The fallacy of the security vote
Yet yours truly isn’t talking about that security vote, as interesting as it is to discuss because of the many scandals it breeds. The one I have in mind today is the amount budgeted for security in this year’s budget. It was the whooping sum of N921 billion. The biggest amount ever voted for security […]
Yet yours truly isn’t talking about that security vote, as interesting as it is to discuss because of the many scandals it breeds. The one I have in mind today is the amount budgeted for security in this year’s budget. It was the whooping sum of N921 billion. The biggest amount ever voted for security concerns in the history of Nigeria. But it is highly ironic that this amount was voted in a year in which the biggest security scares, breaches and threats were recorded. Even more ironic is the fact that as the year rolls to an end the mother of the coordinating minister of the economy became a victim of a high-profile kidnap saga.
Though Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who doubles as our finance minister, was quick to point out that her mother’s kidnap was the handiwork of an aggrieved petroleum subsidy cabal, she was really not able to prove anything. Be that as it may, even the subsidy cabal was only able to carry out the kidnap successfully because of the failure of our national security apparatus. A security budget that was more than twice the amount budgeted for education which was N400billion, almost six times the amount for power generation which was N161billion and more than twelve times the budget for agriculture which stood at N79 billion should have done wonders for the security of lives and property in Nigeria.
Yet we saw no let up in the spate of insecurity the nation has been witnessing in the last few years. Viewing it twelve months after it began to be implemented, one can safely say that there is nothing visible to justify the incredible sum expended on security in the year 2012. From deadly communal clashes, to mysterious murders, bloody armed robberies, a worsening insurgency and more brazen cases of kidnap, what one sees are proofs and more proofs that we still lack adequate security in this country. Perhaps the reason we can’t see an end to insecurity despite the astronomical rise in the security vote is because we have chosen to treat the symptoms rather than the cause of this national scourge.
Almost wherever we look in Nigeria, we see poverty, abject poverty of the type no one will expect to see in a country with our kind of resources. But rather than provide employment by setting up new industries and reviving ailing ones, most government policies support import of goods and services from abroad. When our teeming youths roam the streets aimlessly, without education and any hope for a decent future, we do not think of a sustainable plan to get them back in school or at least have them trained in some kind of skill acquisition, rather we are more content with buying the right security gadgets to keep them away from our homes, so that they will remain far away from our privileged and shielded children.
This is why so many of these disgruntled and hopeless youths take to drugs and become hardened criminals. Even without a natural urge to live a life of crime, some are forced into it in order to maintain their drug habit. And because it is a vicious cycle of sorts, being on drugs makes them bold enough to commit any kind of crime. And so the vice goes on. Until we are ready to tackle the root causes of insecurity in our midst, no amount expended to provide security will yield the desired result. A clear proof of my claim is this year’s abominably high security vote and its abysmal impact on the nation.
One of the many ways to tackle the causes as opposed to the symptoms of insecurity in Nigeria is to slash that outrageous security budget by at least sixty percent and invest the excess right into power generation and agriculture. With adequate electricity power, industries can be revived and our youths can get employed. In fact the opportunities for growth and development, in a country with such vast human and material resources as Nigeria, are endless if only we generate the required level of electricity power. Then we must invest the rest in agriculture. It is hard to believe that in a country where seventy percent of the people are farmers, a meagre 79 billion only was budgeted for agriculture, less than 10% of what was set aside for security. We must redress this misplaced priority with the greatest urgency.
The danger in awarding so much money to security is that we only end up enriching foreign countries with our much-needed funds. Countries which specialise in so-called security expertise will continue to sell us needless gadgets and consultancy services which only serve to fortify the big shots in the society and keep them further away from the common man. But these will never chase away the problems of crime and bloodshed because they are not tailored to tackle insecurity from the root. We have to wake up to this reality and design a multi-sectored approach to our security situation.
As Nigeria’s finance minister and the coordinating minister for our economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is well placed to chart a course and lead this new approach. Her exposure to international finance ought to have equipped her with a far-sighted way of dealing with our socio-economic problems. Alas what we see leaves a lot to be desired. Her poverty alleviation programmes, YOUWIN and SURE-P are not tailored to suit the needs of the generality of Nigerians. Instead of a well-thought out plan to set up an industry in every local government in Nigeria, possibly according to the natural resources available in the area or the particular traditional expertise of the people, we got a scheme to enrich a few young people overnight and leave the generality to themselves.
If the youth of Ogwashi-Uku had been well-served through the provision of gainful employment, they wouldn’t have cooperated with the criminal elements which got them to kidnap their own Queen Mother and accomplished matriarch, Professor Kanene Okonjo. Whoever was behind this criminal act, one thing is certain, they will be defeated by a government which puts its people first and strives endlessly for their benefit. So far the only thing we’ve seen in this government, apart from a hyperbolic security budget (with no commensurate result) in 2012, is a plan for more misplaced priorities in 2013. One such item is the two billion naira presidential banquet hall in Aso Villa, when the current one is still as good as new; a nine-billion naira completion estimate for the house of the Vice President, when the project is almost completed, and a multi-million naira zoo in the State House. Talk about white elephant projects.
As long as our leaders continue to the bury their heads in sand, believing that all is well because our people are not on the streets rioting for bread, so long will they continue to battle insecurity since the main causes of it are not addressed. Already criminals have discovered the joy of kidnapping high-profile subjects and extorting ransom from desperate relatives. They can only grow worse. Unless Dr Okonjo-Iweala and her economic team will rise up to this challenge and advise government on the right policies to serve Nigerians. For sure the current ones have failed us and also exposed the fallacy of a high security vote. It is time for a rethink.