Amid the escalating security crisis across Nigeria, recent records from the Federal Government’s Open Treasury Portal that the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force were grappling with gross underfunding, particularly in the acquisition of security and defence equipment, has not gone down well with many Nigerians.
Recall that a wave of coordinated violent attacks during the Easter period in Borno, Kaduna, Katsina and Benue states claimed scores of lives, including five policemen and left dozens displaced.
On March 17, at least 25 people were killed in simultaneous explosions at the gate of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), the Monday Market Roundabout and the Post Office in Maiduguri, Borno State.
According to reports, Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists carried out a series of deadly and coordinated attacks on military formations across Borno State, killing soldiers and civilians.
Senior military officers, including Major U. I. Mairiga, who headed the Mayenti base; Commander of Kukawa base and the 101 Brigade, Lt-Col Umar Faruq; Commanding Officer of the 222 Battalion in Konduga, Lt-Col S.I. Iliyasu; Brigade Commander of the 29 Task Force Brigade Headquarters in Benisheikh, Brigadier General Oseni Omoh Braimah and the Commanding Officer of the 242 Battalion, Monguno, Col. I.A. Mohammed, also paid the supreme price.
Another report by Beacon Security Intelligence Limited (BSIL) based in Abuja equally gave a disturbing figure of over 10,000 people that were killed in the country between January and December 2025.
The security consulting firm revealed that from January 1 to October 31, 2025, 9,514 people were killed across Nigeria.
In November that year, it noted that at least 404 Nigerians were killed, while 363 were abducted.
By December, 323 casualties were recorded in the North West and 241 in the North Central, with the North accounting for 91.1 percent of all recorded fatalities in that period.
In a recent interview with Arise TV, the BSIL Chief Executive Officer, Dr Kabiru Adamu, said the organisation’s latest report showed that over 2,350 Nigerians had been killed and 1,117 abducted in the first quarter of 2026.
Amid the worsening situation, details of the 2025 budget performance posted on the portal shows that of the N20.56 billion budgeted by the Nigerian Army for the purchase of security equipment, only a paltry sum of N1.46 billion, representing 7.11 percent, was disbursed as of December 31, 2025.
President Bola Tinubu, while signing the N68.32 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill into law, extended the implementation of the 2025 budget to June 31, 2026, raising concerns about the government’s continued struggle to fund its expenditures and Nigeria’s mounting debts, which hit N159.28 trillion in December 2025, aside from a fresh $6 billion loan recently approved by the Senate.
Of the N4.52 trillion total expenditure the army proposed for 2025, N1.17 trillion or 25.94 percent was disbursed as of the end of the year. For the Air Force, N238.32 billion of its N1.25 trillion total expenditure was released, representing 19.04 percent.
The data further showed that of the N336.76 billion earmarked for the purchase of defence equipment by the army, N16.71 billion was disbursed during the period, representing a paltry 4.96 percent.
Also, only N5.76 billion and N3.89 billion were released for the construction or provision of defence equipment and repairs of defence equipment budgeted at N57.59 billion and N22.60 billion, signifying a budget performance of 10 percent and 9.07 percent, respectively.
Other critical areas that received low performance include local training, N2 billion released out of N18.56 billion, representing 10.78 percent; international training, N2 billion disbursed out of N29.80 billion, representing 6.71 percent and motor vehicle fuel cost, N1.17 billion released out of N15.71 billion, representing 7.45 percent.
According to the record, no amount was released for transport equipment fuel cost with a budget of N21.02 billion, aircraft fuel cost budgeted at N12.81 billion, promotion, recruitment and appointment worth N384.08 million; construction/provision of military barracks worth N206.97 billion and research and development pegged at N100 million.
However, the Nigerian Air Force, NAF’s aircraft maintenance equally received low attention going by information from the records on the Open Treasury portal.
The record further revealed that N4.85 billion or 13.98 percent of the N34.71 billion budgeted for the maintenance of aircraft, which are central to the NAF’s operations, was released as of December 2025.
This is a sharp contrast with N20.27 billion disbursed for the running of the presidential air fleet, out of the N20.74 billion budgeted, marking 97.76 percent implementation.
Again, of the N15.75 billion budgeted for the purchase of NAF’s security equipment, N5.25 billion was released during the period, representing 33.33 percent. The purchase of defence equipment suffered a major setback with N19.25 billion or 6.45 percent released out of N298.44billion budgeted.
While the N117.90 budget for the rehabilitation/repairs of defence equipment was implemented by 3.99 percent (N4.71bn), no amount was released for the construction/provision of defence of equipment budgeted at N7.16 billion; welfare packages pegged at N28.33 million; construction of military barracks estimated at N95.68 million; repairs of military/defence barracks, worth N6.76 billion and other transport equipment fuel cost estimated N45.03 million.
Following this revelation, Nigerians have been reacting and warning of the looming danger if urgent steps were not taken to address the worsening insecurity in the country.
Experts say the funding gap has undermined the efficiency of the Nigerian military in fighting terrorism, banditry and other violent crimes across the country, especially in the northern region.
Speaking on poor funding, Adamu, during his Arise TV appearance, noted that the implications of the gross underfunding are stark and have an impact on the resurgence in the non-state armed groups.
He said the renewed hope agenda of the Tinubu-led administration intends to recruit additional personnel across the security forces, but lamented that the goal has not been achieved due to funding.
“I think this is the first time I’m hearing percentages of the budgetary release according to the 2025 budget.
“Of course, if you go back to 2024, you will find out that it has an impact on what is happening at the moment. So, the consequences are scary. These groups were able to restructure themselves.
“They were able to come together again and they are now fighting us even more fiercely than they were doing before. That is very serious,” he said.
He advised that beyond adequate release of funds for the military needs, the procurement process must be sanitised to enhance operational and financial accountability within the system.
He added that the National Assembly also needs to sit up in its oversight function in budgeting and the procurement process.
“I’m part of those people who believe that the war economy has created a conduit through which public funds are being siphoned. We must enhance accountability within the system so that these funds are used for the purposes for which they are used.
“That means looking at the procurement system. Some of what we hear at the moment is extremely disturbing; political interference in the procurement system of our security forces from people that you don’t even expect; persons who have no business influencing procurement; in the family members of certain highly-placed persons within society.
“So, we must do three levels of procurement. Immediate concern, for example, our soldiers who are on the battlefront and move around in soft-skin Hiluxes. That is not acceptable.
“No country would allow its soldiers on the battlefront to be in soft-skin (normal) vehicles which you and I enter. The convention is that military forces in the front line are protected in three types of vehicles: armoured vehicles, MRAPs and others. We must also give them the weapons that they need. And of course, their welfare is absolutely important,” he stated.
Adamu identified communication technology as another aspect of the military operations that requires funding, lamenting that security forces communicate via GSM, which is as vulnerable as shouting in the market where anybody can listen to you.
“We must address the integrity and confidentiality of communication systems. Lastly, is the forward-looking procurement that understands what our threats are in the immediate and in the future and then we procure weapons in anticipation and to address those threats. Not that we wait until the threat happens and start scurrying around.
“An example is this threat of the use of unarmed aerial vehicles by our enemies. They are currently using unarmed aerial vehicles. They run around from point A to B. We must stop that through an unmanned aerial vehicle system.
“If you look at what is happening in Iran, Ukraine and Russia, the war is not being done by soldiers on the ground. It is being done by drones. And there is enough evidence to show that the bad guys here in Nigeria have already procured drones. So, it is absolutely important that in our procurement systems, we anticipate these types of threats and buy weapons to forestall them,” he added.
Also, security consultant and former Director of the Department of State Services, Mike Ejiofor, said the budget performance of the military revealed a deep concern over funding of security agencies.
“To make a budget is different from budget release. Performance of budget is based on release.
When you don’t release funds for the budget proposed, how do you expect performance from security agencies, more so when it borders on security which is our greatest challenge.
“Now, non-state actors are having advantage in terms of arms and ammunition and control. The president travels a lot and we cannot jeopardise his safety, but we need to prioritise our security,” he added.
However, a public affairs analyst, Nguroje Samson, is of the view that Nigerians should not just keep quiet about the abysmal performance of the security budget year in year out.
He called for a thorough investigation into the development, fish out those behind the release of only seven percent of the 2025 security budget and punish them accordingly. “We can’t continue like this. How can the country budget billions of Naira to procure military equipment so that our officers can confront the insecurity in the land and a few persons will divert the money into their private pocket, while Nigerians keep dying in their numbers on a daily basis and nobody is punished?
“See, I am beginning to believe that the government knows what to do to end the insecurity but has refused to do that. I can’t understand what is happening in Nigeria.
“How can some ragtag criminal continue to kill Nigerians like animals everyday all over the country and the government is not doing anything, instead our leaders are preoccupied with the 2027 election.
“Nigerians must decide if they want to live or die like chicken. It is either they rise up against this government or they provide security for themselves because waiting for the government to provide security is looking like a mirage.
“They don’t care about anybody. So, Nigerians should wake up and do the needful,” he stated.