by Mohammed Bello Doka
19 June, 2026.
I have always been accused of not blaming the military and other security agencies enough in my articles. I receive emails, WhatsApp messages and even calls in that regard. Let me be clear: I do not entirely absolve the security agencies of blame. Where they have failed, I have said so and will continue to say so. But numbers, figures and statistics always dictate my articles. And the numbers tell a story that the politicians do not want you to hear. The military and the police bear the brunt of the politicians' rascality more than anyone else. They are underfunded, underfed and underequipped. In most cases, they have to run for their lives. And in the same year under review, bandits and Boko Haram received more than three times the amount the government spent on arms for our security agencies. I will discuss that in another article. But technically, bandits are more funded than our security agencies in terms of arms and ammunition. The enemy has better weapons, better supply lines and better intelligence. And our soldiers are left to fight with one arm tied behind their back while politicians cruise in luxury SUVs.
The budget of a nation is its true confession. It reveals priorities. It exposes values. It tells you what a government truly cares about, regardless of what its officials say in press briefings or campaign rallies. In 2025, the Federal Government of Nigeria laid its confession bare for all to see. It spent $126 million on cars for the Presidency and the National Assembly and only $38.8 million on arms and ammunition for the entire nation. Three times more on politicians' luxury vehicles than on bullets to fight the insurgency that killed 4,518 Nigerians in 2025 alone, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. That is not a typo. That is not an exaggeration. That is the budget of a government that claims insecurity is its top priority while Nigerians are being slaughtered, kidnapped and displaced.
The National Assembly alone spent a staggering N110 billion on vehicles and allowances for lawmakers in 2025. In June 2026, the Federal High Court in Lagos declared the N110 billion expenditure unlawful, with Justice Yellim Bogoro ruling that the spending violated procurement laws and constitutional provisions. The court held that "the allocation of N110 billion for the benefit of lawmakers demonstrates a failure to prioritise national interest." A judge had to tell our legislators that spending $80 million on themselves while the nation burns is a failure of priority. The Senate President operates an 11-vehicle fleet. His convoy alone costs Nigerian taxpayers an estimated N4 billion. The House Speaker's convoy costs another N4 billion. Their deputies push the total to over N7 billion. For context, the entire 2025 arms and ammunition budget for the Defence Headquarters was just N2.09 billion. The combined convoys of the Senate President and House Speaker are nearly double the entire annual budget for arms to fight Boko Haram, bandits and kidnappers. If the government can find N7 billion for two politicians' convoys, why can it not find N2 billion to equip soldiers who are fighting and dying in the North-East? If the military is underfunded and our soldiers are running for their lives, who is really to blame? The soldier with no ammunition or the politician with a fleet of bulletproof SUVs?
The State House allocated N15.09 billion in the 2025 budget for the purchase of tyres for bulletproof vehicles, SUVs, operational vehicles and plain cars. This includes N1.1 billion for SUV replacements and N3.66 billion for operational vehicles. N15 billion just to keep the Presidential fleet running. The Nigeria Customs Service budgeted N14.39 billion for luxury vehicles for senior officers in 2025. This is part of a larger N35.27 billion budget for 579 official vehicles. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the very agency tasked with fighting corruption, received N2.5 billion to purchase motor vehicles for its management staff. The North Central Development Commission, created to tackle insecurity and poverty in the region, proposed to spend N20.2 billion of its N100 billion take-off budget on vehicles, travels and communications. N10 billion for official cars, N9 billion for trips, N1.2 billion for phone calls. A commission meant to fight insecurity is spending more on cars than on the people it is meant to serve.
Add it all up. N110 billion for the National Assembly. N15.09 billion for the State House. N14.39 billion for Customs. N2.5 billion for the EFCC. N20.2 billion for the North Central Development Commission. That is over N162 billion. At N1,300 to the dollar, that is approximately $126 million. Now look at what the government budgeted for arms and ammunition in 2025. The Defence Headquarters earmarked N2,093,523,000 for procuring arms and ammunition. The Armed Forces received additional allocations totaling N45.69 billion. The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria received N7.94 billion to revamp the nation's arms production capabilities. Arms and ammunition imports fell to about N49 billion in 2025, compared with N520 billion recorded in 2024. The total combined budget for arms and ammunition across all security agencies in 2025 was approximately N50.47 billion. At N1,300 to the dollar, that is approximately $38.8 million. The government spent three times more on politicians' cars than on arms for the entire nation. The National Assembly alone spent more than double the entire arms budget on vehicles for 469 lawmakers.
And then they tell Nigerians there is no money to secure the nation. They tell us insecurity is the opposition's fault. In June 2026, Senate President Godswill Akpabio alleged that the opposition was recruiting young people to cause mayhem across the country. He claimed that "when they realise they cannot talk about projects, performance, good laws, transformation... they have now resorted to paying small, young people, recruiting them to cause mayhem across the country." He further claimed that bombings would stop within two weeks after the 2027 elections. In April 2026, he said: "You are seeing insecurity today. It is even increasing because elections are approaching... As soon as elections are over, watch what happens. Within the first two weeks, you may not hear of any bomb blast because some people are sponsoring it to distract the government." If the opposition has the capacity to orchestrate bombings and kidnappings across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones, why are they not in prison? If the government knows who is sponsoring terrorism, why are they not arrested? If the APC has evidence that political opponents are recruiting young people to cause mayhem, why are they not parading them before the media? The answer is simple: the accusations are not meant to be proven. They are meant to frighten. They are meant to justify the unjustifiable.
The question before Nigerians is simple: will you watch your democracy be dismantled in the name of security? Will you accept the suspension of elections because the government tells you it is too dangerous to vote? Will you allow the same people who have failed to protect you to decide that your voice no longer matters? In 2025, the Federal Government spent $126 million on politicians' cars and only $38.8 million on arms. Are we really fighting insecurity? Or are we fighting to keep power? The answer is staring Nigerians in the face. The question is whether they will have the courage to see it.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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Opinion