Senator Ahmed Lawan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, has called for more predictable funding and bulk procurement of military equipment to strengthen Nigeria’s response to insurgency and other security threats.
The former Senate president spoke at the 2026 conference of the Defence Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria, where he argued that personnel could not be expected to achieve optimal results without adequate platforms, ammunition and operational support.
Lawan suggested that a defined share of government resources could be directed towards equipping security agencies. He also said the National Assembly was considering arrangements to make funding for the armed forces and other security bodies more readily available, including a proposed first-line charge mechanism.
He praised the work of security personnel but said delayed releases and resource constraints remained significant challenges. The funding ideas he outlined were proposals, not measures already enacted.
Defence Minister General Christopher Musa, represented by retired Air Commodore Adewale Ogunmodede, said modern threats increasingly involve interconnected terrorist networks, technology, finance and weaknesses in institutional coordination.
Musa argued that security operations must combine effective combat action with intelligence, surveillance, communications, analytical capability and inter-agency cooperation. Detecting threats early, understanding networks and acting precisely could prevent attacks rather than merely responding after lives were lost, he said.
The minister cautioned that sophisticated equipment alone was insufficient without trained personnel, reliable systems, operational doctrine and sound judgement. The conference, themed around technology and intelligence-led national security, reflected a wider debate about how Nigeria can improve outcomes beyond conventional combat operations.
