The House of Representatives Minority Caucus has proposed a $5 billion fund to end insecurity in Northern Nigeria. The proposal comes after years of failed military operations, banditry, and insurgency. The intention is noble. The logic is flawed.
Nigeria has spent trillions of naira on security since 2009. The defence budget has grown every year. The military has received new equipment. Personnel salaries have increased. Yet insecurity has spread. Boko Haram still operates in the Northeast. Bandits control swathes of the Northwest. Kidnapping has become an industry. The problem was never a lack of money. It was a lack of strategy.
The $5 billion proposal assumes that insecurity is a funding problem. It is not. Insecurity in Northern Nigeria is a governance problem. It is a justice problem. It is an economic problem. Young men join armed groups because they have no alternatives. They have no education. They have no jobs. They have no hope. A military budget, no matter how large, cannot address that.
The proposal also ignores accountability. Previous security allocations have vanished into opaque contracts and ghost operations. The military has resisted civilian oversight. Human rights abuses by security forces have alienated the very communities they are supposed to protect. Without transparency, $5 billion will simply disappear into the same black hole.
What the North needs is a comprehensive stabilisation plan. It needs education reform. It needs economic opportunities. It needs community policing. It needs justice for victims of violence. It needs political will to hold security agencies accountable. Money is necessary. But money without reform is just expensive failure. The Minority Caucus should know better.
