The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Hon. Ahmad Satomi has accused President Bola Tinubu of not matching his words with actions as regards tackling the security problem of the country.
Satomi expressed his dissatisfaction when the Permanent Secretary, Special Services, Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), Mohammed Sanusi appeared before the committee on Wednesday in Abuja during a budget defence session.
He recalled that the President recently declared a State of Emergency on National Security and also acknowledged the relevance of the intelligence subsector in the overall drive for a stable national security.
“Our administration is resetting the national security architecture and establishing a new national counterterrorism doctrine — a holistic redesign anchored on unified command, intelligence gathering, community stability, and counter – insurgency. This new doctrine will fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes,” the president had declared.
However, the chairman noted that a cursory look at the amount earmarked for the intelligence sub-sector in the 2026 Budget was abysmal.
Satomi stated: “However, looking at the 2026 Budget proposal, the Defence and security is allocated N5.41 trillion.
“The intelligence subsector comprising the Office of the NSA and its Agencies, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency, Presidential Air Fleet and the National Institute for Security Studies is allocated a total of N664,119,740 for their Personnel, overhead and Capital Expenditures in 2026.”
The chairman added that further breakdown shows that personnel cost for all the agencies in the intelligence sector for 2026 is N245,941,663,329, while total overhead cost proposal is N131,273,507,85 and total proposed capital expenditure N286,904,549,354.
Satomi noted: “These allocations are indeed very abysmal and do not seem to match the intent of the speech delivered by the president to the Joint Session of the National Assembly on December 19th 2025.
“Also, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the presidency priorities security and intelligence if we go by the releases for the 2025 budget implementation, at least, the releases that are known to us.
“One would have expected that if indeed the provision of welfare and security is the primary purpose of governance, then releases to the security sector should not be treated trivially.
“This Committee is therefore making a passionate appeal to our dear president to please look into the funding of the agencies in the intelligence sector, enhance them and prioritise them.”