Nigeria seeks global action on illicit weapons

NIGERIA has challenged the international community to decisively confront the problems of illicit, small and light weapons.

The country said that it spent more than $10 billion in the last two decades to stem the tide of recurrent conflicts caused by the circulation of such weapons in West Africa.

Nigeria’s position was disclosed at the ongoing United Nations General Assembly debate at the First Committee which deals with disarmament and international security.

“We expect no less of a treaty which provides the legal basis for international trade in conventional weapons,” Mr. Lawrence Olufemi Obisakin, a senior director from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, who spoke for Nigeria declared.

According to him, Nigeria has taken measures to locate and remove landmines, but has not benefited from any form of technical or financial assistance from the United Nations.

Nigeria therefore urged UN member states “to urgently redouble efforts to articulate the role of those weapons regarding security needs of states, peoples and organisations.”

The Nigerian diplomat told The Guardian  in New York after the ongoing committee debates that Nigeria had always been  one of the  respected voices on the issue of international security at the UN, especially on the question of small arms and light weapons.

Obisakin also disclosed that the UN had named Nigeria as president of the Committee’s Review Conference next year August regarding the issue of small and light weapons, under the leadership of Prof. Joy Ogwu, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN.

During Nigeria’s presentation at the committee, the Federal Government said it was “deeply concerned at the magnitude of human casualty and unbearable suffering, especially among children, women and the aged,” as a result of the illicit trade, proliferation, use and misuse of small arms and light weapons in Africa.

The concern also extends to the negative impact on sub-Saharan Africa’s efforts to maintain peace and security, and facilitate development.

Speaking on Nigeria’s behalf, Obisakin, stated that already “Nigeria had spent more than $10 billion in the last two decades to stem the tide of recurrent conflicts fueled by the illicit circulation of an estimated eight  million small arms and light weapons in the sub-region.”

“You will no doubt agree with me that this is a financial outlay of monumental proportion, which few developing countries with equal socio-economic challenges may be willing to expend in pursuit of peace and security outside its shores,” Obisakin added.

Besides, the Federal Government observed that small arms and light weapons were  the “ weapons of mass destruction” in West Africa, in view of the devastation witnessed from their misuse and the destabilising effects they had on the region’s socio-economic development, including  the Niger Delta .

According to Obisakin, the indiscriminate use and gross accumulation of those weapons in the sub-region led Nigeria to work towards reversing that negative trend, including an amnesty programme in the Niger Delta to address problems associated with militancy.

Commenting on the various draft resolutions on conventional weapons tabled at the United Nations Committee meeting,  the Nigerian representative, asked rhetorically “how many of these resolutions do we require to come to the realisation that the world’s weapons stockpile is presently over-supplied?”

Obisakin, who is the Director of Foreign Missions Inspectorate at the Foreign Affairs Headquarters also asked another question: “What do we consider to be acceptable, for instance, on the proportion of combat aircraft, aircraft carriers, battle tanks, missiles, mortars, small arms and light weapons, and other armaments needed to defend the territorial integrity of states?”

He said that question was crucial because “the use and misuse of those weapons had already caused unbearable suffering and destruction,” in the West African region.

Also yesterday, Nigeria hosted members of the UN’s First Committee to a reception at the Nigeria House in New York after the committee concluded discussions on its draft resolutions including the decision to have Nigeria chair the next Review Conference next year.

The reception highlighted the work of the UN on the one decade anniversary of the adoption of a UN Plan of Action (PoA), on the elimination of illicit small arms and light weapons. Present at the reception hosted by Ogwu, were other UN ambassadors including the Permanent Representative of New Zealand, Jim McClay and the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN,  Ashe Rose Migiro.

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By LAOLU AKANDE, NEW YORK

Source: Guardian