Former Head of State and Chairman of the National Peace Committee (NPC), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), has raised an alarm over an alleged circulation of about six million proliferation of all calibres of weapons in the country.
Abdulsalami said this when he spoke at a dialogue session of the NPC with key stakeholders in Abuja on Wednesday.
He was joined by other leaders like former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd); the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar and President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, in expressing concerns over the negative effects of growing insecurity in the land and sued for peace.
The former Head of State lamented that the proliferation of weapons has heightened insecurity in the country and led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million persons internally displaced.
He stated that the challenges facing the country has gone beyond the narrow sense of the military definition but that it had assumed an all-encompassing nature.
According to him, the challenges to include the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, increasing poverty, balkanisation agitations from different quarters, the threat of hunger arising from insecurity that farmers have faced and continue to face and the increasing sense of collective despair and despondency among the populace.
Abdulsalami said: “The proliferation of all calibres of weapons not only in our sub-region in general and in Nigeria, in particular, is worrying. It is estimated that there are over six million such weapons in circulation in the country. This certainly exacerbated the insecurity that led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million internally displaced persons.”
He added that the situation is dire because security forces were not just overstretched but underfunded, noting that they could perform better with more sophisticated weapons, equipment and more funding.
“We believe Nigeria must find a way out of these problems. Our hope is that perhaps among us, by listening to your different perspectives, we can begin to build up confidence among our people so that we can hold together.
“So, our hope is that we shall not only share our collective lamentations about the current situation, but propose some concrete suggestions that can point the way forward – suggestions that can inspire more confidence among our people and ensure that our country remains one,” he said.
