The House of Representatives yesterday asked President Bola Tinubu to direct the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to prioritise the full release of all outstanding 2024 budgetary allocations to the Intelligence Agencies as a matter of national security.
The chairman of the House Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Hon. Ahmed Satomi, who said this at the 2025 budget defence session with agencies under the Office of the National Security Adviser, asked the minister of finance to sustain the practice of prompt releases to the intelligence agencies going forward.
Satomi said the intelligence subsector was grossly underfunded by the total allocation of N595.024 billion to the subsector in the 2025 budget proposal.
He also said, “It is heartbreaking that an agency like the National Centre for Counter Terrorism has not gotten any capital release for 2023 and 2024.
“The National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) and the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSSALW) are yet to receive a single kobo for their Capital projects in 2024.
“The Capital releases to the DSS and NIA are insufficient to motivate these agencies to work optimally in order to deliver on their critical mandates.”
According to the lawmaker, “In the budget presented by Mr. President, the Defence and Security sector was allocated N4.91 trillion, thus underscoring the priority accorded to security in the 2025 Budget.
“As much as I want to commend Mr. President for this laudable allocation, may I however note that the intelligence subsector appears to be grossly underfunded going by the total allocation of N595,024,943,368 billion to the subsector.
“It is imperative to note that the 2025 Budget is christened the ‘Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity.’ Securing peace presupposes that a lot of engagements with citizens will be undertaken by the government at all levels.
“Deradicalisation, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes etc will have to be carried out as a major non kinetic initiative by the federal government of Nigeria in collaboration with other tiers of government.
“In the light of the above, it is therefore not encouraging to observe that the frontline agencies saddled with statutory responsibilities of countering violent extremism, terrorism, illicit flow of small arms and light weapons, intelligence gathering and analysis, maintenance of national security and ensuring the provision of safe, secure and efficient air transportation for the president, vice president and other notable government officials are negligibly funded.”
In his remarks, the permanent secretary of special services in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Sanusi Danjuma, said the proposed 2025 budget was tailored towards addressing the evolving security challenges facing the nation, ensuring the effective coordination of security agencies, among others.
He lamented that “the envelope system of budgeting provides a lot of constraints in terms of resource allocation to the community. However, despite this challenge, the agencies try to strike a balance between their operational needs and the government’s fiscal constraints.”
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