LM Report 2001

Full Report   Executive Summary   Translations   Major Findings   Key Developments   Print   Maps

	Select a chapter ... About LM 2001 Introduction Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe/Central Asia Middle East/North Africa ICBL Appendices Exec. Summary Maps
	Select a country ... -STATES PARTIES- Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Cape Verde Chad Congo (Brazzaville) Côte D'ivoire Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Gabon Ghana Guinea Guinea Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Niger Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone South Africa Swaziland Tanzania Togo Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe -SIGNATORIES- Angola Burundi Cameroon Ethiopia Gambia São Tomé e Principe Sudan -NON SIGNATORIES- Central African Republic Comoros Dem. Rep. of Congo Eritrea Nigeria Somalia -OTHER- Somaliland

NIGERIA

Key developments since May 2000: On 10 May 2000, the Federal Executive Council resolved that Nigeria should join the Mine Ban Treaty. The decision of the Council is in the process of being implemented.

Mine Ban Policy

Nigeria is the only country in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sixteen-member regional group that has not joined the Mine Ban Treaty. However, the Federal Executive Council (Nigeria's highest executive authority, comprising the President, Vice-President, and all Ministers), at its meeting of 10 May 2000, resolved that Nigeria should join the Mine Ban Treaty. Under Nigerian law this is the key executive decision necessary for accession. The decision of the Council is in the process of being implemented. The instrument of accession is being prepared by the Federal Ministry of Justice.^[1] At an international conference in Abuja in June 2000, a prominent member of the Federal House of Representatives remarked that his Committee was "willing and ready" to sponsor the implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty into Nigerian law.^[2] Legislative approval is followed by the President's signature, following which the government would deposit the instrument at the United Nations.^[3]

The Mine Ban Treaty is one of numerous treaties being prepared by the Ministry of Justice, for submission to the National Assembly for approval.^[4] The large backlog of legal instruments requiring preparation is, to a large extent, responsible for Nigeria's slow pace in acceding to the treaty, a year after the decision of the Federal Executive Council, as well as previous public assurances that the “wheels were in motion” for accession.^[5]

Nigeria did not attend the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2000. The government has not participated in the various meetings of the intersessional Standing Committees. In November 2000, Nigeria voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 55/33V calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty.

Though Nigeria remains outside the Convention on Conventional Weapons, Landmine Monitor has been told that the Convention has been forwarded to the Ministry of Defense for detailed study, “because of its highly technical nature.”^[6]

A landmine Focus Group, on the occasion of Ban Landmines Week in Washington, DC in March 2001, wrote an Open Letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo, urging him to speed up efforts, with a view to joining the treaty before the Third Meeting of States Parties, to be held in Managua, Nicaragua, 11-18 September, 2001. The letter was copied to the Vice-President, and the Ministers of Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Justice. Copies were also sent to the Senate President, and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use

Nigeria is not known to have produced or exported AP mines. The government continues to deny past reporting of Nigerian acquisition of antipersonnel mines from a number of different countries.^[7] Nigerian officials publicly claim, such as at the Bamako landmine seminar in February 2001, that this information is false. The Chief of Operations of the Nigerian Army, Major General Yellow-Duke, emphasized to Landmine Monitor that “Nigeria does not have a landmine problem any more” and has never “bought, transferred or used antipersonnel mines anywhere since the Biafran war.”^[8] He acknowledged that Nigeria has antitank mines.^[9]

Major General Yellow-Duke said that most antipersonnel mines were used up in the war, and remaining stocks were destroyed shortly thereafter. He said that army doctrine had been changed and that there was no training in antipersonnel mine use. He stated that Nigeria uses “pyrotechnics” as an alternative to antipersonnel mines, and that no AP mines are kept even for training or development purposes.^[10] Landmine Monitor discussions with rank-and-file soldiers and military instructors indicate a general lack of awareness of landmines. Antipersonnel mines are not included in the training curriculum of the Nigerian Army Infantry Centre and School, Jaji-Kaduna.^[11]

Both the Director of Public Relations of the Nigerian Army, Colonel Felix Chukwuma, and the Army Chief of Operations, maintained that the Nigerian antipersonnel mine inventory (if any) will remain "classified information" until Nigeria joins the treaty.^[12]

According to the Army Chief of Operations, "Nigeria is only interested in banning [landmines]. We don't have the problem, but we have the expertise to help other African states who have the problem."^[13]

A former head of the Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command stated that the only definite use of landmines by the Federal Nigerian Army was during the 1967-1970 Biafra Civil War.^[14] These civil war mines have all been cleared.^[15] Nigerian officials have also denied reports that their troops laid mines in Sierra Leone and Liberia while on ECOMOG duty in the 1990s.^[16]

There were victims from landmines laid in the civil war, but no further information is available.

^[1] Interview with Desk Officer on Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, 1 March 2001. The new democratic government that came to power in May 1999 has resumed the signing of international treaties and legal instruments. The President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo signed, among others, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) during the United Nations Millennium Summit (September, 2000), in New York. Nigeria could not however sign the Mine Ban Treaty on the same occasion, because it is already in force, requiring accession.
^[2] Remarks by Chief Obeteng Okorn Obeteng, Chairman, Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, House of Representatives, at the conference on Weapons and International Law: Mines, Arms Availability and New Weapons, Abuja, Nigeria, 14-15 June 2000.
^[3] Section 12, sub-sections 1-3, 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Lagos: Federal Government Press, 1999), p.9.
^[4] Interview with officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, 1 March 2000.
^[5] For various such statements, see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 209-210.
^[6] Interview with Desk Officer on Disarmament, Abuja, 1 March 2000.
^[7] For details, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 202-203, Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 210.
^[8] Interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, Bamako, 15 February 2001; telephone interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, 1 March 2001.
^[9] Interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, Bamako, 15 February 2001.
^[10] Ibid.
^[11] Discussions with three sergeants in the Nigerian army and a Sniper Instructor at the Weapons Support Wing, Infantry Center and School.
^[12] Telephone interview with Colonel Chukwuma, 30 January 2001; telephone interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, 1 March 2001.
^[13] Telephone interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, 1 March 2001.
^[14] Major General I Williams, “The Impact of Landmines on Africa,” paper presented to ICRC/CCRPA Conference, Abuja, 14-15 June 2000, p. 95.
^[15] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 211; US Department of State, Hidden Killers, July 1993, p. 133.
^[16] Interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, Bamako, 15 February 2001; telephone interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, 1 March 2001. For information on Liberia and Sierra Leone allegations, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 203.

<Previous | Next>