The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), under the Office of the National Security Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, has extended partnerships with the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) to tackle the menace of insecurity and the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in the country.
Speaking at the NYSC Orientation camp in Bauchi on Friday, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Adamu (Rtd), the Northeast Zonal Director of NCCSALW, said the partnership was necessary owing to the fact that the role of Corps members at their places of primary assignment in advocating for an illicit arms-free society could not be over-emphasised.
The Zonal Director, who explained that the Centre’s partnership with corps members in Borno and Yobe had yielded positive results, charged corps members across the Northeast to play an active role in curbing the spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) across the region.
Maj-Gen Adamu (Rtd) said the active involvement of youth, especially corps members, would significantly help tackle insecurity as well as the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons.
According to him, corps members in Yobe and Borno had been playing an active role in the fight against the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons through sensitisation in their places of primary assignment, made possible through the establishment of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons Community Development Service.
He explained that the NCCSALW, established in 2021 under the Office of the National Security Adviser, serves as the institutional framework for regulating and controlling Small Arms and Light Weapons in Nigeria.
Sensitising the corps members on camp in Bauchi State on the dangers of the proliferation of arms and weapons in society, the Zonal Director said such weapons fuel banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery, insurgency and other crimes.
Maj-Gen Adamu (Rtd), who was represented by Mr Aminu Saleh Mohammed, Assistant Director of Strategic Communication and Information of the Centre, said that Small Arms and Light Weapons hinder development, increase black marketing of arms and ammunition, cause undue exposure of young people to armed violence, heighten transborder insecurity, create fear in the minds of the people, and cause many other vices in society.
He called on all parents and guardians to take full responsibility for good child upbringing in all ramifications, educate children on tolerance and peaceful co-existence, and warn against violence.
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Adamu also called on the Northeast Coordinators of NYSC to partner with the Centre to establish a Small Arms and Light Weapons Community Development Service (CDS) group in the states, similar to the one already operational in Borno.
Some of the corps members who spoke at the event promised to be ambassadors of the Centre and pledged to participate wholeheartedly in any activity that would bring the menace of the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons to an end.
Also responding, the Bauchi State Coordinator of NYSC, Mr Umoren Kufre, lauded the Centre for the sensitisation and welcomed the proposal, assuring that efforts would be made to set up the CDS group to support the campaign.
He also promised to work closely with the Centre in order to fight and eradicate the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons within the region by carrying out sensitisation in strategic locations.
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