‘Are we joking?’ : Minister of Interior laments poor budget allocations for security agencies

Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has expressed deep concern over the consistently low budgetary allocations given to security agencies in the country.

Speaking on Monday, June 16, at a national security dialogue jointly organised by the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the Constitution and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Abuja, the minister highlighted how underfunding has continued to undermine the effectiveness and morale of security personnel.

Tunji-Ojo lamented that despite the enormous responsibilities placed on security operatives, their funding remains grossly inadequate year after year, making it difficult to equip them with the tools and resources they need to perform optimally.

‘’Look at the 2025 budget, how much do we have for border security? That is the truth. The whole budget for the National Immigration Service, the capital budget, is less than N10 billion or something and you want to protect 4024 sq/km of our border space. Are we joking? The more you kill one terrorist and the border is porous, twenty will come in.

“The military are challenged. So for us, we need to be very realistic with ourselves. Do we want a system that works or we just want to play to the gallery.

“We have some of the most brilliant people in our DSS. We have our NIA doing fantastically well. You can see the kind of leadership that the NSA is providing but the simple truth is that when we talk about security, internal security, the first thing that comes to a Nigerian’s mind is the military. That is a sign of failure of our internal security agencies.”