By Chris Otaigbe
Governors’ security votes are far more than the annual budgets of Police, Army and Airforce put together. This was disclosed, recently in Kaduna, by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
While lamenting that governors’ security votes, put at N208.8 billion annually, outweigh the annual budget of Police, Army, as well as Air Force and Navy combined in the last five years, CISLAC called for Nigeria security reforms.
Speaking at a workshop with the theme: ‘Criminal Justice Stakeholders Workshop on Effective Use of Complaint Channels’, Executive Director of CISLAC, Mr Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, stated that for Nigeria to end the spate of killings, banditry and insecurity across the country, she must embrace a security reform, where security votes, often unaudited, and unaccounted for, are channelled directly to funding security agencies, providing modern arms and equipment and improving their welfare, rather than being stolen by State Chief executives.
Against the backdrop of the insecurity ravaging parts of the country, Rafsanjani said, only adequate reform of the Police and the military can effectively address the spate of banditry ravaging Abuja-Kaduna road, Southern Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kogi States, which he said have become no go areas.
He described security votes as official corruption by state executives, which must be stopped forthwith, and the money directed to funding security agencies.
“We need security reform if we must have a secure Nigeria. We need to update the training and improve the welfare of our security agents, especially the Police. We need to address the poor funding, the way recruitments and promotion are happening, which is demotivating. We want security operations to be professionalized. We must wake up to the reality that, we cannot have a secured country with underfunded Police. And we cannot continue with this inadequate number of Police personnel,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria has just about 400,000 Police personnel, but unfortunately, almost half of the number is guarding big men, some of who are not in government.
“There is also a need to stop the old practice of siphoning of security votes, instead of spending such on security agencies. Security votes in the last five years have been more than the security budget for the Police and the Nigerian Army. This fund is being stolen by state executives. We cannot continue to mortgage the life and future of Nigeria for political gains,” said the CISLAC Director.
Security votes, he said, are money politicians take to enrich themselves and finance their parties. It is free money, because it is not audited, not accounted for and no an oversight.
“So, if Nigeria desires to improve security, it must be ready to help the security agencies to achieve a better result through the provision of good welfare scheme, because the environment in which the Police operate presently is very poor,” he said.
The workshop, which was attended by the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Federal High Court, the media and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), shed new light on the conversation about the State Governors’ security votes and what they do with it.
Security vote in Nigeria is a monthly allowance that is allocated to the 36 states for the sole purpose of funding security services within such states. The monthly fund runs into billions of naira and varies based on the level of security required by the individual state. States such as Rivers State, who face security threats such as pipeline destructions and kidnapping, receive one of the largest security vote funds.
According to Wikipedia, the security votes received by all the governors run into billions annually.
In the South East region, Imo State gets N333.333m monthly (N4bn annually); Enugu State, N600m, monthly (N7.2bn annually); Anambra State, N850m monthly (N10bn annually); Abia State, N700m, monthly (N8.4bn annually), while Ebonyi State, has no available record.
Five of the South-South governors receive a combined sum of over N80bn annually with one filing no record. They are Cross River State, N500m monthly (N6bn annually); Rivers State with N1.5bn monthly (N18bn annually); Akwa Ibom State, N1.8bn monthly (N21.6bn annually); Edo State, N900m monthly (N10.8bn Annually); and Delta State, N2bn monthly (N24bn annually). Only Bayelsa State has no available record.
Lagos State tops South West region with N1.429bn monthly, N1.297bn (Public order and safety) plus N132.5m (Social Protection) (N17.149bn annually; N15.559bn + N1.59bn respectively). Ondo State keeps N600m monthly (N7.2bn annually), followed by Osun State, which has N400m monthly (N4.8bn annually); Ogun State, N80-N100m monthly (N960m-N1.2bn annually); and Ekiti State with N100m monthly (N1.2 billion annually).
North East that has become the epicentre of the scourge of insurgency has Borno State at the top of the pack with N1.417bn monthly (N17bn annually), while Borno State, which is the hub of Boko Haram attacks in the region comes an uncomfortable second with N806.25m monthly subvention (N9.675bn annually). Yobe State is third with N316.667m monthly (N3.8bn annually) and Taraba State, N200m monthly (N2.4bn annually).
Meanwhile, North West, which has similarly witnessed unceasing incidence of banditry in their region is led by Zamfara State with N600m monthly (N7.2bn annually), followed by Kaduna State, which receives over N4.8bn annually, which is categorized and divided into Security Vote for the Governor, and another security vote for the SSG’s office, to take care of Preventive and Supportive security measures. Katsina State, on the other hand, receives the lowest at N17.583m, monthly (N211m annually). Kano State, which is the most metropolitan part of the North filed no record.
Although, Kwara State did not make its records available, the other five states that make up the North Central region as Benue State receiving the highest vote at N3.092bn allocation to personnel and overhead costs monthly, which cover security vote, among others, to arrive at N37.1bn annually. Followed by Niger State at N1.308bn monthly (N15.7bn annually), Plateau State comes third with N216.667m monthly (N2.6bn annually), Kogi State is third with N400m monthly (N4.8bn annually) and Nasarawa State receives the least at N100m monthly (N1.2bn annually).
Security votes have not been widely accepted by Nigerians, as most have claimed that such funds are being abused by the state governments because how the funds are disbursed is not accountable to any agency.
Worrying is the recent revelation by a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, who said he got information (from Fulani traders in a market) about a state governor from the Northern part of the country, alleged to be a commander of the Boko Haram insurgents.
Mailafia was invited by the Department of State Services (DSS) over a claim the made on the issue while speaking as a guest during a radio programme in Abuja on recently.
Mailafia’s damning disclosure may have thrown up more concern about the safety and security of citizens in the affected States and beyond, considering the billions available to States’ chief executives.
For instance, without a doubt, if the former Central bank deputy governor’s allegation is anything to go by, it means that whoever it is, among the Northern governors, has enough billions to assist the insurgents with required funds, logistics and credible intelligence to defeat Nigerian military and frustrate the nation’s anti-terrorism war.
Could this be the reason why Chadian President Idris Derby instructed his Army not to release captured Boko Haram fighters and weapons seized from the terrorists, to the Nigerian military that is supposed to be the frontline force leading the anti-insurgency West African Multi-National joint Task Force (MNJTF)?
In other words, perhaps, the Chadian President had credible intel concerning the information Mailafia recently released, for him to conclude that Nigerian military’s leadership, of the sub-regional force, can no longer be trusted.
