Following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval of the 2026 budget, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrived at the joint session of the National Assembly for the formal presentation on Friday.
At the core of the budget is ₦5.41 trillion allocated for the national security and defence architecture.
President Tinubu, while presenting the 2026 budget, stated that his administration is focused on investing in security with clear accountability for outcomes, stressing that security spending must deliver security results.
Among the focus areas spelt out by the president are the modernisation of the Armed Forces, an intelligence‑driven policing and joint operations, border security and technology‑enabled surveillance and community‑based peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
Tinubu said, “We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes—because security spending must deliver security results.
“To secure our country, our priority will remain on increasing the fighting capability of our armed forces and other security agencies by boosting personnel and procuring cutting-edge platforms and other hardware.
“We are also pursuing a new era of criminal justice system to stamp out terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom and other violent crimes.”
The President added, “Our administration is resetting the national security architecture and establishing a new national counterterrorism doctrine—a holistic redesign anchored on unified command, intelligence, community stability, and counter-insurgency.
“This new doctrine will fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes that have become existential threats to our corporate survival and have heightened anxiety among our people.”
President Tinubu declared that under the new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists.
He said, “These include bandits, militias, armed gangs, criminal networks with weapons, armed robbers, violent cult groups, forest-based armed collectives, and foreign-linked mercenaries.
“Groups or individuals conducting violence for political, ethnic, financial, or sectarian objectives are also classified as terrorists. Members of any group extorting communities, kidnapping civilians, occupying or seeking to occupy territory within Nigeria will be classified as terrorists.”
He added, “The denominator is that if you wield lethal weapons and act outside the state’s authority, you are a terrorist.
“Any individual or entity that enables the listed groups as financiers, money handlers, harbourers, informants, ransom facilitators, and negotiators will also be classified as terrorists. Political protectors and intermediaries, transporters, arms suppliers, and safe-house operators.”
