Arms Proliferation, Resource Extraction and the Dynamics of Armed Conflict in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of Africa's most resource-rich but war-torn states. This article examines the structural and institutional mechanisms that enable the existence of extractive industries, especially artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), small arms trading, and organised armed violence. It is based on the resource curse and conflict minerals scholarship and institutional theory that the conflict minerals in Nigeria are not just about greed or grievances. Instead, it is a symptom of the loss of regulatory sovereignty over natural resource spaces, the financialisation of insurgencies, and the weaponisation of ethnic and communal identity as it strives for the mineral rents. The article also explores structural constraints that influence economic and political behaviour, as well as the role of small arms and light weapons (SALW) as an outlet and a root cause of escalating conflicts in mining corridors. The data for this case comes from the Middle Belt mining area, the Niger Delta and the gold mining areas of Zamfara and Kebbi states. The analysis calls for a shift towards resource governance in security, specifically tailored for solid minerals and partially based on the Joint Development Zone mechanism in the offshore oil sector, which would reduce the enforcement of "capture of the regulator" policies; these policies highlight that arms control measures lacking consideration of the political economy of extraction will remain inadequate.