Insecurity: Ex-IG Okiro, ex-CDS Irabor fault security funding gaps

A former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro (retd.), and ex-Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Lucky Irabor (retd.), on Tuesday blamed Nigeria’s worsening security challenges on inadequate funding, poor equipment and gaps in investment in the nation’s security architecture.

They made the assertion while speaking at the First Daily National Dialogue on Security held in Abuja.

Describing the police as the lead agency for internal security, the former police chief said the government’s failure to properly arm and support the force had undermined its capacity to effectively tackle crime.

“The government, I would say, is contributing to insecurity itself.

“The police is the lead agency for internal security. But the government deliberately, I say deliberately, without any fear of contradiction, disarmed the police. The result is insecurity,” he said.

He lamented that the police had been left to confront increasingly sophisticated criminal groups without the equipment needed to perform their constitutional duties.

“We have passed the stage of a policeman walking on the street with a baton. No more batons.

“The government should equip security agencies because they need equipment. They need communication gadgets, armoured vehicles and other operational tools,” he said.

Okiro also blamed the shortage of police personnel on years of failure to recruit replacements for officers leaving the service.

Recalling his tenure as chairman of the Police Service Commission in 2013, he said the commission discovered that there had been no recruitment into the force for five years despite significant losses through retirement, death and other causes.

“We found that for five years there was no recruitment into the police. The police lost 59,730 personnel to retirements, deaths and other causes without replacement.

“Yet, you have young men and women, graduates and degree holders, who are citizens of Nigeria without jobs,” he said.

The former police chief further criticised the lack of coordination among security agencies, saying intelligence sharing was often slowed by bureaucratic procedures.

“When I was Inspector-General, I wrote a memo to the National Security Adviser that agencies should work together.

“If the DSS director in Mubi gets information, he should discuss it immediately with the Divisional Police Officer instead of sending reports through Abuja before action is taken.

“Two or three days would have gone. Will the criminals wait? They won’t,” he added.

Also speaking at the dialogue, Gen Irabor (retd.), raised concerns over Nigeria’s defence spending pattern, saying more than three-quarters of the country’s defence budget was spent on personnel costs, leaving inadequate funding for military equipment, maintenance and modernisation.

He said the current pattern of budgetary releases to the armed forces reflected misplaced priorities despite the worsening security situation across the country.

Irabor said, “Furthermore, over three-quarters of Nigeria’s total defence budget is consumed by personnel cost alone. Take note of that, leaving an extremely narrow margin for procurement, maintenance and modernisation.

“Nigeria’s total military expenditure remains below one per cent of our Gross Domestic Product. For a country facing a security emergency and desirous of a quantum leap in development, that figure requires our attention.”

The retired general said figures from the Open Treasury Portal of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation showed that capital releases for military operations remained significantly below approved allocations.

According to him, the Nigerian Army received an approved equipment budget of N20.56bn for 2025, but only 7.1 per cent, amounting to N1.46bn, had been released.

He added that the Nigerian Air Force’s aircraft maintenance budget stood at N34.71bn, with only 13.9 per cent released.

Irabor further cited reports indicating that only N16.71bn, representing 4.96 per cent of the N336.76bn budgeted for defence equipment for the Nigerian Army, had been released.

“Overall, the Army reportedly received just N1.7tn, or 25 per cent, of its proposed N4.52tn expenditure,” he said.

While commending the military for recent successes against criminal elements, Irabor maintained that sustained operational effectiveness would remain difficult without adequate investment in equipment and troop welfare.

“The recent rescue operations, the destruction of several kidnapping networks and the clearance of certain operational zones are highly commendable.

“These are genuine accomplishments by men and women who are doing extraordinary things under very difficult conditions.

“But we must build a capacity that makes these achievements not occasional victories but consistent standards,” he said.

The former defence chief stressed that political leaders must be prepared to make difficult decisions, including redirecting resources from less urgent programmes to national security.

He said, “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 a genuine security emergency requires and the will to see those decisions through.

“Political will is the willingness to make decisions that are uncomfortable, decisions that require trade-offs, decisions that redirect resources from popular programmes to unglamorous but essential ones.”

Irabor renewed his call for the Federal Government to formally declare a war on insecurity rather than treating it as a routine governance challenge.

“I have been one of those who advocated for a state of emergency on 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,” he said.

The retired general also emphasised that troop welfare remained inseparable from military effectiveness.

“Equipment matters. I know from personal experience what it means when troops in the field have what they need, and I know what it means when they do not.

“Similarly, welfare is not separate from performance; it is the foundation of it. The family of a soldier serving in a forward operating base needs to know that their housing is secured, that their children can go to school, that medical care is available and that, if the worst happens, their sacrifice will be honoured and supported,” he added.

Irabor further argued that expanding military formations alone would not solve Nigeria’s security challenges without corresponding investments in equipment, logistics, training and manpower.