When West African parliamentarians gathered over Insecurity

Seven years ago, precisely in 2010, the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime described West Africa as a paradise for organised crimes. TAIYE ODEWALE captures various submissions at the conference.
Haven for crimes
The description of the sub-region as haven for organised crimes made parliamentarians to gather in Abuja last week for thorough rumination of the problem.
First to make allusion to the 2010 UN security office’s submission on the high rate of crimes in the West Africa sub-region was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, who in his speech, said: “Permit to start by bothering us with a quotation that I believe summarizes the subject matter that compels our gathering here today.
“ In its 2010 annual report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime posited that: “West Africa is a paradise for organized crime, offering ideal conditions for trafficking contraband: a strategic location, porous borders, weak governance, wide- spread poverty and extensive corruption.
“As a result, criminals and insurgents are exploiting the region. West Africa serves as a transit point between Latin America and Europe for US$ 1 billion-worth in cocaine, as a destination for counterfeit medicines and toxic waste, and as a source of stolen natural resources, particularly oil. Human trafficking, whether for forced labour or sexual exploitation, also occurs in the region.”
According to him, the theme of the parliamentary conference cannot be more pertinent and apt. “Our efforts towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being hampered by the high level of insecurity in the West African sub-region.

Incessant wars
The sub-region has suffered from intra- and inter-communal feuds, local wars, armed insurrections, armed rebel activities and terrorism, all of which have led to the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). Small arms and light weapons are dangerous tools of violence in West Africa for obvious reasons. Small arms are durable, highly portable, easily concealed, simple to use, extremely lethal and possess legitimate military, police and civilian uses.
“In addition, the weapons are lightweight and so are used by child soldiers, who play a significant role in most crises afflicting the sub-region.
“A related issue that aids proliferation of small arms and light weapons within ECOWAS is terrorist financing. The March 2017 report from Global Financial Integrity, Transnational Crime and the Developing World, notes that transnational crime is a global business.
“It is valued at an average of $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion annually, out of which Small Arms & Light Weapons Trafficking accounts for $1.7 billion to $3.5 billion annually. Other illicit activities include counterfeiting ($923 billion to $1.13 trillion) and drug trafficking ($426 billion to $652 billion)”he lamented.

Restriction on small arms
As a way out of the problems, the Speaker suggested thus: “As legislators, one area we need to address our minds to is the enactment of laws making gun possession difficult.
“It has been observed that during conflicts, some ECOWAS member states liberalized laws on gun possession in order to stimulate gun possession by civilians. Arms were directly distributed to paramilitary groups by governments in order to fight rebel forces.
“In addition, gun possession legislation was liberalized. This development, therefore, enhanced diffusion of small arms in the sub-region.
“However, after conflicts, small arms are recycled for use in new conflicts and crimes at home, or sold to other West African countries for use in new conflicts or to prolong ongoing conflicts. “When the war ends, the guns remain” is a common refrain among our people in West Africa.
“Therefore, as members of parliament, we need to ensure that our national parliaments ratify the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Materials. I am happy to report that as at 10 November 2017, thirteen out of the fifteen Member States of ECOWAS had ratified the Convention.
“I call on the remaining two ECOWAS member states (The Gambia and Liberia) to accelerate the ratification of the Convention. Beyond ratification, I call on national parliaments to ensure the domestication of the convention into their national laws.

Submissions
“Furthermore, I urge all national parliaments to ensure the application of all the provisions of the Convention including Article 21 which provides for the harmonization of legislative provisions in the member states. The Article states:
i. Member States shall undertake to revise and update national legislation to ensure that the provisions in this Convention are minimum standards for small arms and light weapons control and their ammunition as well as other related materials; and
ii. Each Member State shall adopt legislative and other necessary measures to establish as a criminal offence in the following cases: a) any activity carried out in violation of the provisions of this Convention; b) any activity carried out in violation of an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations, the African Union or ECOWAS”
Other speakers at the event are the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Mohammed Ibn Chamber, the Director General of the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), Prof Ladi Hamalai, many serving senators and House of Representatives members.

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