Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan has pledged the country’s commitment to the implementation of the UN’s Arm Trade Treaty (ATT) of April 2013 and blamed the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons on the 12 major conflicts in Africa between 2000 and 2009 which were not mopped up during the subsequent Demobilisation, Disarmament and Rehabilitation exercises.
In a keynote address to a three day National Stakeholders Consultative Forum on illicit arms and light weapons which opened in Abuja on Monday, the President said the ATT is in the best interest of Africa and urged countries thathave not done so in the continent to expedite its ratification to enable it enter into force.
The President who was represented by Comrade Abba Moro, the minister of Interior, said West Africa has borne the brunt of those profusion of arms as exemplified by the various crises that has engulfed the region since the 90’s.
President Jonathan was speaking today when he presented the keynote address at the three-day National Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation held under the aegis of the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons taking place at the ECOWAS Commission headquarters in Asokoro Abuja.
In his welcome address, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo commiserated with the Government and People of Nigeria over the ‘unnecessary loss of lives and property due to the barbaric attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram’ The President who was represented by Mrs. Khadi Saccoh, the Commissioner for Finance, said that‘ECOWAS Commission identifies with the Federal Republic at this difficult moment and wishes to condemn in the strongest terms, the abduction of the Chibok Girls’ Participants .
He then recalled the regional efforts to regulate arms transfer in the region including the 1999 Decision of heads of State and Government that established the National Commissions on Small Arms as the coordination point in the fight against proliferation of SALW. In this regard, he noted the transformation into aConvention on 14th June 2006 of the 1998 Moratorium on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Material.
He characterised the adoption of the ATT as one of the greatest achievements since the creation of the UN, noting the valuable contributions of ECOWAS Member states in the negotiations leading to it’s adoption while congratulatingNigeria for being the first ECOWAS Member State to ratify followed by Mali.
In his own remarks, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons which organised the forum, Ambassador Emmanuel Imohe recalled some of the activities of the committee including a baseline assessment of the SALW situation in Nigeria, the coordination of training and capacity building programmes for security agencies in Stockpile Management Procedures, Border Security Management, Maritime Security Management and Security Sector Reforms.
He recalled that PRESCOM aims at complying with global best practices similarto those applied by international partners such as United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Country Offices of the UNDP, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Africa Regional Centre( UNREC) based in Lome.
He said the committee was currently focused on mopping up excess weapons, preventing entry of SALW into Nigeria, improving stockpile management, regulation of brokers, monitoring local manufacturers and reviewing existing legislation among others. Participants are drawn from the security forces, academia, civil society and from among international partners. The meeting ends on Wednesday.
