2026 Budget: Reps Lament N5.41Trn Allocation To Security, Intelligence Sector …Says, It Is Too Meagre, Call For More Funds Allocation

By Alkassim Bala Tsakuwa, Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Security and Intelligence has lamented the Meagre allocation of N5.42 trillion for the security and intelligence sector despite its overwhelming mandate of tackling growing threats in the country.

Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Satomi Ahmed voiced the disappointment during the budget defence session with security agencies at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

He recalled that, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had in his 2026 budget speech acknowledged the relevance of the intelligence subsector in the overall drive for a stable national security.

Hon. Ahmed said, “However, looking at the 2026 Budget proposal, the Defence and security is allocated 5.41 trillion-naira. The intelligence subsector comprising the Office of the NSA and its Agencies, the Department of State Services, The National Intelligence Agency, Presidential Air Fleet and the National Institute for Security Studies is allocated a total of N664,119,740 for their Personnel, overhead and Capital Expenditures in 2026.

“Further breakdown shows that personnel cost for all the Agencies in the Intelligence sector for 2026 is N245,941,663,329, total overhead cost proposal is N131,273,507,85 and total proposed capital expenditure N286,904,549,354.

“These allocations are indeed very abysmal and does not seem to match the intent of the speech delivered by the president to the Joint Session of the National Assembly on December 19th 2025.

“Also, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the presidency priorities security and intelligence if we go by the releases for the 2025 budget implementation, at the least the releases that is known to us. One would have expected that if indeed the provision of welfare and security is the primary purpose of governance, then releases to the security sector should not be treated trivially.

“This Committee is therefore making a passionate appeal to our dear president to please look into the funding of the agencies in the intelligence sector, enhance them and prioritise them.

“In 2024, this committee undertook a visit to the training schools of the Department of State services in Bauchi, Lagos and Enugu and have scheduled to visit the remaining ones in Kaduna and the proposed institutions sites at Kogi and cross rivers states. We also visited the Training school of the NIA in Lagos.

“We were disheartened by the sorry state of the facilities in all the schools we visited as what we observed cannot in all honestly deliver world class technical, psychological and sociological capabilities to our men and women who are laying down their lives for the service of our beloved country.

“Again, this committee calls on our dear president to direct that these training schools be given separate funding heads in the budget as is done with the Armed forces and police training institution and adequate provisions should be made to run them”.