Since the 1960s and 1970s Africa has suffered from one civil war or the other and these civil wars have been triggered by the rapacious corruption and the genocidal operations of military dictators in Africa.
The major question is, what happens to the weapons used by rebel groups during the civil war days? Where did they keep the weapons, did they hand them to the government who in return put the weapons in the National Armoury?
The answer is very straightforward, most of the weapons used by rebel groups during civil war period were kept by the rebels who used those same guns to cause subsequent crimes within the society.
The majority of the weapons used during the civil wars are known as small arms and light weapons.
What's Small Arms and Light Weapons?
According to the International Peace Bureau:
In general, small arms refer to weapons designed for individual use, and light weapons are designed for use by several persons serving as a crew.Source
Based on the above definition, we can deduce that small arms and light weapons are made for specific individuals in our society, mostly for highly placed politicians and the military officers.
From my own point of view, small arms and light weapons are gotten from these politicians who have lisence to carry them or are gotten when a military personnel is displaced during shut-aside operations.
In the case of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria, it can be traced to the democratic era, when political office holders do not want to relinquish office for another.
These political office holders who are afraid of losing their political seats quickly hired thugs to help them rig elections. One funny aspects of there transaction is that after they win the election, they'll abandon the thugs who are still with the weapons issued to them during the election period.
These small arms are either sold to terrorists who are able to offer huge amount of money to the thugs or the thugs used the weapons themselves to terrorize the politicians who abandoned them.
Most politicians shipped weapons from overseas and hand them to their political thugs who in turn form terrorist groups.
Arms in the hand of an hungry man becomes an instrument for criminal activities such as kidnapping and armed robbery operations. Remember, arms are not kept redundant in the hands of people, is either they sell them or they use them for operations.
How Can The Government Retrieve the Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Possession of Criminals?
There are two ways to retrieve such arms from individuals and criminals:
- offer amnesty to holders of small arms and light weapons. This amnesties should come with incentives that are better than what these criminals earn in robbery and kidnapping.
- create constant awareness to the general public on the implications of crime in the society.
- create employment for the teaming youths. It should be noted that most holders of small arms and light weapons are university graduates who are jobless and needed what to do in order to survive.
- put deterrent measures in place to discourage further crimes in the society.
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