Political Risk:
Very High
Score:
28/100
Defence and Security Policy and Policy Transparency
Q1
25/100
Is there formal provision for effective and independent legislative scrutiny of defence policy?
View Question
The National Assembly (NASS) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has oversight powers which are not clearly defined in law and are seldom exercised…
Explore
The NASS can review a policy when it is consulted and pass or veto legislation (1). However, the consultation process is intermittent and it…
Explore
The defence policy is shrouded by secrecy and is not consistently submitted for legislative scrutiny (1). By continuously failing to submit defence policy for…
Explore
Q2
13/100
Does the country have an identifiable and effective parliamentary defence and security committee (or similar such organisations) to exercise oversight?
View Question
A defence committee exists, including a special Presidential National Defence Policy Committee, the Senate Committee on Defence, and the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and…
Explore
Despite the NASS’s formal powers of oversight, it functions weakly because of the general lack of expertise among members of the National Assembly Defence…
Explore
A special Presidential National Defence Policy Committee was set up in 2015 to review the National Defence Policy the report of that committee has…
Explore
The previous administration and the current administration announced an additional $1 billion to fight the northeastern insurgency (1), (2) without any serious objection or…
Explore
The available information suggests that there has not been a long-term review of the national defence policy for ten years (1). Without a long…
Explore
Given that there has been no review of the national defence policy in ten years, there is no evidence that the government incorporates some…
Explore
Q3
25/100
Is the country’s national defence policy or national security strategy debated and publicly available?
View Question
There is no evidence in the form of media reports or other publicly available material to indicate that the defence policy is debated. References…
Explore
Because there is no public debate of national defence policy, this indicator has been marked Not Applicable. References to the national defence policy in…
Explore
Although the Senate defence committees have the power to hold public hearings, there is no evidence that such hearings fully engage with Civil Society…
Explore
The websites of the defence agencies do not contain any documents on the national defence policy. The MOD website has no publications on the…
Explore
Q4
25/100
Do defence and security institutions have a policy, or evidence, of openness towards civil society organisations (CSOs) when dealing with issues of corruption?
View Question
There is no policy of openness with the national defence policy. CSOs groups are not involved in the formulation or discussions surrounding national defence…
Explore
Although CSOs operate freely the recent NGO bill which is being debated by the National Assembly proposes to tighten the regulation of CSOs [1].…
Explore
In a recent survey conducted by PPDC on the responsiveness of Public Institutions to Freedom of Information Act Requests Security agencies scored poorly. None…
Explore
Q5
75/100
Has the country signed up to the following international anti-corruption instruments: UNCAC and the OECD Convention?
View Question
Q6
38/100
Is there evidence of regular, active public debate on issues of defence? If yes, does the government participate in this debate?
View Question
Because of the underfunding and poor training of the Nigerian Police Force and the weakness of the internal security structure, there is an increasing…
Explore
The government does engage in public debates mainly in a defensive manner to rebut allegations raised by the media and CSOs. There are some…
Explore
Q7
38/100
Does the country have an openly stated and effectively implemented anti-corruption policy for the defence sector?
View Question
IIt is not clear how the National Anti-Corruption Strategy relates to the military sector as there is no specific reference to the military sector…
Explore
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy sets out the broad vision and goal, and it is left to the individual units to develop an action plan…
Explore
Q8
58/100
Are there independent, well-resourced, and effective institutions within defence and security tasked with building integrity and countering corruption?
View Question
The Office of the Director (Office of the Permanent Secretary) Special Duties was created to oversee the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU). It has…
Explore
The Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) is under the Ministry of Defence but is also under civilian control. The Unit is quasi-autonomous to the…
Explore
The information available does not suggest that action plans have been prepared since the publication of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy document was published by…
Explore
Q9
NS/100
Does the public trust the institutions of defence and security to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in their establishments?
View Question
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. There is a public perception of corruption in the Military as a result of…
Explore
Q10
0/100
Are there regular assessments of the areas of greatest corruption risk for ministry and armed forces personnel, and are the findings used as inputs to the anti-corruption policy?
View Question
The Anti-Corruptions Units have not developed and published their action plans, despite requirement by the NACS that such assessments should be carried out. Despite…
Explore
The operations of Anti-Corruptions Units are unknown. Although the NACS has mandated the ACU to conduct assessments regularly, there is no evidence of such…
Explore
The operations of Anti-Corruptions Units are unknown. Although the NACS has mandated the ACU to conduct assessments regularly, there is no evidence of such…
Explore
Defence Budgets
Q11
8/100
Does the country have a process for acquisition planning that involves clear oversight, and is it publicly available?
View Question
There is an existing process for acquisition planning in the ministries and parastatals. This involves parliamentary oversight and appropriations are made public. Sanusi [2011:192]…
Explore
There is no transparency in the defence acquisition process. This has been highlighted over many years and has still not been rectified since the…
Explore
Some military expenditure tends to be ad hoc (1). Where parliamentary oversight is exercised it tends to be superficial and examines basic budget performance.…
Explore
Q12
13/100
Is the defence budget transparent, showing key items of expenditure? And it is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion?
View Question
The defence budget is not comprehensive. The National Planning Office recently clarified that there was no padding – inclusion of an extraneous or unexplained…
Explore
Although the legislature receives a proposal for the Ministry of Defence, Defence Headquarters, and the military services (1), it does not receive budget proposals…
Explore
Q13
50/100
Is there a legislative committee (or other appropriate body) responsible for defence budget scrutiny and analysis in an effective way?
View Question
The House of Assembly has considerable powers set out in the Constitution to form committees to oversee the functions of government, including those of…
Explore
The Defence Committee does formally review the defence budget (1), (2), but the review is subject to political influences and gains (3), (4), (5).
Explore
Q14
8/100
Is the approved defence budget made publicly available? In practice, can citizens, civil society, and the media obtain detailed information on the defence budget?
View Question
Nigeria has a poor score on the IBP Open Budgets Survey for 2017 (1). This indicates that budget transparency has reduced significantly since 2015…
Explore
Media sources often contain headline figures and some budget breakdown of the figures involved (1), (2).
Explore
Security concerns are often identified as the reason why information is not made available to the public. Freedom of Information Act requests are often…
Explore
Q15
17/100
Are sources of defence income other than from central government allocation (from equipment sales or property disposal, for example) published and scrutinised?
View Question
Technically there are only a limited number of sources of income from commercial companies such as DICON as the defence sector is not primarily…
Explore
The Daskigate corruption scandal was mainly uncovered by a special audit committee created by President Buhari to investigate defence spending between 2007 -2015 (1),…
Explore
There is no evidence of scrutiny of non-central government sources of funding. CSOs have no access to this information and compliance with the Freedom…
Explore
Q16
19/100
Is there an effective internal audit process for defence ministry expenditure (that is, for example, transparent, conducted by appropriately skilled individuals, and subject to parliamentary oversight)?
View Question
Although internal audit units exist, their operations are mired in secrecy. The Directorate of Finance and Administration is responsible for internal audits at the…
Explore
The National Assembly does not play a key role in military expenditure, particularly defence expenditure concerning weapons procurement contracts (1). The NASS has a…
Explore
The auditor general’s report is in most instances released late. For example, the auditor general’s report for 2015 was submitted to the National Assembly…
Explore
Given the delay in the processes surrounding the report, there is little evidence of monitoring and evaluation results incorporated into the next budget cycle.…
Explore
Q17
17/100
Is there effective and transparent external auditing of military defence expenditure?
View Question
There is a great deal of respect for the military and in practice, this leads to a disproportionate amount of deference given to security…
Explore
As noted above, external audits of the MoD are performed by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, which submits its reports directly…
Explore
This indicator has not been assigned a score due to insufficient information or evidence.
Explore
There is no evidence suggesting that the MoD addresses recommedations from audit findings.The Nigerian Audit Act of 1956, which is the statutory provision for…
Explore
Nexus of Defence and National Assets
Q18
30/100
Is there evidence that the country’s defence institutions have controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation and, if so, are these interests publicly stated and subject to scrutiny?
View Question
Although defence institutions are not expressly excluded from having an interest in natural resources exploitation, the legal rules surrounding the ownership and control of…
Explore
Corruption is systemic and nationwide (1). However, there is no evidence that the army, navy, air force have institutional interests in natural resource exploitation;…
Explore
Corruption is systemic and nationwide (1). However, there is no evidence that the army, navy, air force have institutional interests in natural resource exploitation;…
Explore
The legal and regulatory framework does not make it possible for military officials or institutions to have a direct interest in the extractive sector…
Explore
As this is illegal activity, there is no form of scrutiny which takes place. The operations are shrouded in secrecy (1), (2).
Explore
Organised Crime
Q19
25/100
Is there evidence, for example through media investigations or prosecution reports, of a penetration of organised crime into the defence and security sector? If no, is there evidence that the government is alert and prepared for this risk?
View Question
There are credible reports of collusion between the security agencies and organised crime such as oil bunkering. There is evidence of the existence of…
Explore
The Buhari administration has investigated and prosecuted some high ranking defence officials for a range of offences including corruption and embezzlement of public funds…
Explore
Q20
63/100
Is there policing to investigate corruption and organised crime within the defence services and is there evidence of the effectiveness of this policing?
View Question
There are systems and structures in place to deal with the infiltration of organised crime and corruption within the defence and security services. The…
Explore
This indicator has not been assigned a score due to insufficient information or evidence.
Explore
While evidence exists of investigations into some allegations against officers appointed by the previous administration, investigations into officers appointed by the Buhari administration have…
Explore
Control of Intelligence Services
Q21
38/100
Are the policies, administration, and budgets of the intelligence services subject to effective and independent oversight?
View Question
The intelligence services are subject to effective oversight through the Senate and House Committees on National Security and Intelligence (1). They are mandated to…
Explore
In response to the needs assessment and capacity building workshop conducted by PLAC, legislators and clerks indicated that infrequent meetings of the Senate Committees…
Explore
Q22
25/100
Are senior positions within the intelligence services filled on the basis of objective selection criteria, and are appointees subject to investigation of their suitability and prior conduct?
View Question
TThe selection criteria are objective but also take into account “federal character” which requires that appointment should reflect the six geo-political zones. The “federal…
Explore
Although the National Assembly has a residual power to vet and confirm appointments, this does not constitute an effective check and balance on the…
Explore
There is considerable security vetting of senior appointments by security agencies. However, defects within the vetting system also exist, which means that bias often…
Explore
Export Controls
Q23
NA/100
Does the government have a well-scrutinised process for arms export decisions that aligns with Articles 7.1.iv, 11.5, and 15.6 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)?
View Question
Nigeria signed and ratified the treaty on August 12, 2013. However, the treaty must be confirmed in the National Assembly to become law. An…
Explore
Nigeria signed and ratified the treaty on August 12, 2013. However, the treaty must be confirmed in the National Assembly to become law. An…
Explore
Nigeria is primarily an importer and not an exporter of arms. As according to the ECOWAS Parliament-DCAF Guide for West African Parliamentarians: “The central…
Explore
Lobbying in Defence
Nigeria has no framework for regulating lobbying activity. In October 2016 the Nigerian Senate approved the second reading of the Lobbying Disclosure Act Amendment…
Explore
Nigeria has no framework for regulating lobbying activity. Therefore, this indicator has been marked Not Applicable.
Explore
Nigeria has no framework for regulating lobbying activity. Therefore, this indicator has been marked Not Applicable.
Explore
Nigeria has no framework for regulating lobbying activity. Therefore, this indicator has been marked Not Applicable.
Explore