Nigeria Disburses N5.15tn to Military
Nigeria’s federal government has disbursed N5.15 trillion in special intervention funds to the military and related security agencies between November 2023 and September 2026, with 2026 payments already above the previous two years combined, according to a Punch analysis of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) records.
The ledger, titled “Ledger of Special Intervention Programme for Nigerian Military September, 2026,” was prepared by the Federation Account Department of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and presented to FAAC’s Technical Sub-Committee in Abuja on 14 October. It shows N5.65 trillion paid into a dedicated account over 33 funding transactions, of which N5.15 trillion, or 91.15 per cent, was released in 30 payments. The money is separate from the regular budget allocations to the Ministry of Defence and other security bodies. The records give no breakdown of the operations, equipment, personnel costs or projects it financed.
The pace changed in 2026. The programme began in late 2023 with N100bn monthly transfers. The account received N1.2 trillion in 2024 and N900 billion in the first nine months of 2025, and paid out the same amounts. In 2026, individual transfers rose to between N200bn and N500bn. The account received N3.25 trillion up to 14 October, 170.83 per cent more than in all of 2024, and paid out N2.75 trillion, 129.17 per cent more than in 2024 and 53.4 per cent of everything disbursed since the programme began. That exceeds the N2.4 trillion paid between November 2023 and September 2025.
A N500bn transfer on 14 October had no matching payment in the ledger, leaving N500bn, or 8.85 per cent of receipts, as an outstanding balance in the account. The ledger also shows irregularities in timing and description. Some payments are dated before the transfers that funded them, a N400bn transfer on 16 June was reversed the same day and replaced by N500bn, and a N120bn payment on 3 June went to a Consolidated Pool Account II TSA and is not expressly described as a transfer to military or paramilitary agencies.
The spending comes amid persistent insecurity, including the military’s campaign against Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province in the North-East, and banditry and mass kidnappings in parts of the North-West and North-Central regions.
In a related development, National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, represented by Major General Sarkin Bello (retd.), said on Thursday at the inauguration of a committee reviewing the 2019 National Security Strategy that Nigeria’s security environment had changed “dramatically, with intensity.” The new strategy, due as the National Security Strategy 2026, will address terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cybercrime, food insecurity and climate change. The committee’s deputy chairman, Major General Evi Onumajuru (retd.), said traditional and non-kinetic threats had become intertwined.
