Confronting Nigeria’s Escalating Arms Crisis

Obinna Chima

Nigeria presently sits on a quiet but deadly emergency brought about by the uncontrolled spread of arms, now fueling all manner of insecurity across the country.  The current scale of insecurity is worrisome as it threatens the very fabric of Nigerian society.

From terrorism, banditry, insurgency, rising ring of kidnapping, especially mass abduction of students, and cult violence, illicit weapons have become the oxygen sustaining insecurity in the country.

More disturbing is the turn of events in the past few days. These developments are so alarming and chaotic that they have not only shaken citizens to their core, but have also drawn uncomfortable global attention to a country already struggling to steady itself.

From the terrorist attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary School in the early hours of yesterday, during which dozens of students were kidnapped in Niger State, to the abduction of 24 students and the Vice Principal of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Kebbi State earlier this  week, the trend is profoundly alarming.

Also, a few days ago, there was an attack on the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Ekiti LGA of Kwara State, where terrorists killed two worshippers and abducted others; the abduction of a Catholic priest and the killing of a clergy brother by armed assailants at St. Stephen’s Parish in Ksuhe Gugdu, Kagarko, Kaduna State, and the attacks on multiple communities in Mashegu LGA of Niger State.

Also this month, we were greeted with the killing of Brigadier General Musa Uba while on active duty fighting insurgents in Borno State; the armed invasion of rural farm settlements in Ehamufu, Isi-Uzo, Enugu State, as well as targeted killings and violence across the South-East and other southern parts of Nigeria. These grim episodes paint a portrait of a nation bleeding on multiple fronts—where fear increasingly feels more familiar than hope, and where the promise of safety slips further from the grasp of ordinary Nigerians with each passing day.

Hardly does any day pass without news headlines featuring stories of gory murders and senseless killings. In fact, available data compiled from media reports by the HumAngle Tracker showed that 465 violent incidents occurred during the third quarter of 2025 alone, with 1,201 fatalities. The period recorded 68 abduction incidents, from which 791 people were reportedly kidnapped. The spate of killings has converted a large number of Nigerians into refugees and internally displaced persons. 

Expanding terrorist networks, mass displacement, and the collapse of essential services in Nigeria saw  the United States House Foreign Affairs Africa Sub-committee on Thursday holding a public hearing on religious persecution in the West African country, after its designation by President Donald Trump recently as a “Country of Particular Concern.” 

The hearing brought together lawmakers, human rights experts, as well as civil society organisations and advocates to discuss growing violence and alleged legal restrictions affecting religious communities in Nigeria, especially in the Northern part of the country.

Nigeria is no doubt facing a convergence of weak borders, thriving black markets, political complicity, and community-level demand, creating a perfect storm that threatens national cohesion.

While the headlines focus on the latest attacks, the deeper problem for the country is how these weapons enter communities, who controls them, and why the state cannot stem the flow?

This uncontrolled spread of arms has deepened insecurity, mistrust, and political instability, which significantly contribute to insurgency, terrorism, and to an extent, electoral violence in the country.

A situation whereby herdsmen and other non-state actors move freely with AK-47s is a joke taken too far, as a gun in the wrong hands is only a few seconds away from killing.

I firmly share the concern expressed by the Director-General of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, DIG Johnson Kokumo (rtd.), who recently warned that weak armoury management within Nigeria’s security institutions is fuelling the proliferation of small arms and light weapons across the country, thereby worsening insecurity and political violence.

Kokumo pointed out that no single geopolitical zone in Nigeria is free from the scourge of arms proliferation, adding that weapons leakages from poorly managed official stockpiles were arming criminals and undermining national security.

Thus, he attributed much of the problem to poor control and oversight within Nigeria’s security sector.

“Numerous military and police operations in the North-East, North-West, and Niger Delta have stretched our forces thin. Weak armoury management and corruption have enabled weapons to leak from state stockpiles into the hands of criminals. This undermines Nigeria’s constitutional monopoly over the legitimate use of force,” he said.

Additionally, Nigeria’s 1959 Firearms Act is outdated and insufficient to address contemporary realities. Some of its flaws are its outdated provisions for a modern security landscape; weak penalties that do not deter criminals; poor regulation of arms dealers and licencing; a lack of clear provisions on modern and military-grade weapons; weak monitoring and tracing mechanisms; outdated enforcement framework; no clear provisions on community vigilante groups or non-state actors, as well as failure to address smuggling and porous borders.

The federal government must therefore do all within its reach to immediately address the arms race going on in the country.

Equally, governments at all levels in the country must move beyond policy pronouncements and promises by addressing underlying socio-economic problems such as poverty, unemployment, and inequality, that contribute to the resort to arms and other weapons by its youth. Nigeria’s policymakers continue to fail in seizing the country’s demographic dividend and channeling it to positive use.

State Governors, local government heads, and traditional rulers must also do more to de-escalate tensions in their domains and keep talking to those they are leading to always seek redress from appropriate authorities rather than picking up arms.

The mechanism for inter-group dialogue and reconciliation must be restored to help build trust, clarify misunderstandings, and remove negative perceptions and stereotypes.

Another factor responsible for the proliferation of arms is a lack of political will. Political leaders should be bold enough to address social injustices in the land. Perpetrators of violence should be brought to justice and the security agencies must protect vulnerable communities, and perpetrators brought to justice.

From the foregoing, confronting Nigeria’s growing arms crisis demands political will, institutional reforms, and an honest reckoning with how governance failures have deepened the problem. Without decisive action to cut off supply routes, enforce accountability within security agencies, amend the outdated Firearms Act and strengthen local intelligence networks, no amount of military deployment will restore safety.

This is the moment for bold, coordinated action before the proliferation of arms eclipses the authority of the state itself.T