A former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Henry Lucky Irabor, has lamented poor funding of security agencies in Nigeria despite huge budgetary allocations, saying less than one percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is allocated to the armed forces despite declaration of a state of emergency on security.
The retired General also called for the declaration of a full blown war against enemies of Nigeria, saying it is necessary to defeat insecurity.
“More than that declaration, I believe we should declare a war on insecurity and I do not mean the metaphorical war. I mean a formal constitutional resource-backed declaration that says we have identified an existential threat to the Nigerian state and we are mobilising every element of state power at our disposal to defeat it.
“In my view, we have not done this. Although, there are glimmers of hope and motivation,” he said.
Irabor stated this Tuesday while delivering a keynote address at a national dialogue on security/ public lecture organised by First Daily, as part of activities to mark its 6th anniversary.
The theme of the dialogue was: “Declaration of a State of Emergency on Security: Matching Words with Action.”
He stated the figure is not encouraging for a country that has declared an emergency on security.
He said, “Nigeria’s total military expenditure remains below one percent of our gross domestic product.
“For a country facing a security emergency and desires a quantum leap in development, that figure requires our attention.”
The former defence chief added that over three quarters of Nigeria’s total defense budget is consumed by personnel cost alone, leaving an extremely narrow margin for procurement, maintenance and modernization.
He said: “The Nigerian army received an approved equipment budget of 20.56 billion for 2025. As of the most recent reporting period only 7.1 percent of that budget which amounts to 1.46 billion that have been released.
“The Nigerian air force aircraft maintenance budget had an approved allocation of 34.71 billion. Only 13.9 percent have been released. Also Daily Trust reported that in 2025 budget for the Nigerian army only 16.71 billion or a representation 4.96 percent of the 336.76 billion budgeted for defense equipment which was released.
Speaking further, he stated that: “The most consequential gap in Nigeria’s security response is political will.Technical capacity is important, the courage of our troops on the field is essential, but what is more important are the decisions that are genuine.
In his remarks a former Inspector General of police, Mike Okiro (retd), stated that inadequate funding of police by past governments is responsible for the current security challenges.
He said, “The government, I would say, is contributing to insecurity itself. Let me give a typical example.The police is the lead agency for internal security. But the government deliberately, I say deliberately, without any fear of contradiction, disarmed the police-disarmed in lead agency for internal security.Well, the result is insecurity.”
The former police boss also lamented lack of synergy amongst security agencies, adding that every agency want to take the glory for operational successes.
He said, “When I was Inspector General, I wrote a memo to the then National Security Adviser (NSA).And I said, this idea of agencies working separately is not good for national security.”