$618m Military Loan: Why is The Country Spending More on Military Hardware?

The Nigerian Government has approved plans to borrow $618m to purchase fighter jets and ammunition, raising questions about the increased military spending in the face of the current economic challenges ravaging the country.

Nigeria’s information Minister, Mohammed Idris, stated on Wednesday that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved borrowing roughly $618 million from a group of financiers to buy six Italian-made M-346 attack jets and ammunition for the country’s air force.

Earlier in October, the Air Force had stated it was acquiring 24 M-346 combat jets and 10 AW109 Trekker helicopters as part of a fleet renewal strategy.

The first three M-346 jets are expected to be delivered by early 2025, with subsequent deliveries running until mid-2026.
This is the latest in a series of military spending embarked upon in recent times as the country struggles the spate of security challenges it currently faces. 

Defense Allocation in Recent Years

Since 2019, the budgetary allocation to the security sector in Nigeria has steadily improved as the years go by.

In 2019, Nigeria’s defense budget stood at N589.9billion, a further breakdown reveals that of this figure, N430.83b went to recurrent expenditure while N159.1b accounted for capital expenditure. On a whole the N589.9billion spent on defense accounted for security-related expenditures including funding for the military, police, and other security agencies to address various security challenges in the country.

In 2020, Nigeria’s defense budget jumped to an estimated N900billion, representing approximately 36% of the total budget. In 2021, the spending on defense moved to N966billion.

in 2022, defense spending hit N1.2trillion, while in 2023, the budgetary allocation to the defense ministry was put at approximately N1.4trillion, out of this figure N204.60 billion, and N156.20 billion were budgeted for capital expenditure respectively in both years. The Defense budget for 2024 was N1.647 trillion, representing about 5.7 % of the entire 2024 budget. 

In addition to the budgetary allocations to the defense sector, there has also been a series of bailouts and supplementary spending on the sector especially in light of the country’s battle against insurgency.

Nigeria’s Military Spending Over the Years              

Nigeria has significantly increased military spending in recent years to combat escalating violence, particularly in the northwest, where armed bandits have been increasingly active, and in the northeast, where the military has been engaged in a prolonged 15-year insurgency against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). There have also been cases of farmer-herder clashes, Kidnapping and a series of other security challenges plaguing the country.

since the war against insurgency started in 2009, there has been no year the military did not get a chunk of the national budget. Most times, the Defense budget is higher than even education or works, essentially because Nigeria value security. But the country has not got quite a good deal in the issues of security. So, when it got clear that the regular budgetary allocations were not enough to tackle the rising cases of insecurity

in 2018, prior to the 2019 elections the sum of $1 billion was taken from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to purchase more arms and ammunition to combat and over run book Haram insurgents out of which $496 million was used to order the 12 Tucano fighter jets.

President Tinubu also approved a N982.72 billion 2021 supplementary budget, which was designed for the provision of military hardware and COVID-19 response. The Nigerian government also procured 12 AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopters worth nearly $1 billion.

Some other new platforms acquired by the military are the JF-17 Thunder aircraft, and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The Nigerian Air Force is also expecting the delivery of additional new platforms before the end of the first quarter of 2023. These platforms include two CASA-295 medium airlift aircraft, two Beechcraft King Air 360, 4 Diamond DA-62 surveillance aircraft, three Wing Loong II UCAVs and 6 T-129 ATAK helicopters. Others are two Agusta 109 Trekker multi-role helicopters, 12 AH-1Z attack helicopters and 24 M-346 attack aircraft.

In 2022, President Buhari revealed that his administration had invested over $1 billion in the acquisition of weapons from the United States and other countries in the fight against insurgency since he assumed office in 2015.

This is just one in a series of investments in the sector with the US also making significant contributions to Nigeria’s insecurity fight in terms of sales of arms and ammunition as well as military personnel development.

Nigeria is a partner in the Africa Military Education Program (AMEP) and has benefited from approximately $500,000 since 2016 to support instructor and curriculum development at Nigerian military schools.  From 2016- 2020, $1.8 million was obligated for Nigeria in Foreign Military Financing to support maritime security, military professionalization, and counterterrorism efforts by the US. Nigeria has also benefitted over $8 million worth of training, equipment, and advisory support for counterterrorism efforts between 2019 – 2023 from the US.

The United States currently has $590 million in active government-to-government sales cases with Nigeria under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system.  significant sales include the 2017 sale of 12 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft worth $497 million to support Nigerian military operations against Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa. in August 2023, Nigeria also recently delivered the first payment for 12 AH-1Z Attack Helicopters worth a total of $997 million.

In 2011 and 2015 Nigeria received $15 million in defense articles granted under the Excess Defense Articles program, it included 24 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and two Hamilton-class U.S. Coast Guard high endurance cutters – the USCGC Chase and USCGC Gallatin – which entered service in the Nigerian Navy as Thunder and Okpabana in 2011 and 2014, respectively.

Between 2018 & 2022, the United States also authorized the permanent export of over $53 million in defense articles to Nigeria via the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) process. The top three categories of defense exports to Nigeria were Fire Control, Laser, Imaging, and Guidance Equipment; Firearms and Related Articles; and Guns and Armament.

In the 2023 defense budget, N27.3 billion was budgeted for additional payment for the procurement of six T-129 attack helicopters, N2.7 billion for three units of Magnus MF 212 surveillance attack aircraft and N3 billion for three units of Bell UH 1D helicopter and Ocea3X32 fast patrol boats for the Navy.

All these spending mean the security sector has gulped over N12 trillion in the last eight years.

Nigeria Has Very Little to Show for Huge Military Spending

Despite the massive amounts of money spent on the defense sector over the years, Nigeria seems to have gotten little or nothing from it with the security situation worsening daily.

Despite increased budgetary allocations for security under the leadership of former President Muhammadu Buhari, insecurity worsened. Terrorism and insurgency rose in the North East, banditry seeped into the North West and North Central regions. In the South East, secessionist agitations and the trend of unknown gunmen took centre stage, with the South-South region experiencing frequent incidents of oil theft. In the South West, like most parts of the country, kidnapping became the order of the day.

Non-state actors, terrorists and insurgents have continued to wreak havoc in almost every region of the country with the cumulative deaths in the nation blamed on Boko Haram increased from 16,984 at the end of 2019 to 18,992 at the end of 2022, showing that another 2,008 persons were killed by the Islamist group in the period. Between the end of 2019 and 2022, the cumulative deaths blamed on sectarian actors increased by 2,497 persons.

Some Positive Results

The military spending of the country has had some impact despite its larger ineffectiveness. the military in July, 2024 disclosed that the increased momentum of offensive operations against terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements has resulted in Nigeria recording a significant decrease in the number of persons killed through terror attacks by 23 per cent according to the Global Terrorism Index Report.

Also, banditry in the North east seem to have reduced a bit partly due to the killing of top bandits like Haliru Kachalla Sububu or Buzu, Kachalla Tukur Sharme (killed by rival gang), Sani Black, another prominent bandit leader, killed along with his brother and two children, Kachalla Makore, Kachalla Mai Shayi Kachalla Tsoho Lulu and Mai’Yar Gitta by the military.

Also, due to certain militarized operations, farmer-herder clashes have been settled in some states with farmers able to return to their farms. Separatist agitations in certain parts of the country also look to have been fairly contained, a lot however still needs to be done.

The Way Forward

The defense budget has been heavily criticized especially as the country continues to perform poorly in global rankings on peace and security. Nigeria ranks 147^th of the 163 countries ranked in the Global Peace Index for 2024. The country also occupies the 8^th position among countries with the highest terrorism levels, according to the 2024 Global Terrorism Index improving from 6^th in 2022.

There is therefore ultimately a need to justify the money spent on defense over the years, especially in light of the economic challenges presently facing the nation and its citizens.

To achieve this, corruption in the defense sector has to be dealt with, over the years top military officials have been accused of widespread corruption and diversion of funds with some of them convicted. There is therefore a need to fix the rot in the defense sector to ensure the dividends of the latest spending on defense are seen.

 

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