Nigeria’s Security Crisis Is a Budget Problem, Not Just a Brains Problem
OPED: Nigeria spends billions on security annually, yet Boko Haram, banditry, and kidnapping still define daily life for millions. Why? At a recent Association of Nigerian Authors event for retired Rtd. Gen. Lucky Irabor’s new book, Scars, the answer from military experts, academics, and students was clear: Nigeria does not lack capable officers. It lacks money, political will, and a civil-military contract that matches them.
In this opinion, journalist and political analyst Armsfree Ajanaku reports from the Abuja book reading and uses it as a lens on Nigeria’s macro risk. He argues that insecurity is now an economic problem: abandoned farms drive food inflation, disrupted supply chains raise logistics costs, and kidnapping risk chokes FDI. Drawing on testimony from Gen. Irabor and senior professors, Ajanaku makes the case that until Nigeria treats security as core infrastructure — with credible budgets, transparent funding, and real use of military expertise in governance — growth targets will remain fiction.
Timely, policy-focused, and grounded in on-the-ground reporting, this piece speaks directly to LightRay!’s readers tracking Africa’s risk, commodities, and governance.
The conversation at the Association of Nigeria Authors ANA’ Abuja’s reading of Gen. Lucky Irabor’s “Scars” exposed a hard truth: the military has the capacity. What it lacks is political will and proper disbursement of funding.
The Chinua Achebe Auditorium in Abuja’s Mamman Vasta Writers Village was packed for a book event that felt more like a national security briefing. The backdrop showed retired General Lucky Irabor in starched army green, epaulets gleaming. It was the image of a Nigerian military Nigerians want to remember: disciplined, pan-Africanist, the force that confronted apartheid and enforced peace abroad.
But the room was thick with a quieter question, one the book Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum could not avoid. If Nigeria still produces officers of Irabor’s caliber, why has Boko Haram, banditry, and kidnapping defined the last two decades? Why does a military celebrated globally for short-runway landings and peacekeeping still fight on the back foot at home?
That tension defined the Association of Nigerian Authors’ reading and panel. Chaired by Prof. Razinat Mohammed with discussants Prof. Okey Ikechukwu and Prof. Oyinye Nwagbara, the conversation quickly moved past literary praise to economics and governance. And that is where Nigeria’s insecurity debate needs to go.
Capacity Exists. Funding Doesn’t
Prof. Nwagbara, a former U.S. military officer, recounted American colleagues stunned that Nigerian Air Force pilots landed aircraft on runways deemed impossible by more “advanced” forces. Prof. Ikechukwu invoked the “soldier first” concept: nations that win wars deploy military and intelligence expertise at the highest levels of strategy. Nigeria trains officers at huge cost, then underuses them.
The audience conclusion was unavoidable: the problem is not courage or competence. It is resources and political will.
Gen. Irabor’s book and Q&A made this concrete. He explained why the military had to monitor Baga’s fish trade: intelligence showed insurgents were funded through it. He admitted the operation was later corrupted by “bad eggs” who became merchants themselves, and that they were punished on his watch. But the anecdote revealed a deeper issue. When tractors meant for agriculture are converted for military use, and abandoned vehicles are refurbished for the frontlines, you are not looking at a capacity gap. You are looking at a budget gap.
Miserly budgetary allocations and delayed releases came up repeatedly. You cannot fight an insurgency that adapts weekly with equipment procurement cycles that move yearly. Boko Haram is funded by extortion, kidnapping, and illicit trade. The state is funded by appropriations that often arrive late and incomplete. In that race, the non-state actor has the advantage.
Insecurity Is Now a Macro-Economic Risk
Bloomberg readers know the numbers: Nigeria’s security spending has risen, but as a share of GDP it remains below regional peers facing similar threats. Yet the cost of insecurity is everywhere in the macro data. Farms in the North are abandoned, raising food inflation. Supply chains in the Northwest are disrupted, increasing logistics costs. Foreign direct investment stalls when investors cannot insure against kidnapping risk.
At the ANA event, student poets asked for peace. What they were really asking for was predictability — the basic condition for economic activity. No business plans around checkpoints, extortion, and road closures. No farmer plants at scale when harvest season means exposure to bandits.
This is why “insecurity shapes conversation” is more than a literary observation. It is a market observation. Until security is treated as core infrastructure — like power or roads — Nigeria’s growth targets will remain theoretical.
The Civil-Military Contract Needs Rewriting
Gen. Irabor said, “A weapon ends a conversation, but a book begins one.” He’s right. But the conversation Nigeria needs is about the civil-military contract.
First, budget credibility. Security votes and opaque allocations create distrust. The military needs predictable, transparent funding tied to clear operational metrics. Citizens need to see that money translates to fewer attacks, not just more press releases.
Second, talent deployment. Officers trained in strategy, intelligence, and logistics should not retire into irrelevance. Prof. Ikechukwu’s point stands: great nations use that expertise in governance, policy, and national planning. Nigeria wastes it.
Third, oversight without sabotage. The Baga fish trade case shows the dilemma. Military intervention was driven by real intelligence. But weak oversight allowed abuse. Strong civilian oversight, independent audits, and swift punishment of bad actors build the public trust needed for communities to cooperate with security forces.
The Cost of Waiting
Prof. Ikechukwu bought 20 copies of Scars for students at N20,000 paperback, N25,000 hardcover. It was a generous gesture. It was also a metaphor. At those prices, most Nigerian students cannot afford the book that explains why they live in fear. That is the economic cost of insecurity in one image: the people who will inherit this crisis cannot access the analysis of it.
Nigeria does not lack soldier-statesmen. It lacks a state that funds, trusts, and deploys them properly. Until political leaders match military capacity with resources and accountability, the auditorium will keep filling for book readings about wars we should have won.
The military can end firefights. Only political will can end the conditions that start them. That is the conversation Scars began in Abuja. It is the conversation Nigeria’s budget must continue.
About ANA Abuja: The Association of Nigerian Authors ANA Abuja under the Chairmanship of Arch. Emeka Eze and the Head, Outreach and Partnerships, Lady Ejiro Umukoro along with its EXCO Team continues to amplify the power of reading that shapes the mind to solve problems.
About the Author
Armsfree Ajanaku is a journalist and political analyst covering governance, security, and development in West Africa.
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