Nigeria: Rethinking Security Votes

7 August 2020
editorial

Security votes should be spent with discretion

Above all other attributes, security of the citizens is what defines a state. This significance is reflected in the Nigerian constitution in a very crucial manner. That perhaps explains why the only appropriation vote over which the executive at both the federal and the states is granted discretionary spending is the security vote. This is the letter of the constitution. The spirit (the ennoblement) is the expectation that high office holders will exercise this discretion with utmost fidelity to the public interest. In the increasingly festering culture of corruption in Nigeria this spirit is observed more in the breach. And it is getting worse.

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