What!This is outrageous!

The Nigerian Army, at
the weekend, said 70
percent of the illegal
weapons in West
African can be found in
Nigeria.
Major-General Shehu
Abdulkadir, the Chief of
Army Standards and
Evaluation, while
speaking at the 7th
annual Ramadan lecture
of Muslim Media
Practitioners of Nigeria
in Abuja, said there are
about 10 million illegal
arms in the African sub-
region, and more than
half of these Small
Arms and Light
Weapons are in the
hands of non-state
actors and criminal
groups.
Delivering a paper titled
'The Challenges of
Internal Security and
Implications for National
Development’,
Abdulkadir said: “Out of
approximately 500
million illicit weapons in
circulation worldwide in
2004, it was estimated
that about 100 million
are in sub-Saharan
Africa, with eight to 10
million concentrated in
the West African sub-
region.
“Nigeria is both a
producer and consumer
of SALW in the West
African sub-region.
Although it is difficult to
determine the exact
quantity of illegal SALW
circulating within or
penetrating into Nigeria,
it is estimated that
over 70 percent of eight
to 10 million illegal
weapons in West Africa
are in Nigeria.”
Abdulkadir noted that
access to illegal
weapons made
criminals and militants
bolder when facing
security agents.
He described security
management as “a very
expensive venture”,
adding that the Federal
Government had to
spread resources
among competing
needs and the Armed
Forces had to manage
scarce resources to
carry out their duties.
He, however, stated
that the government, in
recent times, had
increased funding to the
security sector, which
would go a long way in
alleviating the problem
of resources.
Also, at the lecture,
Nurudeen Abdulmalik
challenged the Federal
Government to find
lasting solutions to the
multifaceted problems
bedevilling the nation.