Laying The Seed For Another Calamity In Years To Come

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Laying the <strong>seed<&sol;strong> for another calamity sooner than expected is the rational and empirical deductions from the moves by legislators to enact laws empowering paramilitary organizations to bear arms<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that there is a sinister motive in the move by National Assembly to enact laws empowering paramilitary organizations to bear arms&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;One can always see bad judgment and lack of foresight in the legislative prerogative of Nigerian legislators&period; There are complaints in the country over the attempts by the National Assembly to supports paramilitary organization carrying arms with enabling laws&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Paramilitary under consideration includes the Federal Road Safety Commission&comma; FRSC&comma; Vehicle Inspection Officers&comma; VIO and others&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Unarguably&comma; the police the Nigeria Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for maintaining law and order in the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; the purchase of 40&comma;000 AK-47 assault rifles&comma; 30&comma;000 K2 assault rifles&comma; and 10&comma;000 pistols has raised concerns among Nigerians who think the police need to be better trained&comma; not better armed&comma; and that assault rifles are not the best option for a police force struggling to reform its reputation for brutality&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Nigeria Police Force is currently structured into zones&comma; with between 2 and 4 state commands within each zone&comma; and then a series of area commands&comma; divisions&comma; police stations&comma; and police posts under these commands&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A commissioner of police leads each state command&comma; and there is a hierarchical chain of command down to the lowest level&comma; the police post&period; In addition to the state command&comma; each state possesses at least 2 area commands&comma; 10 divisions&comma; and 1 1 police stations&comma; with some states possessing far greater numbers&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Half of this number serves as a guard to politicians across tiers of government&period; Those who are protecting public office holders are protecting corporate czars with an insignificant number left to perform statutory police functions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This speaks volumes about the ruling elite’s proclivities to making rules aimed at protecting their selfish interest&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The idea to extend arm use to this para military agency  of the government is primarily to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;make the road safe” for the elites&comma; not necessarily to tackle sophisticated crime&period; Even at that&comma; roads across Nigeria are in bad states and needed to fix&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Secondly&comma; Nigeria’s law needs to be improved&period; Reformed&excl; In Lagos for instance there is the lingering overlap and duplication of duties between competing agencies &lpar;Federal VS State&rpar; as to who has the right to issue license in Lagos State for instance&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Failing to do these reforms&comma; and going ahead to arm the traffic and road agencies&comma; is merely putting Nigerians at risk&period; There is sure to be confrontations between operatives of the agencies and road users&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Road users in Lagos can readily attest to the harassment with overzealous and corrupt Vehicle Inspection Officers&comma; VIO&comma; operatives on Lagos roads&period; Federal Road Safety Corps&comma; FRSC&comma; operators&comma; on out-of-town highways are laws unto themselves&comma; &lpar;try Badagry-Seme Road&rpar;&period; Arming them without reforms is granting them a license to kill Nigerians&period; Sooner or later&comma; an endears-like protest will erupt&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Lastly&comma; having all forms of agencies left and right gaining access to arms and its uses is not healthy for the country&period; We should restrict the number of the populace with gun access&comma; skills and opportunities to core military officials – Army&comma; Navy&comma; Airforce and the Police&period; With Customs&comma; Immigrations&comma; NDLEA&comma; NSDCA&comma; EFCC&comma; SSS all gun-bearing agencies&comma; it is needless to start proliferating gun uses and access&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In classification&comma; the Nigerian Army carries all calibers of arms including the Nigerian Air Force&comma; Nigerian Navy and State Security Services&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Currently&comma; the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s members of operational departments bear small arms while on duty &period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;