At least 20 people have been killed in Nigeria's Sokoto state when gunmen attacked a market. Armed groups still disrupt life for millions in the country's northwest, but Nigeria is also facing growing insecurity across regions. The military and police are stretched dealing with Boko Haram in the northeast, so-called bandits in the northwest, and criminal gangs in the south. And as Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Kaduna, Nigeria, state governors are arming local people to fight back.
Nigerian security agents on Thursday rescued 187 people who had been abducted by armed gangs in the northwestern state of Zamfara, police said, after authorities launched a sweeping security operation against the kidnappers.
Since December last year, Zamfara has been at the centre of often violent kidnappings by heavily armed bandits who have targeted schools, villages and people travelling on highways for ransom.
The government last month shut telecommunication services in Zamfara and other states to disrupt coordination among the gangs.
Mohammed Shehu, the police spokesman for Zamfara, said in a statement that the 187 people, including women and children, had been seized by kidnappers from four local government areas in the state some weeks ago.
"The police and other security agencies have been carrying out assaults on identified bandits locations in different parts of the state with a view to ridding the state of all activities of recalcitrant bandits and other criminal elements," said Shehu.
Pictures and video circulated by police to the media showed some of the people with torn clothes and struggling to sit as they waited to be transported back to their homes.
Armed gangs have grown bolder over time, attacking army outposts, breaking prisoners out of a jail and shooting down an air force jet in July.
Authorities in neighbouring states have complained that bandits driven out of Zamfara have poured into their territories and were causing havoc.
Reporting by Maiduguri newsroom, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, editing by Richard Pullin
Related story: Video - Is Nigeria's kidnapping crisis out of control?
Nigeria's president unveiled a record 16.39 trillion naira ($39.8 billion) budget for 2022 on Thursday, with a projected 25% year-on-year rise in government spending as the economy struggles with the impact of the pandemic.
The deficit will rise to 6.26 trillion naira, or 3.39% of GDP to be funded by new borrowing, proceeds from privatisations and drawdowns on loans secured for specific projects, Muhammadu Buhari told a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The plan for Africa's top oil exporter assumes crude output of 1.88 million barrels a day and an oil price of $57 per barrel, said Buhari.
"Some have expressed concern over our resort to borrowing to finance our fiscal gaps. They are right to be concerned. However, we believe that the debt level of the Federal Government is still within sustainable limits," he said.
Economic analysts said Nigeria's budget signaled the government was not about to make any major policy shift as spending would remain elevated to deal with a deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.
The armed forces have been struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, a spate of mass abductions and deadly bandit attacks in the northwest, conflicts between farmers and herders in many areas and a general surge in crime.
"In the meantime, Nigeria is likely to be stuck with large budget deficits. If borrowing conditions prove to be unfavourable, the government may increasingly lean on the central bank to finance budget shortfalls," said Virag Forizs, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
The World Bank has said that rising insecurity, along with high food inflation and stalled reforms, was a drag on growth and a factor in rising poverty.
The economy is projected to grow by up to 3% this year after it expanded by 5% in the second quarter. It contracted in 2020 due to the pandemic, though it managed to exit recession in the fourth quarter, but growth is fragile.
LOW REVENUES
Buhari confirmed a previously published 2022 GDP growth forecast of 4.2% and an inflation projection of 13%.
"Our target over the medium term is to grow our revenue-to-GDP ratio from about 8 percent currently to 15 percent by 2025," Buhari said. This would be achieved by enhancing tax and excise revenues through reforms and administration measures, he added.
Nigeria has passed a string of record budgets since Buhari took office in 2015, but the country has struggled to fund the spending plans due to low revenues. The pandemic has added to the revenue problems.
According to IMF data, Nigeria has among the lowest revenues globally, with general government revenue between 2015 and 2019 at 7.9% of GDP, compared with a Sub-Saharan African average of 12.7% and a global average of 29.8%.
Buhari said a fuel subsidy which successive governments have tried unsuccessfully to scrap, continued to erode revenues. Attempts to remove it have triggered protests and strikes.
By Felix Onuah and Chijioke Ohuocha
The surrender of hundreds of Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria’s northeast is causing anxiety in Borno state. The government says it will rehabilitate and reintegrate the former fighters into society. But the plan has divided people who have suffered unimaginable atrocities during the 12-year conflict. In the last two months, about 6,000 fighters and their families surrendered due to renewed ground and aerial offensive by Nigerian troops. Hundreds of thousands have already been returned to their towns and villages to homes being rebuilt by the government. For now, officials seem determined to speed up the process of rebuilding trust - hoping it could break Boko Haram’s fighting spirit and bring lasting peace. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reports from Maiduguri, Nigeria.
