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26.06.2009 Feature Article

OPEN LETTER TO NIGERIAN SENATORS AND HOUSE OF REPS MEMBERS

OPEN LETTER TO NIGERIAN SENATORS AND HOUSE OF REPS MEMBERS
26.06.2009 LISTEN

Our dear Senators and House of Reps members, I write to you as a matter of urgency to voice my deep concern over the rate of Kidnapping in Nigeria.Our dear senators and House of Reps members the day of reckoning has come; the issue of Kidnapping will put to test your worth as men of “integrity” in the senate and House of Reps who are determined to protect the interest of Nigeria at all cost.

The hot topic in Nigeria nowadays is the security situation - or perhaps the "insecurity situation" would be a better term. The combination of the Niger Delta Militants down south-south of Nigeria and the (apparently) escalating rates of kidnapping-for-ransom here in Nigeria is giving a lot of folks the jitters. Fear dey catch us. You cant just sit down there in Abuja and do nothing.

Kidnapping, we agree, is not happening in Nigeria alone. Kidnapping is becoming a lucrative business for guerrilla and criminal groups around the world. According to the London-based political think-tank, The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), economic kidnapping is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. It generates an estimated $500m each year in ransom payments. The threat of kidnapping of foreigners doing business overseas has surged recently. Colombia, we heard is the undisputed world leader of kidnappings for profit, with 3,000-plus nonpolitical kidnappings likely this year, according to Pinkerton Global Intelligence Services. Kidnappings also are widespread in Mexico and Brazil. El Diario de Yucatan reported in August 2008 that a ransom kidnapping occurs in Mexico every three hours. In Brazil, 50 ransom kidnappings occur each month in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo alone, according to the Political Risk Services Group of East Syracuse, N.Y. While most kidnap-for-ransom victims tend to be wealthy nationals, foreigners are increasingly targeted.

Everybody know that kidnapping is the taking away of a person against the person's will, usually for ransom or in furtherance of another crime. Even though Kidnapping is happening in other parts of the world, the truth is that kidnapping is new to Nigeria and we as law abiding citizens,we are worried and scared. My self, I am damned scared. Daily, In Nigeria, we read nightmarish stories of people being abducted as they go about their daily business. It has spread from the Niger Delta to virtually all nooks and crannies of the country, with some states of course being target zones. Victims have changed from being only foreign oil workers to we Nigerians, including parents, grand parents, and toddlers and about anyone who has a relative that could be blackmailed into coughing out a ransom. Those behind the recent wave of the despicable act have also changed from being exclusively Niger Delta militants to people from different walks of life - armed robbers and unemployed youths. If you dey drive big car today for Nigeria, kidnappers go wan carry you or your picken.

Dear Senators and House of Reps members, we cannot continue like this.Is the fault from our President; from Obasanjo to Yar'Adua? The Presidency seems to be failing in fulfilling the basic functions of a President. These functions include physical control of our nation territory, provision of security of life and the ability to provide reasonable public services or to interact with other states as a full member of the international community. Yar'Adua seems to have become so weak and ineffective that he has little practical control over much of Nigeria's territory, leading to an upsurge in pervasive insecurity such as kidnapping, organized assassinations and robberies. His failure is also showed by his weakened ability to provide basic public services and the widespread corruption of public office holders.

Kidnappers are mocking the Nigerian authorities. From the look of things the Nigerian government is not sincere in putting an end to militancy and kidnapping in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta, as it runs after the bandits only when the issue is hot. But it does not do anything militarily or otherwise, when the issue has died down. How can we be talking about amnesty for criminals? Does it mean that these criminals are bigger than the Nigerian government?

Nigeria,especially the Niger Delta areas, is faced with an ever growing problem of violence. Our streets have become a battle ground where the elderly are beaten daily by gangsters, where terrified women are viciously attacked and raped, where gangsters shoot it out and where innocent children are caught daily in the cross fire of drive by shootings and where every successful person is afraid of being kidnapped. We cannot ignore the damage that these criminals are doing to our society, and we must take actions to stop these horrors.

My Dear Senators and House of Reps members, you have to make laws that will solve this kidnapping issue. Don't just sit there in Abuja and be targeting ' Ghana Must Go Bags'. My suggestion is that law abiding, never convicted of a misdemeanor or felony Nigerian citizen over the age of 21, should have to own and be required to carry a gun.It would surely even the playing field with the criminals. We have tried so many things so as to sanitize our system, let us try a no firearms regulation system.

How many armed robberies, kidnappings, rapes, carjacking, etc. do you think would happen if the criminals all knew that every responsible adult in Nigeria was carrying a blow your head off and knew how to use it? Does anyone really think that cowardly criminals, that's what they are ,cowardly because they don't do that crap if they think they have an even playing field, they don't walk into police stations or army barracks and order everyone on the ground and systematically go about shooting them.

Does anyone really think that cowardly criminals would be so willing to take advantage of people if they knew their chances of dying were equal to their victims? I think not. Violent crimes would decrease. Sure at first the criminals would try their luck, but after enough of their compares were unsuccessful in their quest to rid law abiding citizens of their possessions or their lives, they would, maybe, I don't know, get a job and quit crime.I think a law should be made in Nigeria where every law abiding citizen should have the right to carry a gun!.There are many areas of debate worldwide into what kinds of firearms should be allowed to be privately owned, if any, and how, where and when they may be used. In Norway, civilian are allowed to owned guns and Norway has a low gun crime rate. In Texas too, civilians are allowed to own guns and Texas is reported to be 70 percent crime free.

So many countries have some form of firearms regulation, ranging from the very strictly regulated countries like Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Sweden to the less stringently controlled uses in the jurisdictions of Mexico and Switzerland, where the right to bear arms continues as a part of the national heritage up to the present time. However, From available statistics, among (the 27) countries surveyed countries with strict firearms law have more gun crime rate than countries with less gun laws. Many foreign countries have less restrictive firearms laws, and lower crime rates, than parts of the U.S. that have more restrictions.In Switzerland, citizens are issued fully-automatic rifles to keep at home for national defense purposes, yet "abuse of military weapons is rare. Switzerland own two million firearms, including handguns and semi-automatic rifles, they shoot about 60 million rounds of ammunition per year, and the rate of violent gun abuse is low.

In Japan, rifles and handguns are prohibited; shotguns are very strictly regulated. Japan`s Olympic shooters have had to practice out of the country because of their country`s gun laws. Yet, crime has been rising for about the last 15 years and the number of shooting crimes more than doubled. Organized crime is on the rise and . In England,licenses have been required for rifles and handguns since 1920, and for shotguns since 1967. A decade ago semi-automatic and pump-action center-fire rifles, and all handguns except single- shot .22s, were prohibited. The .22s were banned in 1997. Shotguns must be registered and semi-automatic shotguns that can hold more than two shells must be licensed. Despite a near ban on private ownership of firearms, English crime rates as measured in both victim surveys and police statistics have all risen since 1981. . . . In 1995 the English robbery rate was 1.4 times higher than America`s. . . . the English assault rate was more than double America's. A June 2000 CBS News report proclaimed Great Britain `one of the most violent urban societies in the Western world.

In Australia,licensing of gun owners was imposed in 1973, each handgun requires a separate license, and self-defense is not considered a legitimate reason to have a firearm. Registration of firearms was imposed in 1985. In May 1996 semi-automatic center-fire rifles and many semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns were prohibited. As of Oct. 2000, about 660,000 privately owned firearms had been confiscated and destroyed. However, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology, between 1996-1998 assaults rose 16 percent, armed robberies rose 73 percent, and unlawful entries rose eight percent. Murders increased in 1997 .

In Canada ,A 1934 law required registration of handguns. A 1977 law (Bill C-51) required a "Firearms Acquisition Certificate" for acquiring a firearm, eliminated protection of property as a reason for acquiring a handgun, and required registration of "restricted weapons," defined to include semi- automatic rifles legislatively attacked in this country under the slang and confusing misnomer, "assault weapon." The 1995 Canadian Firearms Act (C-68) prohibited compact handguns and all handguns in .32 or .25 caliber -- half of privately owned handguns. It required all gun owners to be licensed by Jan. 1, 2000, and to register all rifles and shotguns by Jan. 1, 2003. C-68 broadened the police powers of "search and seizure" and allowed the police to enter homes without search warrants, to "inspect" gun storage and look for unregistered guns. Canada has no American "Fifth Amendment;" C-68 requires suspected gun owners to testify against themselves. Because armed self-defense is considered inappropriate by the government, "Prohibited Weapons Orders" have prohibited private possession and use of Mace and similar, non-firearm means of protection.Canada is reported to be full of crimes. From 1978 to 1988, Canada`s burglary rate increased 25%, surpassing the U.S. rate. Half of burglaries in Canada are of occupied homes, compared to only 10% in the U.S. From 1976 to 1980, ethnically and economically similar areas of the U.S. and Canada had virtually identical homicide rates, despite significantly different firearm laws.

Germany gun law is described in the Library of Congress report as "among the most stringent in Europe," Germany`s laws are almost as restrictive as those which HCI wants imposed in the U.S. Licenses are required to buy or own a firearm, and to get a license a German must prove his or her "need" and pass a government test. Different licenses are required for hunters, recreational shooters, and collectors. As is the case in Washington, D.C., it is illegal to have a gun ready for defensive use in your own home. Before being allowed to have a firearm for protection, a German must again prove "need." Yet the annual number of firearm-related murders in Germany rose 76% between 1992- 2006.

what of Italy. In Italy,there are limits on the number of firearms and the quantity of ammunition a person may own. To be issued a permit to carry a firearm, a person must prove an established need, such as a dangerous occupation. Firearms which use the same ammunition as firearms used by the military -- which in America would include countless millions of rifles, shotguns, and handguns -- and ammunition for them are prohibited. Yet, "Italy`s gun law, `the most restrictive in Europe,` had left her southern provinces alone with a thousand firearm murders a year.

On June 26,2008 the U.S. Supreme Court held that American citizens have an individual right to own guns, as defined by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. In District of Columbia v. Heller the Court stated that an absolute firearm ban was unconstitutional. In an extensive series of studies of large, nationally representative samples of crime incidents, criminologist Gary Kleck found that crime victims who defend themselves with guns are less likely to be injured or lose property than victims who either did not resist, or resisted without guns. Supporters of gun-rights consider self-defense to be a fundamental and inalienable human right and believe that firearms are an important tool in the exercise of this right. They consider the prohibition of an effective means of self defense to be unethical and to violate Constitutional guarantees.

For instance, in Thomas Jefferson 's "Commonplace Book," a quote from Cesare Beccaria reads, "laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.Our Senators and House of Reps members,on this I rest my case.Ka chineke mezie okwu.

-Kenneth Uwadi
http://www.cityweeklynews.com
http://famouspeoplenews.wordpress.com

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