INSECURITY IN THE LAKE CHAD REGION AND NIGERIA’S RISING DEFENCE BUDGETS

Abstract

With the advancement in technology, globalization, ideological explosions and the widespread of light weapons across the globe, the world is fast becoming insecure. In the contemporary world, insecurity knows no bound. Today, terrorism, mass – shooting, kidnapping and banditry have become threats to peace and security and are the highest contributors to humanitarian crises globally as well as the Lake Chad Region. This paper provides analytical and graphic scenarios of increase in defence budget, forgoing critical sectors of human capital development and infrastructure to finance wars and instabilities which only succeeds in making a cyclical adventure of insecurities. The study makes comparative analysis of the phenomenon from 2011 to 2020 when the budget was N121 billion; but with heightened insecurity, the budget was raised to N899 billion. The analyses showed that increase in the defence budget is at the expense of other critical sectors of development including education, agriculture, health and infrastructural development. Equally, the huge budgetary provisions for defence are evidently mismanaged and easily fall into the mighty loop of corruption. Corruption helps elongate the period of war; thereby putting the lives of the citizenry in danger. These lead to less informed society; high unemployment rate; unhealthy citizenry and many other factors that eventually booster insecurity. . The increase in the defence budget meant to ensure the efficacy of all the policies of government in ensuring a stable and peaceful nation does the opposite by opening plethora of security challenges. The study employed a progressive theory of public expenditure and relies on both primary and secondary sources of data. This study can be used as a benchmark by policy makers to formulate a policy that can create a peaceful atmosphere and the development of a comprehensive and workable strategy in defence budgeting and expenditure.