The Role of Small Arms and Light Weapons as a Catalyst for Terrorism in Africa : A Nigerian Perspective

This paper aims to examine the Roles of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) as a Catalyst of Terrorism in Africa. It is instructive to state that uncontrolled availability of SALWs in Africa has influenced many of the armed conflicts and acts of terrorism on the continent. This has continued to threaten State sovereignty, democratic stability, development, economic prosperity and the peace in the respective Nation States. It is important to emphasize that arms proliferation is transnational crime as it takes a lot of logistics, contacts and high level conspiracy for arms to move illegally from the country of manufacture and production to the custody of the end user successfully and without trace. However, the humanitarian cost of this is the spate of increased poverty as a result of forced migration, mainly internally displaced persons and refugees. As a result of arms proliferation, several millions of lives have also been lost. This is aside other petty and major crimes, including but not limited to armed robberies, kidnapping, pouching and illegal hunting among others, all aided by SALWs. The general objective of this study is to evaluate the roles the availability and the use of arms in armed conflicts and terrorism in Africa. The theoretical framework used in this study is ‘frustration-aggression’ theory. Both primary and secondary data was employed for the study which includes interviews and review of related literatures, with a Nigerian perspective. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The study recommends and concludes that effective disarmament programs, strict border security measures, economic improvement and empowerment, sound early warning mechanism, good and inclusive governance should be employed by Nations in Africa to tackle arms proliferation, smuggling, local fabrication and most importantly, an central financial payment/remuneration system within respective Nation States that is both “un-influenceable” and tamper-proof by politicians, superiors or lobbyists, for adequate and commensurate global standard or “live-able” wages and benefits for security personnel entrusted with SALWs . It also recommends harshest and expedited sentencing of both officials and civilians or citizenry proven guilty of acts involving SALWs to stem the related corruption, at national levels across African States