The Federal Government has begun preparations for a new National Baseline Survey on illicit small arms and light weapons.

🇳🇬 Here's What Happened

This is coming a decade after the country conducted its first survey in 2016.

The plan was disclosed on Wednesday in Abuja at a one-day workshop reviewing lessons from the 2016 exercise, organised by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Speaking at the event, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, represented by the Director of External Affairs at the Office of the National Security Adviser, Solomon Fehintola, linked the spread of illicit weapons directly to insecurity across the country, saying such arms sustain banditry in the North-West, fuel farmer-herder clashes in the North-Central, arm criminal gangs in cities and support terrorist groups in the North-East.

📌 Key Details

He said the government could no longer afford to tackle the problem without solid data, insisting that policy must be evidence-driven rather than based on assumptions.

“Government’s response to this threat cannot be based on guesswork. It must be built on evidence,” Ribadu said.

He described a reliable national baseline as central to national security planning, noting that it strengthens the country’s ability to track weapons flows and target disarmament efforts more effectively.

“First, an accurate and credible baseline is a strategic national security asset. It sharpens the targeting of counter-proliferation and disarmament efforts and strengthens our ability to track the flow of illicit weapons across our borders and within our communities.

“Second, this must remain a whole-of-government and whole-of-society effort. Security agencies, sub-national governments, traditional and religious institutions, civil society organisations and communities themselves must all contribute to the process.

“The next survey must therefore be designed to draw on all these sources of knowledge and information,” he said.

📰 Source: Punch Nigeria