Nigeria: CISLAC raises concern over increasing Insecurity inspite of huge spending

By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna

Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), have expressed worries over the increasing security challenges in Nigeria since 2009, despite the huge amount of money being spent by the government.

The NGO noted that it is difficult to justify the huge investment being made by the government because the more money allocated to the defence and security sector, the more security challenges the country faces.

CISLAC, raised the concern at the weekend in Abuja, during a One Day Media Workshop on Effective Oversight and Defence Anti-Corruption Reportage, aimed at expanding the understanding of journalist, on the systematic corrupt practices in the defence and security sector and to set an agenda for journalists towards a more effective citizens representation.

Executive Director of CISLAC, Dr. Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, in his remarks noted that corruption in the defence and security sector has proven itself to be a counter weapon in the fight against terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria.

According to him, “this has been demonstrated overtime in the prolonged battle against insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping, despite the increasing resources plunged into the sector.”

Represented by a Senior Program Officer, Bertha Ogbimi, Dr. Rafsanjani, said “the level of insecurity we have today can not be detached from corrupt practices within the defence and security sector. The kind of issues we are faced today ought not to be what we should be faced with.

“If you look at what is happening today in Nigeria regarding security, you will understand that Nigeria is bedeviled by multidimensional security challenges.

“It became very pronounced from 2009 and up until now we had experienced diverse dimensions of insecurity, ranging from terrorist attack to banditry, kidnapping.

“Today the world of the business of conflict entrepreneuring is flourishing because a lot of people are beginning to see the lucrative nature of conflict entrepreneurship.

“You would also agree with me that from 2019 till date a lot has been remitted, a lot is being allocated to the defense and and the security sector. One would think that ordinarily, because of the enormous amount of money being allocated to the defense and security sector, all the issues of insecurity would have been addressed.

“Unfortunately, this is not the case. It keeps moving from one level to another level, and then we want to know why the defense sector in particular is shrouded in so much secrecy.”

He tasked journalists to brace up and take up the responsibility of oversighting the security sector to entrench accountability and transparency in the system.

“Journalists are the ones that can actually ask questions about what is going on in the sector and get answers to the public, and even hold the leadership of the defense and security sector, accountable, including the politicians who are now influencing the defense and security sector.

“By the time we do some level of naming and shaming, we’ll get them to sit up.” He added.

The workshop was organised by CISLAC in collaboration with Transparency International – Defence Project (TI-DSP) with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands.