OPINION: Revocation of gun license by the federal government |By Akeem Adebiyi

Irked by the spate of general insecurity that pervades the entire Nigeria’s landscape, President Muhammadu  Buhari, via the instrument of executive order, revoked all the existing gun licenses. This development is a right step in a right direction. In this circumstance, no citizen, no matter how highly placed has no right to be in possession of gun or any fire arm.

Hence, this shall go a long way in stemming the tide of armed banditry, kidnappings and the related social vices that compromise our security network in Nigeria. The herdsmen who are reputedly noted for unleashing terrors on the defenceless citizens are partly the prime targets of this order. Hence,they are no longer entitled to hold firearms in the guise of protecting their cattle against the attacks from the wild animals.

Moreover, the political thugs who are readily armed by some unpatriotic political lords for spurious reasons do no longer have that privilege, including the local vigilantes as the case may be.

It is a matter for regret that Nigerians in possession of firearms or guns takes delight in abusing such rare opportunities. Records shows that these citizens resorts to extra judicial usage of these weapons to amass questionable wealth. Our society has lost innocent lives of promising citizens to the malevolent conducts of these evil minds. Ranging from armed robbery, kidnappings, banditry to land grabbing, the uninspiring and gory tales of death are touching and unpleasant.

The citizens need to complement the efforts of the law enforcement agents in curbing the menace of the gun runners. They can achieve this by giving adequate information to the police and other relevant agencies regarding the nefarious activities of the recalcitrant gun runners. It is only in this way that our society could be freed from the violent activities of the dare devil gun runners and murderers.

On the part of the government, it is not yet Uhuru on this matter. The punitive law for gun running should be reviewed upwardly. As against terms of imprisonment which has failed to achieve the desired goals and objectives, capital punishment should be prescribed for gun running and the related acts. This shall bring about the desired positive effects and reduce the disturbing menace.

Suffice stating here that drug addictions in various forms induces violent crimes in Nigeria. While commending the efforts of NDLEA in reducing the influence and bad effects  of drug addiction in our society, the concomitant punishment prescribed for the offenders have inconsequential effects on the menace of drug addiction, most especially, among the youths. In this connection, stiffer punishments need to be introduced via the appropriate laws to deal effectively with this social absurdity.

Besides, the media, parents, NOA, schools and other relevant bodies should contribute their quota towards reducing the bad effects of drug addiction. Also, government’s social investment schemes should be expanded to accommodate more youths as beneficiaries.

One is at sea seeing most of our law enforcement agents still finding it difficult to apply modern technology in resolving issues in their professional assignments. This means  that they have not been exposed to the state of the art trainings in the acquisition of relevant skills in their professions.

Hence, most of them are not able to apply computer systems in information processing, ‘coding and decoding’. This missing link adds up to their inefficiency at work. As a matter of urgency, our government should expose our military and paramilitary personnel to the required training and retraining programmes in line with the standard global practices.

This is necessary to enable them meet up with the prompt realisation of the set goals and objectives. Furthermore, it is observed that most of these personnel are ill equipped. Often times, they carry weapons which are superbly inferior to the ones being carried about by the criminals. This dampens their morale, zeal and commitment to their jobs. They are ready casualties in serial engagements with the criminals such as armed robbers, bandits, terrorists, including common hooligans.

This amounts to an irony of tragic proportion. The government must as a matter of duty, on periodic basis make available for the usage of  our military and paramilitary personnel the modern weapons that are superior to the ones in possession of the criminals.