By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan
There is no shying away from the fact: Nigeria is similarly situated with many countries of the world that have hidden under the guise of gun control to dispossess some citizens of their guns only to round them up in their millions and exterminate them. Because the examples here are legion, we shall restrict ourselves to a few recent cases of the 20th century: In 1911, Turkey promulgated gun control laws under which citizens were dispossessed of their guns. Between 1915 and 1917, 1.5 million Armenian Christians were slaughtered; and their cities were taken over by Muslims while their churches were converted to Mosques. In 1929, the Soviet Union introduced some gun control measures. Between 1929 and 1953, about 20 million defenseless dissidents were rounded up and sent to the gallows. In 1938, Germany introduced gun control measures. Between 1939 and 1953, the Nazis regime rounded up about 13 million defenseless Jews and others and exterminated them.
Many would seek a second chance as an opportunity to make amends on some mistakes made during the first coming. Yet, there are others who desperately seek a second chance as an opportunity to deepen the evil they were unable to accomplish during the first entry.
It is becoming increasingly less difficult to place the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the latter category.
We have maintained, perhaps with monotonous regularity, that when an administration no longer knows what to do, it begins to do everything. That is when the loss of one genuine purpose invariably leads to the pursuit of a dozen pseudo purposes.
This administration has shown itself as grossly incapable of applying justice with universal equality, which is a vital ingredient in a democracy. An administration that would willingly issue a shoot-at-sight order on the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, asking citizens to provide information that would lead to their location; and at the same time, asking the same citizens to pray for the Fulani herdsmen killers, is definitely intent on evil.
Come to think of it, what is the difference between one poison and the other? The difference between the two terrorist organizations, IPOB and the Fulani herdsmen killers can, at best, only exist in the body language and actions of the Buhari administration.
The administration’s second tenure certainly portends a very frightening glimpse.
While we were yet grumbling that the President’s appointments during his first tenure were too lop-sided, did you see the first salvo he fired on the eve of his inauguration for the second tenure?
He approved the appointment of 31 Justices into the Court of Appeal – 27 of them from the Northern part of the country and 4 from the entire South! This is in utter violation of the Federal Character Clause contained in Section 14(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. You haven’t seen anything yet.
Suddenly, President Buhari must proceed to Saudi Arabia for superior prayers. No one is asking him why he could not stay here to pray. But apparently, it was for him a tutorial in furtherance of the Islamization agenda.
Out President did not have the audacity to tell his Saudi masters that Nigeria is a democratic country (even where it is not a perfect one) and not Saudi Arabia where the King’s pronouncement is gospel.
He hurried back home, equipped with a Decree – “To remove, revoke and banish all firearms or short gun certificates or licenses in Nigeria with effect from June 1 2019… Only the Nigeria Police and the Army are now authorized to bear arms…. All Civil Defense Corp and other security agencies are no longer allowed to carry arms…. You must now hand in back all types of gun licenses or certificates previously issued to you to the Police Headquarters in your State – not to the Police Station.”
We are still at a loss as to where President Buhari derives the power to totally usurp the functions of the National Assembly. If he forgot to issue this Decree in 1984 under his military authoritarianism, too bad. He cannot come back 35 years later to sneak it in. Indeed, he is threading a dangerously slippery slope – the route that leads only to impeachment.
In the gun control effort, Nigeria and America are two countries that have had many things in common. They were both plagued by devastating civil wars in their early history, which left a proliferation of guns on their trails.
From the lessons of history, we know that this route is familiar. President Buhari, far into the 21st century, is leading us into a blind alley where there is no escape route and the end thereof is total destruction.
In Nigeria it is a war between the terrorists and the rest of us. The terrorists are properly equipped and we are not. Instead of telling us how he plans to remove the illegally-acquired heavily sophisticated arms and ammunitions in the hands of our opponents, he is asking us to surrender the minor ones we officially acquired. In essence, he wants to bundle us together and feed us to the terrorists!
There is no shying away from the fact: Nigeria is similarly situated with many countries of the world that have hidden under the guise of gun control to dispossess some citizens of their guns only to round them up in their millions and exterminate them. Because the examples here are legion, we shall restrict ourselves to a few recent cases of the 20th century:
In 1911, Turkey promulgated gun control laws under which citizens were dispossessed of their guns. Between 1915 and 1917, 1.5 million Armenian Christians were slaughtered; and their cities were taken over by Muslims while their churches were converted to Mosques.
In 1929, the Soviet Union introduced some gun control measures. Between 1929 and 1953, about 20 million defenseless dissidents were rounded up and sent to the gallows.
In 1938, Germany introduced gun control measures. Between 1939 and 1953, the Nazis regime rounded up about 13 million defenseless Jews and others and exterminated them.
The Cambodian Authorities introduced their gun control laws in 1956. During the period 1975 – 1977, one million educated people unable to defend themselves were rounded up and slaughtered like chickens.
In our very back-yard, the Ugandan experience is still fresh. In 1970, Uganda established gun control. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 defenseless Christians were rounded up and exterminated!
We have deliberately restricted this narrative to the 20th Century; and there are indications that during the period, not less than 56 million people have been dispatched to their early graves with the instrumentality of gun control.
In any situation, a man that is waylaid remains the best judge of how to get home. We hope Buhari and his men are still listening. Did they see the now Governor of Borno State, Babagana Gumel, who got his first baptism a few day ago.
The Governor sobbed like a baby. The insurgents had completely wiped out an entire area of a Local Government – ravaging lives and property! What does Buhari’s Decree mean to that Governor who in his pool of tears kept vowing to equip his people to defend themselves?
Gun control could be good but certainly not when it is intended for ethnic or religious cleansing.
Clearly, we see an abuse or total misunderstanding of the Executive Orders, so-called. This is not an Executive Order. Rather, it is another Decree misnamed. What we see here is a fresh legislation, carrying the aura of poor drafting; a very cheap shot at power-grab; and, indeed, the deepest incursion ever into the legislative domain.
Executive Orders are not meant for the usurpation of the functions and responsibilities of other branches of Government. Since 1791, when the US ratified the Second Amendment to its Constitution, which gave the citizens the right to bear arms for self-defense, the country has been in deep-deep problems of gun control!
If it were as easy as the Buhari administration wants us to believe, why haven’t successive Presidents of the US been able to cure the menace by Executive fiat? This is where President Buhari will be doing himself a world of good by promptly dispatching a team to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to examine the tons of legislation that exist on the issue of gun control.
It is also highly instructive that Switzerland remains the only country in the world that issues a gun to every household and trains every adult in weapon handling. Yet, in this same world, Switzerland has the lowest gun-related crime rate! Lesson for all: it is not gun control per see that matters but the intendment of the control.
This, too, will end one day. In a time like this, people of all political persuasions, religious beliefs and ethnicity must stand up to be counted. Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. No one should be too hungry to speak out. We shall do what we can and God will do what we can’t.
Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan is a public affairs analyst and former Chairman, Board of Directors, Edo Broadcasting Service. He can be reached at: joligien@yahoo.com.
