President Bola Tinubu has earmarked N5.41tn for Security, the single largest allocation in the proposed 2026 budget.
It marked the third consecutive year that defence and security spending has taken priority since the administration began presenting national budgets in November 2023.
This was revealed by Tinubu on Friday during the presentation of the N58.18 trillion 2026 Appropriations Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly. He stated that social stability, investment, and economic progress are all dependent on national security.
Defence and security will receive N5.41 trillion under the proposal, ahead of infrastructure, education, and health. This is in line with a pattern that was established in the budgets for 2024 and 2025, when security consistently received the highest sectoral funding despite ongoing threats from kidnapping, terrorism, and banditry.
The President warned parliamentarians that “security remains the foundation of development,” emphasising that other economic sectors would find it difficult to prosper in the absence of peace and stability.
The 2026 budget blueprint was adopted by the Federal Executive Council hours earlier during an emergency meeting that Vice President Kashim Shettima presided over for the first time.
With significant spending constraints from debt service, wages, and security responsibilities, the council set a total expenditure target of N58.47 trillion.
Tinubu broke down the 2026 budget proposal, stating that the security vote would be used to assist cooperative security agency activities, improve border monitoring, bolster intelligence-driven policing, and modernise the armed forces.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes because security spending must deliver security results,” he said.
Additionally, he declared a significant overhaul of Nigeria’s national security framework, which included the creation of a new national counterterrorism doctrine based on community stability, unified command, and intelligence cooperation.
Tinubu announced that all armed groups operating outside of state authority, including bandits, militias, kidnappers, armed gangs, and violent cult groups, would be categorised as terrorists under the proposed framework, along with their financiers, informants, and political or community enablers.
The President claimed that in order to overcome operational and legal flaws that had allowed violent groups to flourish for years, the stricter classification was required.
Beyond security, the 2026 budget also proposes N3.56tn for infrastructure, N3.52tn for education, and N2.48tn for health.
Tinubu acknowledged the pressure on public finances but insisted that prioritising security was unavoidable.
The President asked MPs to back the plan, claiming that it was intended to restore public trust in the state’s capacity to safeguard people and property while consolidating recent economic gains.
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