Between 2009 and 2014, the federal government allocated much of the voted N1.9 trillion defence budget to recurrent expenditure, leaving the military with little or no room to consider investments into hardware required for the defence of the nation’s sovereignty.
During the period under review, only N271.4 billion was capital vote, a paltry 14.3 percent of the total expenditure. This according to many military watchers, explains the seeming incapacity of the Nigerian army to ‘do anything’ about the Boko Haram mayhem that has swelled in the past one month.
A look at the budget in the period highlighted shows that of the total allocation of N223.021 billion to the military in 2009, only N46.802 billion was capital votes while the rest N176.219 billion was recurrent.
In the 2010 budget, N264.206 billion was the total allocation to the military and N47.384 billion of this was capital votes while the balance N217 billion was recurrent.
While appropriation to the military rose in 2011 a surprise drop in the capital votes contrasted it. Out of the N348.037 billion total appropriation, N309.784 billion was recurrent while the capital votes dropped to N34.253.
The Federal Government appropriated N359.735 billion in 2012 of which N314.299 billion was recurrent and N45.436 billion was for capital. Of the N364.165 billion of the total appropriation in 2013, N305 billion was recurrent and the balance N59.251 billion was the capital votes.
In the 2014 budget that is awaiting assent of President Goodluck Jonathan, N34.29 billion is to be for capital votes while the balance N306.042 billion is recurrent.
With the funds at the disposal of the military, a retired military officer who wants to remain anonymous argued that the sector is beset with corruption and is yet to master public procurement procedures. With these, it has not spent prudently.
He cited the drones that were acquired by the military some years back through back door and uncompetitive bidding but which could not be deployed into use because the contractor that bought it could not get the software to deploy it.
Other military officers both serving and retired told BDSUNDAY that the military will need divine intervention to subdue the Boko Haram sect because the entire security agencies and the government had been infiltrated.
Although the Nigerian military had in the past excelled in various peace-keeping operations outside the country, they are however, lagging in non-conventional wars where intelligence gathering would have given them the edge.
The little or no money to invest in the area of intelligence gathering and intelligence hardware underscores the extent of misplaced spending by the military and its inability to effectively track militancy in the country, according to BDSUNDAY investigations.
Ironically, defence funding in Nigeria is superior to many sectors and in most African countries especially in line with security responsibilities. The defence ministry for a long time has been in the list of five major spending ministries and ahead of others.
Nigerian military expenditure went up in 2011 by 32 percent to make it the 57th in the world and the largest spender in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc.
By 2009, Nigeria’s funding of its military made her the seventh largest spender on the African continent, representing 0.90 percent of the gross development product (GDP).
Budget office of the Federation (BoF) in 2011 said that Nigeria’s defence expenditure as at 2011 was five times greater than the spending of Cote d’Ivoire and almost 15 times the size of Ghana spending.
Analysts observed the spending has assisted the country in fooling herself of her leadership role in the West African region while she bleeds at home.
A 2011 survey by BoF on military expenditure within ECOWAS shows that Nigeria tops the list of 10 largest spenders with Cote d’Ivoire trailing with $369 million expenditure. Senegal was third with $217 million expenditure and Ghana trailing with $127 million expenditure.
Others are Burkina Faso $112 million, Benin $67 million, Togo $57 million, Sierra Leone $44 million, Niger $43 million, Cape Verde $8.8 million and the Gambia, $5.3 million.
On the African continent, Algeria, as at 2009 topped the military largest spenders’ chart with $5.6 billion, and followed by South Africa with $3.926 billion and Egypt with $3.665 billion. The list also include Morocco’s $3.143 billion, Angola $2.983 billion, the troubled Sudan $1.971 billion and Nigeria $1.984 billion. Also are Libya $1.1 billion, Kenya $518 million, and Ethiopia $422 million.
Badejo Ademuyiwa
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
