ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons: the Imperative for Domestication in Nigeria

The Nigerian Nation and its people have had an unfair share and experience of breaking-point macabre insecurity by way of conflicts, violent crimes, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and gangsterism. These are unleashed on the nation and its people by individual armed groups, mercenaries and even regrettably state security agents. The vehicle through which this is made possible is lethal weapons which are referred to as “Small Arms and Light Weapon”. In view of the highly injurious lethal nature of SALW, any misuse can lead to several deaths and life threatening injuries. The devastating consequences of the misuse and proliferation continue to pose major threat to Nigeria’s security, stability, prosperity and even posterity and unity.

In order to effectively address this issue, it is important to frontally and with enough political will locate the issue of proliferation of SALW with particular reference to manufacturing, transfer, brokerage, tracing, marking and the establishment of a national commission for the general implementation of the spirit of the new weapon management regime. The regulation and management of access to small arms and light weapons in Nigeria is anarchic in nature as the Act and Regulation is anachronistic as it has fallen short of the twenty First Century contemporary weapons deal. The Nigeria Firearms Act and Regulations was promulgated in 1959 and as such lack the legal speciality and efficiency to tackle today weapons challenges. In view of the present position, it is imperative that Nigeria make it quick to domestic the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunitions and other Related Materials adopted on 14th June 2006 and which we became a State Party on 27th October 2008. This domestication is necessary because being a State Party alone cannot make the Convention operational in Nigeria until and unless the National Assembly passes it into law in compliance with the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This provision reads thus:.

“No treaty between the Federation and any other country shall have the force of law except to the extent to which any such treaty has been enacted into law by the National Assembly”.

The said domestication of this Convention shall combat the ever trending menace of proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons in the country and the minimalization of insecurity and violent crimes. This is because, the ECOWAS Convention is complete and holistic on its provisions and regulations. It must be stated that the death toll from small arms uses in Nigeria’s conflict and violent crimes in recent times have comparatively greatly exceeded even that of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War. The unchecked or ineffective check of movement of small arms and light weapons exacerbate conflicts and insecurity and has at different times in our nation’s life threaten the soul of the nation’s unity and has emboldened organize crimes and armed bearers. The result of this is that the country unfortunately became highly militarized and plagued by brigands and internecine armed conflicts. These ranges from ethno-religious crises in Jos and Kano, to the Militancy in Niger-Delta, to the kidnapping phenomenon in Aba, the boundary armed conflict between Umuleri and Aguleri in Anambra State, the inter cult clashes in our tertiary institutions, to the pirates and oil bunkerer in the marine shores of Nigeria and many more..

ANALYSIS OF THE CONVENTION.
This Convention came as a result of the deficiencies and lack of State Parties commitment towards the realization of the objectives set out by the ECOWAS Moratorium on the Important, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons. This document was adopted in 1998 and renewed in 2001. The Moratorium has a timeline and is just a political engagement pushed by State Parties and its lack of detail text made it difficult to implement in practice. Also the voluntary nature of the document was the major reason for the lack of sanctions and there is no capacity for effective implementation that is provided for by the said document.

So the principal objectives of this Convention are to prevent and combat the excessive and destabilizing accumulation of small arms and light weapons within ECOWAS borders. Also, to continue the efforts for the control of small arms and light weapons within ECOWAS region as well as to consolidate the gains of the Declaration of the Moratorium on the importation, exportation and manufacture of small arms and its code of conduct. Furthermore, it is to promote trust between the Member States through concerted and transparent action on the control of small arms and light weapons within ECOWAS. Additionally, it aims to build institutional and operational capacities of the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat and the Members State in the efforts to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, their ammunitions and other related materials. Finally, it aims to promote the exchange of information and cooperation among the Member States.

In its definitional section, the Convention defines Small Arms thus:

“Arms used by one person and which include notably: firearms and other destructive arms or devices such as an exploding bomb, an incendiary bomb, a grenade, a rocket launcher, a missile, a missile system or landmine; revolvers and pistols with automatic loading; rifles and carbines; machine guns; assault rifles; and light machine guns.”

For Light Weapons, the Convention provides thus:.

“Portable arms designed to be used by several persons working together in a team and which include notably: heavy machine guns; portable grenade launchers, mobile or mounted; portable anti-aircraft cannons; portable anti- tank missile launchers or rocket launchers; portable anti- aircraft missile launchers; mortars with a caliber missile launchers; mortars with a caliber of less than 100 millimeters”

From the tenor of the definition above, it has been proven now that Small Arms are ones capable of being handled and used by only one person while Light Weapons have a denotation of portable arms made for two or more persons working in concert as a unit. An interesting part of the Convention is the provision of “Other Related Materials”. This is defined as:

“All components, parts or spare parts for small arms or light weapons and their ammunitions necessary for its functioning; or any chemical substance serving as active material used as propelling or explosive agent.”

This provision preempts individuals who in an attempt to outsmart or evade the law, would strip into shreds or dismantle the arms and ammunitions in order to take them away from the definition ascribed to it by the Convention. In other words dismantling the arms into parts is still within the contemplation of the prohibition by the Convention. So, both parts and whole arms and ammunitions, caught up within these definitions are prohibited. This is the awesomeness of the Convention.

Another novel and commendable provision of this Convention is as it relates to “Non-State Actors”. It defines them to mean:

“Such as any actor other than State Actors, Mercenaries armed militias, armed rebel groups and private security companies.”

The Convention placed a prohibition on the transfer of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Members state shall without exception, transfer small arms and light weapons to Non-State Actors that are not explicitly authorized by the importing members.