Country: Nigeria

Weaponising Transparency has found that unpublished defence budgets and arms procurements are still open to abuse by corrupt officials seeking to benefit from the conflict with Boko Haram and launder stolen money abroad. Many deaths in the conflict have occurred while the military lacks vital equipment, critical training, and morale.

Since 2011, 50,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict with Boko Haram, while millions have been displaced. An estimated US $15bn has been stolen from the defence sector and billions of Naira spent annually without clear rationale. While President Buhari has made significant moves to take on the secretive and powerful defence sector, the pace of reform in the MOD is too slow and lacks any strategy.

Recent scandals surrounding arms procurement have highlighted how corruption in the Nigerian defence sector is threatening Nigerian security. Billions of dollars of equipment meant for soldiers to fight Boko Haram have allegedly been misappropriated by top-level defence and security officials, eroding the armed forces’ ability to respond to conflict and endangering the lives of Nigerian soldiers and citizens.

Notwithstanding the recent positive steps, more systemic reforms are needed if the Nigerian people are to be protected by well-equipped defence forces that operate with integrity. Defence budgets should be subject to open and robust scrutiny to ensure limited resources are spent wisely, particularly given that defence takes up approximately 20% of the overall budget per year. Procurement should be based on a clearly defined national defence strategy, and where possible, should be held through open competition to ensure that the armed forces receive the equipment they need. Personnel systems should reward capability to ensure that those troops that are the highest performers rather than those with connections or money rise to the top.