The decision by governors to budget over N525 billion for security between 2023 and 2025 would make sense if Nigerians were safer, but the opposite is happening.
Development Diaries reports that a combined N525.23 billion was earmarked by states across Nigeria for security votes and related operations between 2023 and 2025, according to an analysis of figures extracted from their approved budget documents.
The information is contained in Open States, a BudgIT-backed website that serves as a repository of government budget data.
It is understood that the massive vote, intended to bolster security nationwide, raises critical concerns about the efficacy of these measures, as citizens remain increasingly vulnerable to the wave of violence.
Killings, kidnappings, and armed attacks are spreading, even as security vote allocations keep rising every year. This gap between spending and safety tells a simple story, that money is moving, but protection is not.
Security votes are not magical funds; they are public money, and secrecy around them is a choice, not a constitutional right.
Governors often argue that insecurity is close to them and requires flexible spending, yet they refuse to explain how these huge sums are used.
If governors are truly closest to the problem, they should also be closest to accountability. Citizens must stop accepting vague claims of ‘security operations’ while communities bury their dead.
Rising allocations alongside rising violence mean current approaches are failing, not working.
What Nigerians should now demand is clear and non-negotiable. Every governor must publish yearly breakdowns of security vote spending, showing what goes to intelligence, logistics, surveillance, and community policing.
Citizens must now make clear, specific demands. State governors should publish annual security vote breakdowns, while state houses of assembly must enforce quarterly performance reviews before releasing further funds.
State Ministries of Finance should disclose payments and beneficiaries, and State Assemblies must hold open public hearings on insecurity instead of closed-door briefings. States like Gombe, Kebbi, Niger, Yobe, and Ekiti, which failed to clearly disclose figures, should be compelled to do so immediately.
At the federal level, the National Assembly should abolish discretionary security votes and replace them with auditable security budgets subject to procurement and anti-corruption laws.
The Auditor-General of the Federation must conduct independent audits of all security votes, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) should investigate diversion or non-impact spending.
Security funding should be tied to community policing structures, with support for local governments, intelligence gathering, and early-warning systems under transparent frameworks.
After N525billion, Nigerians must direct one question to their governors, state lawmakers, and federal oversight bodies: ‘Where is the safety’? ‘Where are the arrests’?, and ‘Where are the convictions’?
Security spending that does not save lives is not governance. It is state-backed waste, and citizens must demand answers from governors, assemblies, auditors, and anti-corruption agencies, because insecurity thrives when those in charge are never asked to account for public money.
Photo source: Nigeria Governors’ Forum
