The alarming level of insecurity in various regions of the country is becoming quite unbearable as lots of lives and properties have continued to be lost to the cold hands of banditry and terrorism. The cases of banditry in the Northern region of the country have triggered lots of administrative decisions from the State governments.
Taking Kastina State as a case study, the government of the State in a recent report called on its citizens to fight back at bandits while protecting themselves and their families. The State governor, Aminu Bello Masari overtly declared his support for the residents of the State to be granted access to arms.
Apparently, the insecurity level in Kastina has prompted the state government to assist its citizens in acquiring arms for self-defence. But before such a decision takes place, it is in my best interest to opine that there are certain conditions that ought to be put in place by the Kastina government before allowing citizens access to arms.
One of the conditions should be as such; before any resident of the State is allowed access to arm, he or she must be employed. It is insecurity at the highest level to grant unemployed residents access to arms. This is so because he or she might take advantage of the arms in a negative way. Even most of the terrorizing bandits in the state may have joined banditry as a result of unemployment. On this note, no unemployed resident should be granted access to arms.
Another condition should be based on allowing only one arm per family. Despite the fact that the residents’ access to arms is for the purpose of self-defence, there is a need to utilize methods that will ensure that the weapons are not abused. No family should be allowed to have access to more than one arm. This will serve as a better restriction to the abuse of arms.
Thirdly, no resident of the state with criminal records or imprisonment records should be allowed access to weapons. In my own view, allowing an ex-prisoner access to arms could be detrimental to the safety of the society around him or her. In this regard, I would strictly discourage that.