. In what ways do ECOWAS use its instruments to
combat the proliferation of Small and Light Arms in West Africa?
3. How does ECOWAS ensure border control without
hindering its protocol on free movement of people and goods in light of the
proliferation of Small and Light Arms in West Africa?
4. To what extent has Nigeria implemented the
ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons?
5. How do domestic laws, most especially the
Nigeria Fire Arms Law, affect the general objectives of ECOWAS Small Arms
Control Programme on the proliferation of Small and Light Arms in Nigeria?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study is
timely and would be significant in the following key areas. It would contribute
to the existing body of literature on the proliferation of Small and Light
Weapons in West Africa. Previous studies have examined the proliferation of
small and light weapons in Africa; however, this contemporary perspective would
examine emerging trend of the menace and serve to stir up future studies
pertaining to the role of ECOWAS in combating the proliferation of small and
light arms in ECOWAS.
While ECOWAS has
been engaged in tackling security and economic growth in the region, there is a
need for the evaluation of its successes and challenges which would be provided
by this study. It is through the evaluation of its performance that ECOWAS can
identify areas of challenge especially as regards barriers to the fight against
SALW. Thus, the study aims to provide information on ways ECOWAS can achieve
its security objectives.The heterogeneous nature of institutions and
individuals included in the study would provide ECOWAS with information that
will aid effective collaboration and synergy with other institutions. Since
ECOWAS cannot tackle arms proliferation alone, it needs the partnership and
support of national governments and institutions to achieve its goals.
1.6 Methodology: The
study is a qualitative research however it adopts the descriptive mode of
analysis. The interview method was adopted as a primary method of data collection,
while secondary
data was obtained from sources on the phenomenon of interest such as United
Nations reports, books, journals, magazines, newspapers and internet sources. The
researcher adopted the content analysis method to analyse the data collected
from the interview. Using the stratified random sampling, the population drawn
from the ECOWAS Headquarters, Nigerian Police Force, the Nigerian Customs,the
Nigerian Army and the Nigeria chapter of the West African Action Network on
Small Arms, was categorized into subsets
In line with the study objectives and
considering the total number of institutions that play key role in the
actualization of the ECOWAS objectives, a total of twenty (20) officials were
drawn from the Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Customs, ECOWAS
Small Arms Control Programme in Nigeria and Nigerian chapter of the West
African Action Network on Small Arms.
From the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Customs
and the Nigeria Army, four officials each were selected as respondents from the
two busiest Nigerian borders Seme land border and the Apapa seaport (Ndubuisi
& Eromosele, 2017).This summed up to 12 respondents. Four senior staff from
the ECOWAS Small Arms Control Programme and four members of the Nigeria chapter
of the West African Action Network on Small arms knowledgeable about the ECOWAS
convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons were selected using the tenets of
purposive sampling.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study would be from 2006-2016. The choice
of 2006 as a start point is because the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and
Light Weapons, their Ammunition and other Related Materials, which is the
primal instrument of ECOWAS used in this study, was adopted on the 14th
of June, 2006.
The focus of this study is to examine the
challenges and prospects of ECOWAS in the control of Small and Light Weapons
(SALW) in West Africa. Thus, the study examined the internal and external arms
movement within and outside the region as well as the multiplicity of arms
sources in the region. In addition to the foregoing, the emphasis was on the
insecurity situation of the region due to the proliferation of small arms which
is cheap, easy to operate and transport across borders.
1.8 Organization of the Study
The first chapter of the study presents an
overview of the entire research with focus on the background of the study and
the statement of research problems. The research objectives and research
questions bothering on the role of ECOWAS in the proliferation of small arms
and light weapons, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study
and structure of the research was presented. Also, the methodology of the
research was stated.
Chapter two examines scholarly literature on
various perspectives on small and light weapons, its effect within the African
continent as well as the role of ECOWAS in combating the proliferation. The
available literature justified the negative effects of the proliferation of
SALW and x-rayed the actions taken by ECOWAS to address the menace.
Chapter three discussed how Nigeria as a member
state of ECOWAS has imbued the convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons as a
legal instrument in the country. The application of the convention and provisions
of similar laws was also taken into consideration.
Chapter four presents the data collected from
the field and analyses them according to the research questions. The findings
of this study were also discussed in-depth.
Chapter five states the summary of the study.
Also, the conclusion, recommendations and suggestions for further studies were
duly stated.
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