For years, Nigeria has responded to rising insecurity with the same prescription: spend more money.
Successive budgets have poured record sums into the military, police, intelligence agencies and internal security operations, driven by the belief that more funding would eventually overwhelm insurgents, bandits and kidnappers. On paper, the commitment has been extraordinary. Between 2021 and 2025, the federal government allocated roughly N17.36 trillion to security and defence, while annual spending rose from N1.5 trillion to *N6.57 trillion, making security one of the country’s largest budget items.
Yet for millions of Nigerians, the return on that investment is difficult to see.
Kidnappings continue on highways once considered safe. Farmers abandon fertile land for fear of attack. Businesses factor insecurity into operating costs, while foreign investors increasingly view Nigeria through the lens of political risk. The contradiction is becoming impossible to ignore: Nigeria has never spent more on security, yet many citizens
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