A former Nigeria Minister of Foreign Affairs Bolaji Akinyemi says arms are flooding into Nigeria as though the West African country is a war zone.
Mr Akinyemi, a Professor of political science stated this on Friday when he featured on an ARISE News programme and said that the country could become a war zone.
He was reacting to comments of a former Head of State, Abdusalami Abubakar, who said there are over six million weapons in the country.
“Yeah, I do agree that the figure is understated. President Jonathan set up a task committee on this same issue and like everything else they classified the result, it wasn’t made known to the public.
“Because I was a member of what I call the Boko Haram committee we got hold of a copy of the result. Maybe it’s because of the content, it’s frightening.
“Six million is an understated figure, arms are flooding into Nigeria as if Nigeria is a war zone. Maybe it is going to be a war zone, maybe they are telling us things that are going to come,” the former minister told ARISE News.
He continued: “The moment Gaddafi got destabilised, the arms depot were looted and those arms just came down south and Nigeria at the time was regarded as a rightful platform for which the arms could find usage.
“They did a risk analysis of the problems of Nigeria and they knew that we were not headed for a wedding ceremony, that we were headed for a turbulent future in this country and there was money available to different groups who are being funded by people with money to procure the arms and that’s why those arms found a respectable acceptance in Nigeria.
“Because from the Boko haram insurgence in the northeast, you now have herdsmen, bandits all over Nigeria and those arms are still flooding in.
“I am not in the business of running down governments or running down anybody, we are doing pretty well nothing about it.”
By Abel Ejikeme
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