10 Mar 2009 |
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Rowland Adewumi In the history of Nigeria’s development, corruption has been thought of as a key major problem, but religious violence, armed robbery, pen robbery, and recently kidnapping are fast becoming part of our daily life. Although, this ugly social vice exist almost in all countries of the world, but it seems that the menace is rampant in Nigeria than anywhere else, especially the spate of armed robbery in the country and increasing exponentially day by day. Critics have also argued that not only do the Nigeria police lack capability to provide security (apart from arresting goat for armed robbery), but the president and vice president of this country have no vision or sense of responsibility of providing security for the citizens. Non-government agencies are also very critical, and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) recently argued that implementing a law that would allow every adult to carry arms as a way of checking unwarranted attacks is the best instrument to reduce these social vices. I can’t just stop imagining how armed robbers prowl the street in broad day light, maiming, killing innocent people, and dispossessing citizens of their money and property, even churches are not spared! The effrontery of their operation knows no bound except the military barracks (in the history of crime, armed robbers cannot enter a barrack and operate), in some state, there is virtually no day, a case of armed robbery is not recorded. Recently, a governor of a state escaped death from armed robbers (his synonymous colleagues), just as a recent attack on the wife of a state governor by a gang of armed robbers was aborted. In May last year, a bullion van, carrying millions was intercepted along Aba Port Harcourt Expressway by dare devil robbers. Simply, the level of insecurity in the country is all time high, there is total confusion and with leaders not helping issues by thier continous looting and stealing billions of naira.
The campaigning for permission to carry guns is a welcome development and long overdue in Nigeria. Responsible people in the society should be given licence to carry guns and some present day security outfit in Nigeria be trained so they could also train people. First, it will reduce arm robbery, imagine arm robbers coming to a street, one or two people with licence to carry gun and with basic training will be bold to come out and challenge them. This will discourage robbery. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution declares that "a well regulated militia" is "necessary" in order to maintain a free state, and as an explanation for prohibiting infringement of "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." The law is presently a subject of debate, and likely to be consistency with present day trend. For, example, on the 25 Jun 08, Wesley Higdon, opened fire on colleagues at a plastics factory in Kentucky shooting dead five fellow workers. In July 2008, a gunman wounded three people at a college in the US state of Arizona, while another opened fire in a church in the US state of Tennessee, killing two people and wounding seven others. In September 2008, a man in rampage and in series of shootings left six people dead in the US state of Washington. Just yesterday, a gunman killed nine people in two towns in the southern US state of Alabama before killing himself. Taking a cue from the foregoing, however, will difficulties arise, when an attempt is made to implement, for example the proposed bill to the National Assembly to allow Nigerians to carry guns? Nigeria, in the past thirty years has seen increasingly rapid advances in all form of social problem, and I will say we need law like this! Security is one of Nigeria’s major problems and apart from driving lots of prospective investors out Nigeria, insecurity has prevented Nigeria from getting her skilled citizens in diasporas to return home to invest or contribute to the development of the country. Despite its inefficiency, the only licences available to individuals in Nigeria are licence for a single double barrel rifles, and normally issued by the various state Police commissioners. This is not enough, considering the sophistication of arms being used by present robbers; rather permission should be given to more categories of gun suitable for civilians. In a recent study by Newsweek there are 215 million guns in America in a population of about 250 million people, meaning almost every household across the country owns a gun. One of the most significant current discussions in legal and moral philosophy is that, if I own a fire extinguisher to prevent fire, why can’t I own a gun to prevent uninvited visitors? If I know how to use a shotgun, it will take care of any intruder to my house? It's not the guns that kill, it's the people, and ownership of arms should be a right, I should be able to defend my family and my future generation.
The most important of these criticisms that we must not fail note is that in Nigeria, guns kill few people compared to accidents from our bad roads, but can we now sat we should ban ownership of cars? It baffles me when I see most of the uneducated policemen in Nigeria just walking around with gun holsters and rifles every where and wonders why responsible people (like me) should not be allowed or licensed to carry one. A friend recently confide in me that after his last ugly encounter and his family’s experience with armed robbery, no robber or uninvited guest can come into his house without permission and walk back out free. Law or no Law! Thomas Jefferson provides in-depth view of my friend’s stand and shows its relevance to our contemporary times when he said: "What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." What should bother us most is that the responsibility of providing security for our family should primarily lies on us. While I might need a gun against armed robbers, I need a pen against corrupt public officials and politicians robbing us of millions of Naira that would have been spent on job creation and economic development. Many schools of thought identifies poverty, bad housing, unemployment as the major causes of arm robbery, however, these public officials and politicians are they real arm robbers and making Nigeria worse off than 20 year ago. Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this article, it is now possible to state that with the level of insecurity in the country- all time high, and with total confusion and leaders stealing billions of naira, I need arm against armed robbers and a pen against pen robbers.
Rowland Adewumi http://www.rowland-adewumi.com
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