President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Tuesday, met with the National Security Adviser, NSA, Malam Nuhu Ribadu and other security chiefs amidst concerns over the worsening insecurity in the country, and the call for the administration to justify the huge funds allocated to Security in the 2025 Budget.
According to checks by the magazine, Security and Defence took the lion share of the nation’s 2025 Budget with N4.91 trillion allotted to the sector of the N54.9 trillion financial estimates signed by President Tinubu early this year.
In spite of the huge allocations, the state of insecurity in the country has worsened in the last few months raising serious concern among not a few Nigerians as to why the Security sector got so much with little to show in terms of protection of lives and property in the country.
Instructively, the President’s meeting with the security top brass in the country comes on the heels of the sporadic attacks by suspected Fulani gunmen in Plateau, Benue, which has so far claimed close to 300 lives, dozens of homes razed, and hundreds displaced from their communities.
Among those who attended the meeting were the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Mohammed Mohammed; Director General Department of State Services, Mr Oluwatosin Ajayi; and Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Sources privy to the meeting informed the magazine that the bloody attacks in the two states, and the rise in the cases of kidnapping, banditry and terrorism in other parts of the country, topped the agenda of the meeting.
The magazine reported that some prominent Nigerians have expressed serious concerns about the problem as anxiety remains high as to where the criminals will hit next.
For instance, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State had recently raised the alarm that the deadly terrorists group, Boko Haram are making steady “gains” in his state, calling on security agencies to be on top of the game by pushing the terrorists back.
His clarion call followed attacks, in the last few weeks on military formations in the state by the bloodthirsty terrorist who had allegedly captured weapons and ammunition after killing some Nigerian troops.
In Kwara, Niger, and Ondo statesthe story is not different as suspected militants continued to attack communities leaving dead people and anguish in their trail.
Critics of the administration, including a former Defence Minister Gen Theophilus Danjuma said they have become frustrated over the current dire security situation, blaming the government for being unable to protect Nigerians against internal and external aggressors.
Gen. Danjuma urged Nigerians to take up arms to defend themselves against the attackers as the government have failed them.
Danjuma, a former Army chief under the Olusegun Obasanjo Military Regime said his earlier advice for Self-defence had been largely ignored, calling for immediate action to deter the attackers.
Also, a security expert Kabiru Adamu called on the administration to step up its efforts in securing the country, saying the federal government should justify its decision to allot the lion share of the nation’s 2025 Budget to Defence.
The renown security analyst who spoke on Channels Television programme Sunrise Daily on Wednesday also blamed the state government for the problem of insecurity, saying they have not shown the capacity to protect lives and property in their domains.
According to him, the “security structure of states are not working. ‘They have no response capability” even though “they have good intelligent gathering mechanism”, reinforcing the argument that the Chief Security Officer, CSO, status of state governors is purely theoretical because they have no control over the heads of security agencies in their states.
He noted also that local governments in the country will be able to deal with the problem of insecurity in their areas, if the nation’s security system structure is decentralised, pointing out that the “triggers of insecurity” are in LGA so, they should be empowered to deal with the problem.
Reacting, the Presidency has accused state governors of mismanaging Security Votes in their care.
Daniel Bwala, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication governors have failed to use billions they receive monthly for security in their states, he said the governor only donate “N20 million” from the whopping sum while they do as they pleased with the remainder.
He said the governors’ poor funding of security has further exacerbated the problem, noting that they can deal with insecurity with the resources available to them.
Bwala: “What we are finding, very sadly, is that there are some states where the governors give N20 million to the SSS, N20 million to the police, and N20 million to the Army as monthly allocation for fighting insecurity. And you hear their security vote is between N1billion, N2 billion and N3billion. Where are we going?
He urged the governors not to surrender to aggressors trying to destroy the security architecture of the country.
“There are people who still believe, within the present framework of the security architecture of the state, that we can deal with insecurity if we understand what it takes to do that.
“What does it take to do that? In every state, for example, there are the SSS, police, military, and paramilitary. Then, every state has the right to also create a quasi-paramilitary outfit and get the support of the government to deal with legal issues.
“For example, a governor who gets more than N2bn to N3bn as security vote can decide to take only N1bn to buy equipment such as drones, vehicles and everything that is needed to do surveillance and fight security.
“That governor can give adequate infrastructure to help federal agents in their states…because crime in Nigeria is so dynamic; we’re hearing that the criminal elements even use drones. How can undemocratic elements use a sophisticated system of surveillance that the state does not have? Bwala said
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