Security budgeting amid national emergency

2026-02-24 - 00:56

The 2026 budget defence exercise by the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, before the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence provided the platform for the perceived funding controversies of the sector to be brought to the public space. Permanent Secretary, Special Services, Office of the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Sanusi, grumbled that despite the state of emergency that President Bola Tinubu recently declared on national security, “it is disheartening to note that the security and intelligence agencies’ budget is still subject to the vagaries of the envelope system of budgeting, rather than genuine needs and requirements”. He claimed that the capital votes allocated to the security agencies in the 2024 and 2025 budgets were never released, adding: “This has impacted very negatively on their capacity to procure materials and modern security equipment, as well as their operational capabilities”. The issue of inchoate manner of administering fund release to the security sector in an embattled country like Nigeria should never arise. Properly governed countries fund and equip their security sector adequately to prepare them to meet emergencies when they emerge. Failure to fund capital security budgets in an emergency security situation is downright preposterous, if this disclosure is to be believed. The Federal Government has, in recent years, drastically raised budgetary defence and security allocations to tackle insurgency, banditry and terrorism which are threatening the country and its citizens. For instance, the federal budget for the sector grew from N1.5trn in 2021 to N2.41trn in 2022, including supplementary provisions for equipment. In 2023 the allocation of N2.98trn was 13.4 per cent of the budget, while the N3.85trn allocation in 2024 was mainly focused to tackle banditry and kidnapping. The figure further rose in 2025 to N4.91trn, while the 2026 figure of N5.41trn was dedicated to modernisation of the military and intelligence services. The insinuation of “zero allocation” to the capital budgets of the defence and security sector for two consecutive budget seasons (2024 and 2025) by the ONSA Perm Sec is rather shocking and difficult to believe. The public will like to hear more about this. On November 26, 2025, Tinubu declared a national emergency on insecurity, ordering the recruitment of 20,000 additional policemen and the deployment of trained Forest Guards to flush out criminals from the forests and farmlands. Is it possible for the president to give these orders without equipping the military and security personnel to carry them out? Meanwhile, the same ONSA admitted publicly to controversially arming some “vigilante” groups identified as Miyetti Allah elements, allegedly to help tackle insecurity in Kwara. Something is not adding up. There are so many question-marks written all over the administration of our security sector. We demand answers, and action. Nigerians will continue to feel unsafe unless the Federal Government makes concrete efforts to provide reassuring answers to these questions.