Stakeholders Identify Gulf of Guinea As Major Arms Trafficking Route, Federal Government Set To Investigate Access Points

Nigerian Government has expressed interest in further interrogating the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) as a major route for arms trafficking, especially the proliferation of small arms and light weapons through the Maritime Sector. 

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, stated this at a 2-Day Seminar organised by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), Office of the National Security Adviser, in conjunction with the Global Network for Human Development and was held at the National Counter Terrorism Centre Abuja, Nigeria. 

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who was represented by the Director of External Affairs, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Ibrahim Babani was speaking on the theme; Climate Change and Arms Proliferation In Nigeria: Navigating New Security Threats in the Gulf of Guinea. 

According to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu the Gulf of Guinea boast of an estimated 24 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, contributing roughly five million barrels daily to global crude chain amongs other abundant natural resources and underground mineral deposits. 

The NSA highlighted that the Gulf of Guinea is the maritime gateway between Africa and the rest of the world, constituting of 16 countries including Nigeria, spreading along about 6,000 kilometres of unbroken coastline. 

``However, the lucrative nature of the GoG in terms of natural resources, movement of ships and related economic activities attracts strange bedfellows and men of the underworld with ulterior motives pursuing nefarious activities in the GoG"

``Organised crime syndicates are involved in various devastating crimes, notably; drug trafficking, human trafficking, oil theft, kidnaping & hostage taking of ship crews, piracy, smuggling of contraband goods. In this category lies the smuggling of Small Arms and Light Weapons by international crime syndicates"

The NSA therefore calls for an interrogation of the nexus between climate change, armed violence and the proliferation of arms within the countries of the GoG. 

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu stressed that Small Arms and Light Weapons had long been identified as both a root cause and enabler of insecurity globally and all 14 reported kidnappings of crew members and 75 per cent of crew members held hostage in 2023 happened in the GoG.