The Federal Government needs to urgently establish an Arms Control and Licensing Authority to curb increasing circulation of arms and light weapons in the country, a security expert, Mr. Matthew Ibadin, has said. In a statement, Ibadin, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Badison Security, decried the spate of kidnapping in the last nine years and its resurgence since December, especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. He urged the Federal Government, through an Act of the National Assembly, to establish an Arms Control and Licensing Authority to be in charge of documenting illegal arms intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) or those recovered from unauthorised persons, the Army, the police and other security agencies. The security expert noted that continuous operation of a single digit security architecture whereby the police are placed under the Exclusive Legislative List cannot solve the security challenges confronting the country. “The present policing system is reactive instead of being proactive. Therefore, we need to dismantle the present inefficient policing architecture where it would be expunged from the Exclusive Legislative List and moved to the Concurrent and Residual List to enable state governments to create and manage their own local policing architecture,” Ibadin said. The security expert noted that to have an effective policy implementation, state and local governments as well as communities must take the lead in creating and managing a police system that is fit and customised to suit their peculiar needs. Ibadin decried the poor remuneration, low training and lack of modern tools for the police personnel, which he described as morale dampener. The security expert recommended a minimum wage of N250,000 to attract high quality recruits into the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). He urged President Bola Tinubu to examine the idea behind the military’s recruitment of “repented” Boko Haram elements into the nation’s Armed Forces to ensure they do not become saboteurs. He acknowledged the efforts of some Nigerians in the fight against insecurity, saying the Lagos Trust Fund and notable Nigerian businessmen, like Mr. Femi Otedola and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, should be appreciated for regularly supporting the police. Post navigation I will lead Kogi by example, says Ododo Tinubu to University unions: prioritise dialogue to avoid frequent strikes