Nigeria’s National Assembly
Insecurity defies 261 NASS motions, 20 legislations, N12tr in 16yrs
By Azimazi Jimoh-Momoh
In five months of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, 7,582 lives have been lost to insecurity in Nigeria, a report by The Guardian of Nigeria, has revealed. This is as insecurity claimed 63,111 lives under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight-year tenure. The report said 756 lives were lost to insecurity during the four-year tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The National Assembly has been busy legislating on the delicate subject of insecurity in the last 16 years, but without commensurate return on investment, the report said.
For the effort, the National Assembly has succeeded in passing over 261 resolutions, prepared and passed at least 25 legislative bills and appropriated over N12 trillion targeted at halting the spread of insurgency.
But the country has also continued to remain in the throes of insecurity, as kidnapping, armed banditry and other forms of criminality reign supreme. Already, 71,449 lives have been claimed nationwide.
The House of Representatives’ resolution last week that citizens be allowed to bear arms and ammunition in defence against banditry and criminality tells the story of how deep-seated the peoples’ frustration has become in terms of insecurity.
Heightened insecurity in the form of kidnapping and banditry, which has seriously affected the economy of most states, especially in the Northern part of the country, first began to attract concerns in the Niger Delta in 2006, and got worsened in the North from 2009, where it took the form of insurgency, armed banditry and the unknown gunmen syndrome.
With the hope of reversing the tragic situation, the two chambers of the National Assembly deployed several legislative instruments, but little progress has been achieved so far.
Within the period, the National Assembly, which has the constitutional responsibility to make laws for peace, welfare and good governance of the federation, passed no fewer than 260 resolutions. It worked on over 25 security-related bills.
Among the bills passed are some N12 trillion worth of appropriation acts, including supplementary budgets in at least 20 different legislative processes. It was a period of massive work on legislative processes targeted at hastily ending the insecurity saga that claimed 756 lives during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration; 63,111 in Muhammadu Buhari’s regime and 7,582 lives so far in the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
However, many lawmakers have expressed concerns about the failure of all these legislative interventions in the forms of parliamentary resolutions, amendments of existing Acts and enactment of new ones. One of the latest of such legislative interventions was the motion seeking the empowerment of citizens in Zamfara State to bear arms against banditry.
It was sponsored by Kabiru Mai Palace, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Zamfara, who said the Northwest had been overrun by criminals. “This wave of criminality has since extended into various communities in my constituency,” the Palace said.
The lawmaker said in the past three months in his constituency, “over 126 individuals were abducted, including 33 children and tragically more than 53 lives were claimed.”
This is in addition to the parliament’s condemnation of other killings across the country, which was entirely an update on an earlier motion sponsored by former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, in which he disclosed that a total of 155 persons were killed by bandits in 21 communities in the last two weeks.
He believed that security agencies should do more in curtailing cases of deadly attacks on villages and communities across that country. During the screening and confirmation of the current Service Chiefs, an exercise that was held behind closed doors, it was gathered that Senators took their turns to express concern about the resurgence of banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality across the country.
Issues of inadequate co-operation and collaboration among security agencies; alleged criminal ties between some bad eggs in the armed forces and bandits; and funding were identified.
Senate’s chief whip, Mohammed Ali Ndume, who had served as chairman of the Senate’s committees on Army, has been very vocal on the need for adequate funding for military operations against insecurity.
He believes that more funds are required to tackle issues of inadequate weaponry and obsolete equipment, as well as welfare for military and security personnel, in addition to boosting the intelligence capacity of security agencies.
But other stakeholders expressed dismay on the declining impact of increasing budgetary votes for the security and defence sectors to address the general security situation.
A close look at details of some defence and security appropriations or budgets, particularly, in the last 10 years, shows that in 2014, the defence and security sector got N968.127 billion; the combination of defence and police got N1.42 trillion in 2015, while in 2016, it got N443.1 billion.
Out of this sum, N130.80 billion was budgeted for capital expenditure. In 2017, the Ministry of Defence was allocated N465.40 billion, of which N140 billion was for capital expenditure while the rest was for recurrent expenditure.
In 2018, N576.31 billion was allocated to defence and N157.71 billion was set aside for capital expenditure. By 2019, the allocation to defence increased to N589.9 billion, and the operation in the Northeast codenamed ‘Lafiya Dole’ (now operation Hadin Kai) got N75 billion, while N159.10 billion was set aside for capital expenditure.
The allocation to defence and security jumped to N912 billion in 2020 as security threats increased. In 2021, the defence ministry got N772.60 billion while police got N74.7 billion. The two added up to N846.7 billion.
The defence budget jumped to N1.2 trillion in 2022 and in 2023, defence and police got N1.248 trillion plus the N871.3 billion totalling N2.118 trillion.
In addition to budgetary allocations, there were auxiliary budgets and additional allocations, which were largely used to purchase military equipment and platforms.
In 2018, President Buhari authorised the withdrawal of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account, out of which $496 million was used to order 12 Tucano fighter jets.
The President also approved a N982.72 billion 2021 supplementary budget, which was designed for the provision of military hardware and COVID-19 response. The Nigerian government also procured 12 AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopters worth nearly $1 billion.
Legislations initiated by the House of Representatives to strengthen, reorganise Nigeria’s security architecture for maximum delivery include Prevention of Crimes Act (Amendment) Act), 2016; Nigerian Police Trust Fund Act 2019; Explosives (Amendment) Act 2016 Act; Vigilante Group of Nigeria Bill, 2017; Defence Space Administration Bill, 2016; National Security Agencies Protection of Officers Identity Bill, 2016; Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017.
In the Senate, the following legislations were done among others: Firearms Act (Amendment) Act, 2017; Air Force Institute of Technology of Nigeria Bill Act, 2017; Defence Space Agency Bill Act, 2016; Abduction, Wrongful restraint and Wrongful Confinement for Ransom Act, 2017; Defence Research and Development Bureau Establishment Act, 2018 Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2019; Anti-Jungle Justice and Other Related Offences Act, 2015; North East Development Commission Act, 2018.
Senators Stella Odua, Uche Ekwunife, Sani Musa, Eyinnaya Abaribe, Salisbury Abdullahi, Betty Apiafi, Biodun Olujimi, Obinna Ogba, George Sekibo, were very useful in the sponsorship of security related legislations.
Others senators, who sponsored bills, are Abdu Kwari, Sam Egwu, Smart Adeyemi; Alimikhena Francis, Ifeanyi Uba; Ali Ndume, Aliu Wamako, Dino Melaye, Olugbunmi Adetunbi, Adamu Aleiro, Ahmed Baba Kaita from Katsina, Danjuma Lar, Bima Enagi (Niger).
In terms of resolutions, the House of Representatives took the lead with over 200 resolutions between 2015 and 2023 on insecurity alone when insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, herders’ crises, murders and other forms of criminality assumed a very alarming dimension.
Key among the resolutions include, one seeking the impeachment of the then president, Muhammadu Buhari. Many other resolutions sought the sack of service chiefs at various times.
And when it became very imperative, the two chambers had resolutions after separate security summits to among others urgently overhaul and reorganise the country’s security architecture.
Some of the recommendations in the report of the Nigerian Senate’s Security Summit held in July 2018 stipulated that the nation’s basic security infrastructure must be comprehensively reviewed and strengthened. The Nigerian political structure must be a major factor in the review of the nation’s security apparatus.
The report said the security challenges of the nation must be isolated from political partisanship, and ethno-religious sentiments, adding that political activities must not fuel the further deterioration of the nation’s national security.
The senate security summit advised that the national security structure of the nation must be revised by the Presidency to address the gaps in coordination, collaboration and synergy. It stressed that clear lines of authority and responsibility for national security issues must be identified and adopted.
In order to increase the capacity of the Nigerian police, military and other paramilitary agencies (who are currently overstretched) to respond to national security issues, the summit asked the federal government to ensure that there is further recruitment in these organisations.
Other recommendations are that investments by the Federal Government must be made in order to incorporate technology into the core of Nigeria’s national security architecture and management.
Nigeria must reduce its dependence on importing its basic security equipment and must immediately develop its internal research and development capacities in order to meet our basic national security needs.
“The nation must examine options other than the use of force in its response to national security issues. The nation must develop strategies to improve the chances of resolving conflicts without resorting to the use of force. The nation must immediately develop a strategy to limit the proliferation of firearms and other light weapons amongst the citizens,” the summit further admonished.
Analysis of details of the 64,142 persons killed within the period showed that in the six years that Jonathan presided over the affairs of Nigeria, some 756 persons were killed.
This figure came from the Buhari-led Presidency, which rejected reports that killings took place because Buhari is a Fulani man. Femi Adesina, the then Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, insisted that the spate of killings by herdsmen in parts of the country had nothing to do with Buhari.
The figure of 63,111 lives lost during Buhari’s administration came from data obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, NST, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme.
According to the member of the House of Representatives representing Mangu/Bokkos Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr Solomon Maren, the deaths arose from terrorism, banditry, Herders/farmers clashes, communal crises, cult clashes, and extra-judicial killings among others.
He said the 63,111 death tolls are conservative because only reported cases from multiple sources were included. And many cases are under-reported or not reported at all.
In Tinubu’s administration, it has been revealed that so far, a total of 275 lives have been lost to banditry, kidnapping and insurgency. Responding to the gun violence that has resulted in at least 123 deaths across Nigeria since President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration on May 29, Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s Acting Nigeria Director, said: “It is horrific that attacks by gunmen have claimed at least 123 lives mere weeks after President Bola Tinubu assumed office on 29 May. Rural communities, always bracing themselves for the next bout of violence, are facing deadly attacks by rampaging killers.”
Protecting lives should be the utmost priority of the new government. The Nigerian authorities must urgently take steps to stop the bloodletting.
“The brazen failure of the authorities to protect the people of Nigeria is gradually becoming the ‘norm’ in the country. The government said it will enact security measures in response to these attacks, but these promises have not translated into meaningful action that protects the lives of vulnerable communities. The Nigerian authorities have also consistently failed to carry out independent, effective, impartial and thorough investigations into these killings — and this is fuelling impunity.
“The Nigerian authorities are obliged under international human rights law, regional human rights treaties and Nigeria’s own constitution to protect the human rights of all people without discrimination — and that includes the right to life. Those suspected of criminal responsibility for these callous crimes must urgently be brought to justice in fair trials.”
The former Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, last week informed the Senate that another set of 155 persons were killed in the month of July in the state.
Similarly, a former majority leader of the Senate, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi has blamed poor security architecture in the country for the Kebbi State school abduction.
Abdullahi, who represents Kebbi North, said the number of security personnel, specifically policemen across Nigeria, was grossly insufficient to fight the level of insecurity the country was grappling with. He said, “What we are saying is that the troops on the ground in the security architecture of this country are terribly inadequate, so we have to sit down and rebuild the security architecture in such a way that we allow local communities to do community policing so that we can have enough men on the ground for any mass attack.
“If there were enough men on the ground like about 100 well-armed policemen, this kind of thing would not be happening.” He added, “These things have their roots in the very serious security architecture that we inherited over a long period of time. We have to look at these issues from a historical perspective.
“Banditry in the country has become a recurring decimal and we should not look at it as something that is just happening today. Abdullahi had presided over an ad hoc Committee of the Senate on security, which listed 18 main reasons why Nigeria is finding it difficult to end insecurity.
Senator Abdullahi presented the committee’s 74-page report during plenary, detailing its general findings and strategies to address insecurity.
Among the findings are that almost all the institutions have weak and antiquated legislation, most of which were done either during the colonial era or under military administrations, and therefore do not reflect the challenges of the moment and the desire of the democratic dispensation.
The committee observed that there are very ill-defined operational boundaries and overlapping jurisdictions among the security services leading to confusion in priority setting, platform acquisition, training, direction and general orientation.
It further noted that, “There is a lot of internal incoherence and interpersonal conflict, which have led to a lot of antagonism within the security organisations.
Most of the agencies are operating in isolation with very little, if any, coordination between them.” According to the committee, “Inter-agency rivalry and endless battles of supremacy have undermined operational effectiveness.
The alleged non-funding of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) since 2015 has undermined the effective performance of its coordinating function in the security architecture, has led many agencies to question its authority and relevance in various fora, thereby adversely affecting inter-service cooperation and Intelligence Sharing.
“The law governing the operation of the three (3) intelligence agencies i.e. Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) is very defective and clearly responsible for the failure to define their functions, boundaries and relationships with one another.”
Culled from The Guardian, Nigeria