Former Head of State and Chairman of the National Peace Committee (NPC), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), yesterday expressed concern over the proliferation of all calibers of weapons in the country, which he estimated at six million.

Other leaders like former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd); the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, and President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, also raised concerns over the negative effects of growing insecurity in the land and sued for peace.

Abdulsalami and others spoke at a dialogue session of the NPC with key stakeholders in Abuja.

They spoke on the day Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) charged the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Baba, to address the multiple threats to the nation’s public safety, law, and order.

Abdulsalami lamented that the proliferation of weapons has heightened insecurity in the country and led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million persons internally displaced.

He stated that the challenges facing the country were not only insecurity in the narrow sense of the military definition but that it had assumed an all-encompassing nature.

He listed the challenges to include the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, increasing poverty, balkanization, agitations from different quarters, the threat of hunger arising from the insecurity that farmers have faced and continue to face, and the increasing sense of collective despair and despondency among the populace.

Abdul, salami said: “The proliferation of all weapons not only in our sub-region in general and in Nigeria, in particular, is worrisome. It is estimated that there are over six million such weapons in circulation in the country. This certainly exacerbated the insecurity that led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million internally displaced persons.”

He added that the situation is dire because security forces were not just overstretched but underfunded.

He said the security agencies could perform better with more sophisticated weapons, equipment, and more funding.

We believe Nigeria must find a way out of these problems. Our hope is, that perhaps among us, by listening to your different perspectives, we can begin hope up confidence among our people so that we can hold together.

We hope that we shall not only share our collective lamentations about the current situation but propose some concrete suggestions that can point the way forward – suggestions that inspire more confidence among our people and ensure that our country remains one,” he said.

Welcoming the stakeholders, which included traditional rulers, the Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, Hon. Simon Lalong; religious leaders, military, police, and other security agencies, Abdulsalami said President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of the meeting and he supported it.

He said the expectation was that the meeting would find out the causes of the conflict and how to mitigate them.

Gowon, who spoke via zoom, urged all Nigerians, irrespective of religious and political differences, to see the nation’s challenges, including insecurity, as ones that must be tackled and resolved collectively.

On his part, the Sultan urged Nigerians to learn to love one another irrespective of religion or tribe.

He said: “As individuals, we need to add value to ourselves and we should know that we did not create ourselves; God created us and when God was creating us, he did not ask us where do you want me to bring you into the world? We just found ourselves in various places.

So what we need to do is to see who we are and work for humanity because we are individuals; yes, but we have to close rank and work for humanity and while we are working for humanity, you have to respect your religion, if you respect your religion, y