Nigeria especially in the Northern region is embroiled in a security crisis that shows no signs of abating, despite government budget allocations.
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect puts death caused by Boko Haram at 35,000.
Thousands of civilians have been killed, injured or displaced by the armed conflicty between the armed groups Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West African Province (ISWAP) and the Nigerian military in north-eastern Nigeria.
Reports indicate that scarcely a day passes without incidents of insecurity occurring somewhere within the Northern region.
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Adding to the concern is the apparent inability of the governments to effectively address this pressing threat, despite assurances.
However, the security crisis afflicting Nigeria is not confined to specific geographic regions but permeates across the nation, but acute challenges are observed in the North.
Residents in these areas live in a state of perpetual vigilance, with a palpable sense of insecurity overshadowing their daily lives.
WikkiTimes reports that Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has on February 12, signed into law the Kaduna State Security Trust Fund Bill, created to provide funding support to the efforts being made towards degrading terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements.
Nigeria Budgets More for Defence , as Expenditure Remains Heavily Recurrent
While the defence ministry budget is not to fight insecurity in Northern Nigerian alone, it shows the capacity of the ministry to carry out this task in terms of fiscal capacity.
From 2021 to 2024, the Nigerian Ministry of Defence got a budgetary allocation of N5.11 trillion to curtail the lingering insecurity across the nation.
In the 2021 budget, while N772.3 billion was allocated to personnel costs, overhead and capital costs garnered N66.2 billion and N127.8 billion respectively.
This would mean that in 2021, the ministry budgeted 13.1% for capital expenditure.
In 2022, N912.5 billion was budgeted for personnel costs, N83.5 billion for overhead and N204.6 was for capital costs, cumulatively totalling N1.2 trillion.
In 2022, 17% of the budget went to capital expenditure.
Similarly, N1.38 trillion was allocated to the ministry in the 2023 budget, where N1 trillion was given to the personnel, N97.1 billion and N285.04 were earmarked for the overhead cost and capital cost respectively, hence, totalling N1.38 trillion for the ministry.
2023 capital budget stood at 20% for the defence ministry.
In the 2024 budget, the Ministry of Defence was allocated N1.15 trillion for personnel; N116.5 billion for overhead and N308.2 billion for capital, totaling N1.57 trillion.
In 2024, the capital allocation for the defence ministry fell to 19.6%.
On the average between 2021 and 2024, only 17% of the total defence ministry budget in the country has been for capital expenditure.
Despite the fact that the budget of the defence ministry is heavily recurrent for instance ,there have been the challenges of lack of adequate welfare for soldiers reported in the media.
This medium also reported that police officers deployed to the northeast under the Joined Task Force (JTF) have lamented over the non-payment of their allowances for over six months.
Although on some occasions, the Nigerian Army for instance has denied such developments saying it prioritizes workers welfare.
N83.6 billion Unutilised by Security Sector Ministries in Two Years
The Nigerian Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, said the allocation for the ministry in 2024 was not enough to fight insecurity in the country because of the high cost of operation.
In July 2023, the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu also promised to tackle military equipment shortage and poor funding among other factors affecting the operational efficiency of the Nigerian armed forces.
WikkiTimes reviewed what security sector ministries have gotten to fight insecurity in terms of capital expenditure which is the money for equipment and other capital needs.
While the police affairs ministry budgeted the sum of N38.9 billion 2022, the actual release cash backed for the ministry stood at N37.2 billion while the actual utilization was N35.3 billion.
For the same year , the sum of N197 billion was budgeted by the ministry of defence , of this figure, N165.4 billion was available and cash backed. At the end of the year, N162.1 billion was utilized.
The office of the national security adviser recorded the sum of N56.9 billion as budgeted figure for capital expenditure , of which N44.4 billion was cash backed . All the cash backed was utilised.
For the interior ministry, the sum of N31.7 billion was cash backed while N21.2 billion was utilised.
In 2022, the security sector ministries did not utilize N16.1 billion of the monies cash backed and released to them.
In 2021 and up to May 2022, N636 billion was released to the defence ministry, however, only N593 billion was utilized.
In same development, the ministry of interior got N52.3 billion released and cash backed as capital expenditure , however, it utilised only N27.8 billion, meaning that N24.8 billion was unutilised.
This would mean that N43 billion was unutilised from the monies released.
Between 2021 and 2022, the sum of N83.6 billion was not utilised by various security ministries in the country.
“Heavy Recurrent Budget” Quoted Inadequate, Country Grapples With Low Security Capital Expenditure
The recurrent capital expenditure ratio of the Nigerian military continues to pose concern due to the increasing demands for more equipment to tackle the surge of insurgency.
The need for more personnel has also been echoed. For instance in 2020, the governor of Borno state was quoted as saying that Nigeria needs more soldiers to defeat Boko Haram.
This would mean that the country faces a dilemma in terms of need to improve capital expenditure and also if there would be more soldiers, the already highly skewed budget in terms of recurrent expenditure may have more recurrent expenses.
Problem of more Funding for Nigerian Security
There have been calls for improved funding for Nigeria’s security sector, however , the capacity of the country to fund more remains suspect.
This is as the country has grappled with budget deficits that have always pushed it to borrow, a development that has increased the country’s loan profile.
The ability of the country to make more money in order to provide more funding to the security sector remains a major challenge.
The Corruption Allegations
The security sector in the country has also been blighted by corruption, meaning that the funds available have been said to be mismanaged.
Recently, a Nigerian army general was jailed for seven years while he was ordered to return a stolen N3.7 billion.
A report by the Transparency International Defence and Security stated that personalities hide under the defence ministry budget to perpetuate corruption.
“Corruption in the defence sector, in particular, has resulted in the waste of billions of dollars’ worth of public funds through corrupt defence procurement practices and the abuse of the opaque security funding system known as “security votes “, a report by Transparency International noted.
Are State Governments Doing Enough Internally?
WikkiTimes earlier reported how Niger and Zamfara state governments spend poorly on capital needs for their internal security.
State governments for instance have been to receive N375 billion as security votes in 2021, with accusations of poor management of these funds stated.
Experts Weigh in
For Ahmed Baba, a Bauchi-based security expert, security agencies must adopt a new approach in the war against kidnapping and terrorism. “The military and other security agencies have decimated Insurgency. However, Kidnapping and other forms of crimes are on the increase in the Northeast and other part of the country. The trend calls for a new approach to holistically address the security challenges in the country,” he said
He said insecurity is tied to weak local governance and Corruption, limited government presence and lack of the rule of law where many citizens feel unsafe resulting in their inability to access essential services.
Another security expert, Senator Iroegbu said beyond money, there is a need to solve socio-economic issues bedeviling the region to have ways forward.
“When we look at it very well, you cannot just pump money into security without addressing other underlying socio-economic issues”
He further opined that issues of accountability around utilisation of security sector funds remain a germane issue. According to him, while there is an increase in budgetary provision, inflation trends must also be considered to look at the value of the money.
“The military needs more money but truly, we must also look at accountability around the ones they have gotten before now” he noted.
