Analysts Doubt Boost in Military Spending in Nigeria will Improve Security

Nigerian authorities say national defense, internal security and economic stability are the top priorities in the 2024 budget that President Bola Tinubu delivered to lawmakers on Wednesday.

Improving security is a major challenge for Tinubu's government as it desperately seeks to attract foreign investments to grow the country's struggling economy.

Under the new $35 billion budget, authorities allocated about $4 billion or 12% of the total budget to defense and security — the largest single allocation to any sector.

In his first budget speech since taking office, Tinubu told lawmakers that security is important to safeguard lives, property and investments across the country.

Tinubu said he will overhaul Nigeria's internal security architecture to boost performance operations and achieve better results.

But experts say Nigerian authorities have consistently increased military spending in recent years without making Nigerians safer or more secure.

Kabiru Adamu, an analyst for consulting firm Beacon Security in Abuja, cites the previous budget as an example.

"In the 2023 budget, security enjoyed the largest allocation and in this current budget that is submitted to the National Assembly there's almost about 30% to 40% increase in the provision but unfortunately we haven't seen remarkable improvements to equate this attention the government is giving,” he said. “So, what's the challenge? I think it has to do with accountability and monitoring the performance of the security sector."

Africa's largest economy faces many security problems, including a 14-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast, separatist violence in the south, often deadly clashes between pastoralists and farmers, and proliferation of kidnap-for-ransom gangs in the Northwest and central regions.

Tinubu, who embarked on bold economic reforms including the scrapping of fuel subsidies and removal of foreign exchange restrictions, promised to fix security problems if elected.

But this week, local residents in northwest Zamfara state, said they're still reeling after armed gangs last Friday attacked their villages and kidnapped more than 100 residents.

The gangs are demanding about $236,000 for the captives’ freedom.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu says corruption is the reason the increased military spending is not yielding results.

"Do they have the capacity to actually maximize this budget?” he asked. “Then the issue of corruption, how's this money expended? Is it rightly used for what's it's supposed to be used for? Then there's the issue of political will and interest of conflict merchants."

In October, Tinubu signed a what he called a performance bond with cabinet members. The agreement allows authorities to review the performance of serving officials and hold those underperforming accountable.

But Adamu says he's worried about one thing.

"What we're hoping is that that [the] performance bond would be implemented in a manner that we will see an improvement in security,” he said. “Security personnel do not willingly submit themselves to civilian administration. I worry a little bit."

Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities predict the economy will grow by 3.76% next year — well above the global average.

In recent weeks, the president has been meeting with foreign officials and business leaders with the aim of attracting more investments to Nigeria. In one notable deal, Saudi Arabia agreed to rehabilitate Nigeria’s non-functioning oil refineries.

Timothy Obiezu, VOA

GSK pull-out from Nigeria causes medication shortage

Asthma sufferers among those rationing drugs amid shortages and high prices after the pharmaceutical company ceased business in Nigeria this year.

Salamat Olashile takes a tablet from a white-and-green sachet. Five minutes later, her breathing is still laboured. “It will soon come down,” she says. She used to have an inhaler, which would have eased her asthma attack faster, but prices have increased dramatically since GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) “exited” the country. She is now reliant on a slower-working tablet called Araminol.

GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria, the country’s subsidiary of the British pharmaceutical firm, first announced in June that Nigeria’s economic problems and foreign currency crisis were severely affecting its work. In August, it said that it would be shutting down operations.

A GSK Global spokesperson said the company was not exiting, but pivoting to a “third-party distributorship”, which it is still processing. “In common with many companies operating in Nigeria, the significant challenge in accessing foreign currency in recent years impacted our local operations and has affected our ability to maintain consistent supply of medicines and vaccines in the market,” the spokesperson said.

Nigerians are now familiar with the resulting shortage of medications – and a spike in cost for inhalers such as Ventolin and Seretide Diskus, antibiotics such as Amoxil, as well as allergy relief drugs, an antimalarial drug and even over-the-counter painkiller, Panadol.

“I’ve been using Ventolin inhalers for eight years now,” says Jalaalah Shittu, a university student first diagnosed with asthma in 2015. “With Ventolin, there’s a hope I can still live a normal life. It provides an almost immediate relief.” But that relief has proved difficult for patients like Olashile and Shittu to replicate with other drugs.

Last week, Olashile’s father went out to get her Ventolin inhaler and came back with Araminol tablets. After a week of her asthma getting worse, he found an inhaler for 9,000 naira (£9), almost four times its usual price.

Olashile says: “My symptoms were worse because of the harmattan – a season characterised by harsh dusty winds and low humidity.” She has stopped going out and is trying to preserve the Ventolin for emergencies.

Shittu, meanwhile, is suffering unpleasant side-effects from alternative drugs. “I start to feel very weak and have a faster heartbeat and shaky body until the drug wears off, and that can take hours,” she says.

Oluwakemi Ebire of Famasi Africa, a digital health platform, says the situation is forcing people to ration medications of all kinds. “The ripple effect of these circumstances on patients is deeply concerning. For those without access to the right information, financial constraints can push them towards counterfeit medication, risking drug-adverse effects, drug resistance, treatment failure and even death.”

Nigeria has an estimated 13 million asthma sufferers, one of the highest rates in Africa. Ebire says: “I spearhead the care and management of chronic patients who depend on these medications for the rest of their lives, and I can tell you that these past few months have been very difficult for our patients, both financially and emotionally.”

In October, Famasi Africa registered a 15% drop in medication adherence rate among diabetic patients under its care, accompanied by a 10% increase in blood sugar levels.

The spokesperson for GSK said none of the medications supplied by the company is considered to be medically critical, and all have generic alternatives. It hoped that new third-party distribution plans could mean some drugs returning to the market early next year. 

By Olatunji Olaigbe, The Guardian

Armed men abduct 8 in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnapped at least eight people in an attack on the Dan Honu community in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state, residents said on Thursday.

Kidnapping for ransom is rife in northwest Nigeria where armed gangs, often referred to locally as bandits, have targeted schools, villages and travellers, making it unsafe to travel by road or to farm in some areas.

Kaduna police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said the police are investigating the incident, which occurred late Tuesday in Chikum local government area of the state.

Mohammed Danjuma, a resident who was spared, told Reuters about 16 people were taken but eight managed to get away.

"As they were busy trying to break into my apartment, one of the vigilantes in the community fired a shot into the air, which made the bandits uncomfortable and left," he said.

Malam Suleiman, another resident who was kidnapped, managed to escape while being led into the bushes. His teenage sons were taken by the bandits.

Attacks in northern Nigeria are part of widespread insecurity in the country that include a 14-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast and deadly clashes between farmers and herders in the central region. 

By Garba Muhammad, Reuters

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President Tinubu says Nigeri budget offers 'renewed hope'

Nigeria's president has delivered his first budget since taking office, as the country faces a deepening cost of living crisis.

He announced government plans to spend 27.5 trillion naira ($34.85bn; £27bn) in the new financial year.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the plans would attract investment, offering "renewed hope" during tough economic times.

Mr Tinubu had called for patience after inflation skyrocketed following an ambitious set of reform policies.

After winning disputed elections with 37% of the vote back in May, he shocked many Nigerians in his inaugural address when, in an off-the-cuff remark, he scrapped a decades-old fuel subsidy.

The move led to a sharp rise in the price of fuel and other goods, worsening the cost of living crisis for many.

Mr Tinubu also scrapped foreign exchange controls, which also contributed to pushing up inflation to its highest levels in nearly two decades, at 25%.

The value of the naira fell, increasing the cost of imports and making it more difficult to pay off international loans.

But Mr Tinubu stood by his decision, saying the fuel subsidy had proven to be "harmful" to the economy.

He insisted the budget's impact on the cost of living crisis would be temporary and has repeated calls for patience, saying the moves would benefit the country in the long term and attract more foreign investment.

Mr Tinubu said his "Budget of Renewed Hope" would guarantee macro-economic stability, lead to "job-rich" growth and reduce the budget deficit.

The government's spending priorities included improving security and infrastructure, as well as taking measures to ease the cost of living crisis, he added.

Mr Tinubu projected higher oil production and tax collection would boost government revenues and allow his administration to borrow less.

He added that the economy was expected to grow by at least 3.76% in 2024, and inflation would be at around 21.4%.

It stood at 27.3% in October, up from 26.72% in September, according to official statistics.

The economic crisis in Nigeria has led to a huge exodus of young professionals who have struggled to find jobs.

The budget will have to be approved by lawmakers before it comes into effect.

By Danai Nesta Kupemba, BBC

Video - Graduates from Nigeria turn to creating jobs instead of looking for them

Nigeria has one of the highest unemployment rates globally. College and university graduates regularly find a job market with few opportunities in the West African nation. However, rather than wait for opportunities, many are now starting their own businesses.

CGTN