The state of insecurity in Nigeria has worsened over the past six years under President Muhammadu Buhari despite the cumulative allocation of N10.02tn for security in the Federal Government’s budget.
BudgIT also called on the government to audit security spending and close loopholes for corruption in the budget process.
The Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Gabriel Okeowo, was quoted as saying, “ The year 2021 has been a horrifying year for Nigerians concerning security as the country combats mutating forms of crime and terror across all its 36 states.
“This is despite allocating over N10.02tn to security between 2015 and 2021. In the 2021 budget, the entire security sector’s allocation was N1.97tn, representing a 14 per cent increase from the N1.78tn allocated in 2020.”
The firm stated that increased resources allocated to the security sector meant that less money was available to develop other sectors.
BudgIT’s publication noted that various non-security related government agencies now request and receive allocations for security votes, an opaque feature of the Nigerian security ecosystem devoid of accountability.
It stated that in the 2021 budget, a total of 117 federal agencies received allocations for security votes worth N24.3bn, despite many of these agencies already having allocations for security charges to cover each agency’s security needs.
