Unaccounted “security votes,” massive state budgets, and worsening violence raise questions about where the money went.
By Ebere Inyama
BENUE STATE — Nigeria’s federal and state governments spent more than $377.4 million on security budgets between 2023 and 2025, yet violence — especially against Christian communities in the Middle Belt — continues to escalate. Despite billions in allocations, watchdog groups say governors cannot explain how the funds were used, and communities under attack report no meaningful improvement in protection.
“Between 5,000 and 10,000 Christians are killed in Nigeria each year in direct attacks while 800 Christian villages have disappeared over the past three decades after repeated assaults left communities destroyed or abandoned”, said Judd Saul, founder of Equipping the Persecuted and CEO of TruthNigeria.
In January, 2026, an advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) filed a lawsuit against Nigeria’s governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike over their “failure to account for the spending of billions of naira of public funds in the name of ‘security votes’ since 29 May 2023”.
The concept of ‘security vote’
Originally conceived as emergency funding instruments to enable rapid response to unforeseen threats, Security vote is a monthly allowance allocated to state governors to fund non-classified security expenditures within the states. These funds, officially earmarked for urgent security interventions, are not audited, lack expenditure breakdowns, and are shielded from public scrutiny, according to the Nigerian Voice.
Security votes run into billions of Naira and they vary based on the level of security intervention required by the individual state or the level of influence the governor wields over the legislature, according to The Cable.
“Unlike other portions of the federal and state budgets, the security vote is not itemized and officials do not de-conflict security vote outlays with previous—or planned—security expenditures to prevent duplicative or unnecessary spending”, according to a report by Transparency International.
“Officials do not consult legislators about security vote expenditures, nor give them details of the prior year’s spending and neither the federal nor state officials seek input on security vote spending priorities from the public or civil society groups”, the report added.
Security votes spending puts state governors ‘in the eye of the storm’
Following the controversies surrounding the allocation and spending of security budgets in Nigeria, state governors are under pressure to provide clarifications on how the ‘security votes’ allocated to them are being spent.
In a statement on 2 June, 2026, founder of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, accused Nigerian governors of spending ‘security votes’ on frivolities.
“They spend it on parties and young girls instead of securing the people that voted for them”, Ayodele wrote in the statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin.
“Some of the governors covertly promote insecurity as justification to inflate their security vote and we have seen evidence of theft of public resources by some state governors – cashing in on the insecurity in their states,” said former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu.
The sharing formula
States across Nigeria earmarked a combined $377.4 million (₦525.23bn) for security votes and related operations between 2023 and 2025, according to an analysis of figures extracted from approved budget documents. The analysis is based on the budgets of 32 state governors, as Gombe, Kebbi, Niger and Yobe did not clearly disclose their allocations for security vote over the three year period under review.
Borno State in the North East spent ₦57.40bn (approximately $50m), while Anambra and Delta spent ₦42.57bn ($30m) and ₦38.44bn ( $27m) respectively.
Benue State spent ₦36.87bn ($27m), Ondo spent ₦31.72bn ($23m) while Zamfara state spent ₦31.40bn ($22m).
Other states with huge security budgets include Edo state that spent ₦29.21bn ($20m), Adamawa spent ₦27.00bn ($19m) and Bauchi spent ₦25.41bn ($18m).
At the lower end of the scale, Rivers state disclosed just ₦210m ($160,000) over the three year period, while Akwa Ibom spent ₦624m ($448,000) and Ekiti recorded ₦3.1m ($ 200,000), showing wide disparities in how states prioritized security vote spending.
$11.5 bn spent on projects, governance costs in 3 yrs
Between January 2023 and mid-2026, Nigeria’s 36 state governments received a cumulative total of over ₦16.11 trillion ($11.5 bn) from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for the funding of public services, infrastructural development and running government operations.
This figure excludes ₦5.5 trillion (approximately $3.9 bn) disbursed to Nigeria’s 774 local governments (Counties) by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in 2025 and ₦3.7 trillion (approximately $2.5 bn) disbursed in 2024”, according to a report by ThisDay.
“Despite these funds allocated to the states and Local governments (counties), poverty and underdevelopment remain deeply entrenched at the grassroots”, the report added.
Nigerians react
“The Benue state government has not taken any steps to translate the gains of these huge allocations to bolster food security and employment generation”, said the Benue state coordinator for NACCIMA Youths Entrepreneurs (NYE), Mr James Idyu, to TruthNigeria.
“The huge fertile land is still begging for attention while unemployment is at a standstill”, Idyu added.
Independent reports and ongoing military operations in some parts of the southeast indicate a tense environment where local economies are severely disrupted.
“The security situation in Orlu county of Imo State in July, 2026 remains volatile and most communities in the area have remained deserted”, said Francis Nwosu, a resident of Orlu County in Imo state to TruthNigeria.
In Ezeagu county of Enugu state, killing of community residents by the Fulani Ethnic Militia and frequent clashes between the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and Nigerian soldiers have driven residents away from their ancestral homes, according to a recent report by TruthNigeria.
Ebere Inyama reports on conflict for TruthNigeria
