Aminu Gamawa on his twitter handle uploaded these pictures exposing the magnitude of mediocrity and acute ineptitude bedevilling the nation’s security system.  This writer alighted these pictures thinking he was in a reverie of some sort. Does it not smack of crass mediocrity on the path of the federal government to display such charade in its cause to bring an end to the uprisings that has plagued the nation over the years?

Amid fabrications of underfunding by those in the security agencies, the security sector has gulped nothing less than N4.62 trillion in the last five years. It is disheartening to behold the gravity of the murky scam our soldiers are being subjected to all in the name of underfunding while they risk their lives just to salvage the hopes of millions of Nigerians. The federal government has allocated an average of N925 billion each year on the security sector and in spite of such gargantuan sum, our soldiers go to the battle front like common refugees.

It is no doubt an eyesore, to imagine that a nation in the clout of Nigeria could stoop so low in its fight against insurgency in spite of not being a greenhorn to the recurring spates of insurgency. How on earth could our security agencies expose soldiers to such a conventional means of transportation? It leaves much to be desired to acknowledge that there still exists a yawning gap between the amount being allocated to the security sector and the level of sophistry being possessed by the security system itself.

It then becomes obvious from the preceding that the incessant security attacks ravaging the country is actually not a function of underfunding, but rather as a result of the malaise eating deep into the management of resources meant to cater for the nation’s security deficits. When taking a keen observation on the amount being allocated on military expenditure, it is disheartening to note that our security agencies have no valid reason to account for their shoddiness. Nigeria ranks 57 in the global rating of military expenditure. The country occupies the seventh position in Africa while it has the largest military expenditure in West Africa. The amount Nigeria votes on security has risen by over 50 percent in recent years. Security has been given rapt attention more than any other sector as a result of the country’s delicate jugular still struggling to be freed from the grasp of terrorism.  With such pathetic show of frivolity as reflected in the pictures, the nation, one could assume, is extremely inept in its response to any form of external aggression should it be beset by such contingencies.

When such burden of ingenuousness becomes the lot of the Nigeria army, it becomes relatively easier to appreciate the throes of travesty being endured by the common Nigerian on the street. Forty students at Mubi were murdered in cold blood and the nation had no clue to the foreboding that clamped it. The Chibok girls were abducted without any form of resistance by the police and the acute incompetence of the police was further exposed when four students at the University of Port-Harcourt were charred in broad daylight.

While the country is left at the mercy of such Hobbesean state, it becomes very worrisome that allied agencies in the security sector perpetrate their impunity by way of contract inflations and inefficient service delivery all because there are no statutory provisions requiring the Ministry of Defence to disclose its spending. The practice of concealing security expenditure has provided the leeway for such an unprecedented sleaze and high profile corruption. This impunity might remain an incurable menace as long as there are no statutory regulations to keep tab on the country’s military investments and security agencies.

It is high time the Nigeria Army was reformed. The security budget in the last five years alone stands at a whopping sum of $236bn. The budget for the defence ministry is approximately $9bn while the one for the interior ministry is approximately $4bn. The Office of the National Security Adviser has gulped almost $2.8bn while the budget for police formations is well over $7.4bn in the last five years. The term ‘underfunding’ may just end up becoming the conduit pipe to siphon resources meant to beef up the security sector of the nation.