The statistics read like a wartime bulletin, yet they describe daily life in Nigeria. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, 465 violent incidents claimed 1,201 lives and saw 791 people kidnapped. Behind this relentless tide of terror, banditry, and communal violence lies a singular, enabling force: the uncontrolled flood of illicit firearms into the hands of non-state actors. Nigeria is now the epicenter of West Africa's arms crisis, accounting for a staggering 70% of the region's estimated 11 million illegal small arms and light weapons (SALW). A 2021 survey by the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) revealed over six million illegal weapons in circulation within the country, with about 70% of them in the hands of criminals and terrorists. This proliferation has created a "quiet but deadly emergency" that threatens the very fabric of the state. How did Africa's most populous nation become so saturated w...
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