It is not clear if the recent executive order on gun licence signed by President Muhammadu Buhari is in public interest or out of oversight. ELEOJO IDACHABA examines the pros and cons of the Order.
The heat generated by the controversial executive order on the revocation of gun licence which President Muhammadu Bugari allegedly signed in May, this year, has not abated. The order which, according to a source, was to take effect on June 1, 2019, is said to have taken into cognisance the threat posed by the Niger Delta militants who threatened to declare the region a republic on the same date. Although it was not clear if the order was targeted at the militants, Blueprint Weekend’s investigation revealed that the government is worried by the spate of unrests across the country. By the order, only the military and the police are expected to carry firearms. Regrettably, efforts made to get a copy of the order in other to know the details have been difficult. More worrisome is the fact that presidential aides have kept sealed lips over the matter thereby prompting the arguments to go back and forth.
More curious is the fact that the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Mr Frank Mba, the spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force, that has the responsibility of mopping up the arms also claimed ignorance of the order. He said, “I am not aware of the order and we cannot confirm the order.” Since then, there have been diversities of opinion on the matter, especially from the National Assembly, to lawyers and stakeholders.
Reacting, the House of Representatives during its plenary stated that the executive order cannot override the act of parliament which they said compels the president to sign into law the bill for the establishment of the commission against the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons. The lawmakers said in consideration of the spate of killings brought about by banditry and kidnapping across the country, if the executive order is allowed to be, it would put the lives of Nigerians at risk.
Also reacting, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Femi Falana, said the order which revokes the authority to own a gun licence tends to give the impression that government is bent on exposing Nigerians to further danger. According to him, “The right to life guaranteed by the constitution includes the right to self defence and defence of one’s property. If you apply for a licence to bear arms and you are granted, the purpose is to complement the measures put in place by the government to protect your life and property in times of danger. The revocation order is uncalled for. It is a measure that has to be reviewed as a matter of urgency.”
According to Chief Mike Ozekhome, another SAN, the order is coming at a time Nigeria is confronted with uncontrollable insecurity situation which has exposed Nigerians to kidnapping and banditry from alleged herdsmen. In particular, the legal luminary faulted the order, saying that it is in conflict with Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution which guarantees the right to life and Section 258 of the Criminal Code which is on self defence.
Writing on the same issue, Onyedika Agbedo posed several rhetorical questions: “Are executive orders known to the Nigerian constitution? Does the president have the power to direct the withdrawal of guns legally acquired by Nigerians through the police? How would the withdrawal of legitimate firearms from Nigeria helps the administration in tackling insecurity? Will the measure not further expose defenceless Nigerians to the criminal elements in the society? Is there any evidence that people use legally acquired guns to commit crimes? Can the executive order take effect without legislative input?”
According to him, with Buhari as president, Nigerians have witnessed the signing of many executive orders, which are meant to enhance the exercise of his powers. Before now, executive orders were unknown to Nigerians as his predecessors in office namely; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Dr Goodluck Jonathan signed none during their tenure as presidents. If the president wants to use all the powers available to him, he needs to consult widely so that it does not backfire.”
Checks by Blueprint Weekend across the country revealed that not many Nigerians are bothered about the order. A retired police officer, Aboki Haruna, said owing to the general condemnation of the order, the modalities for returning those licensed guns are not clear. “In my opinion, it is not enough to treat the issue of safety of Nigerians through an executive order, especially with the level of insecurity. Those guns were for personal safety; so the government has to be clearer on the issue to warrant compliance.”
In the views of Joseph Dangala, a security expert based in Abuja, the government knows what to do, but chose to do the wrong thing. “What the government should have done is not to ask people who have been formally licensed by the licencing authority to own arms to return them. The government should rather have looked at the various cases of illegal arms importations into the country in the past. It is not people who legally applied for arms in their capacity as reliable individuals that are responsible for escalated insecurity in the country. The type of arms being used by the bandits are not the types that were approved for individuals to possess for self defence. Those sophisticated arms found in the possession of bandits were examples of those the Nigeria Customs Service impounded sometimes back. It seems those that escaped their surveillance found their ways into the hands of those bandits who are now using them to terrorise people.”
Speaking further to Blueprint Weekend, he asked, “Does the government just issue gun licence to anyone without some security checks? It is not the same day one applies for a licence that it is approved. So, when the government went out of its way by asking persons who are legally approved to return the arms in their possession, it is like subjecting them to untold harassment by men of the underworld.”
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the FCT, Mr Sonny Moniedafe, however, said there was no need for any fuss about the executive order, stressing that security matters are highly exclusive. He noted that since the government appears to have been silent on the matter, it means that it is probably undergoing a systematic review. According to him, it is the prerogative of the government to review its policies from time to time in line with realities on ground; therefore, there was nothing wrong with the order.
“It only goes to show that everything is being done to address the level of insecurity in the land. Again, I am not in a position to condemn those who spoke against the order because they probably feel that it would have come through a bill in the National Assembly before coming into being, but be that as it may, no need for any fuss,” he said.
In 2016, the United Nations (UN) raised the alarm over the proliferation of arms in the country. The director of United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), Ms Olatokunbo Ige, gave the frightening revelation in Abuja. According to her, “The illicit proliferation of small and light weapons has had a dramatic impact on peace and security in Africa, threatening not only the existence of the state, but also the livelihood of millions of people across the continent. Nigeria is one of the countries experiencing some of the most devastating effects of the proliferation of this dangerous phenomena as a result of the spillover effect of the recent crisis in Libya and Mali as well as unresolved internal conflicts in different parts of the country especially in the North-east, Niger Delta and southern region generally.”
Continuing, she said, “While reliable data on the number of these weapons circulating freely in the country is unavailable, analysts have in recent times estimated that of the about 500 million weapons that may be circulating in West Africa in 2010, 70 per cent of them can be found in Nigeria.”
Previous efforts at curtailing the menace
Also, in 2016, the National Task Force on Illegal Importation of Small Arms, Ammunition and Light Weapons urged the government to curb the proliferation of arms which was becoming a way of life in the country. The South-west coordinator of the organisation, Col. Anthony Awote (retd.), stated this in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, during the inauguration of the state command of the task force. The organisation took into cognisance the spate of attacks in various parts of the country. He, therefore, tasked the government to give official backing to the task force in order to enhance its operations especially the importation of illegal weapons.
He said: “The task force is not out to usurp the duties and responsibilities of existing security agencies. Rather, ours is to complement their efforts. The task force started as a private-public initiative and was inaugurated by the former minister of trade and investment, Olusegun Aganga. It is at the present being supervised by the Office of the National Security Adviser under the Ministry of Interior for ministerial oversight.
“The task force, since inauguration, has intercepted a trailer load of arms and ammunition at the Onitsha head bridge. It also discovered an island of cache of firearms, while last year, the Ogun state command intercepted a luxury bus loaded with arms and ammunitions.”
Also, concerned about the increasing proliferation of prohibited firearms threatening the security in parts of the country, a former Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, as part of initiatives aimed at ensuring adequate protection of lives and property of the citizens, in 2016, urged persons in possession of non-prohibited firearms to immediately obtain or renew their licences before July of that year in line with the due process on the web link of the Nigeria Police Central Information Centre. To that effect, he directed all commissioners of police to activate mechanism for the mop-up of all prohibited firearms within their areas of responsibility.
According to then Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole, in a statement, such prohibited firearms under the Firearms Act include artillery, apparatus for the discharge of any explosives or gas-diffusing projectile, revolvers and pistols, machine guns and machine pistols, rocket weapons and military rifles including those with calibre 7.62mm, 9mm, .300 inches and .303inches.
Analysts are of the view that if the president should compel those who illegally possessed those weapons to surrender them rather than individuals who have passed through security scrutiny to own those light weapons for self-defence.
