“80% of illegal guns in West Africa are in Nigeria” – Senator Uba Sani

Current Governor of Kaduna State and former Senator Governor Uba Sani of has expressed huge concern about the high number of illegal guns in Nigeria, estimated to be just over 200 million.

He spoke on of the fact that the Firearms Act in the country has not been updated in over three decades.

In a recent interview yesterday, he discussed his efforts to amend the law during his time as a senator and emphasized the need for it to align with global standards.

Governor Sani cited a UN report stating that Nigeria has a significant portion of the illegally owned weapons in West Africa, highlighting the seriousness of the country’s security challenges. He emphasized the importance of implementing state policing to address these issues.

Governor Sani stated that Nigeria’s firearms act does not align with global standards. Saying “In Nigeria, individuals caught with illegal firearms can face charges but not imprisonment, only paying a fine of 50,000 naira” .

Sani began advocating for firearms control during his time in the senate and even sighted a report from the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), which stated that out of the 250 million illegally owned weapons found in West Africa, more than 200 million are in Nigeria (which is about 80% ) as some of the reasons the firearm policy in Africa’s most populous needs to be reviewed.