Reps move to establish security and intelligence trust fund

The house of representatives is considering establishing a security and intelligence trust fund.

The bill has passed first and second reading in the lower legislative chamber.

Speaking on Tuesday at a public hearing organised for the bill, Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house, said the proposed legislation intends to boost the capacity of Nigeria’s security and intelligence architecture.

“As you are aware, the security of life and property is a very vital nation-building tool. It is the most effective instrument in attracting investment and ensuring even development of a country,” Abbas said.

“Therefore, the importance of security cannot be over-emphasised especially in a country like ours that is pulling all the necessary plugs to attract investment and create opportunities for jobs and employment of our youths.”

Abbas said security has been a major challenge in the country, and Nigerians cannot “gloss over” the loss of human lives and properties arising from banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, oil and solid minerals theft, insurgency among others.

“These have had the combined effect of scaring investors and creating humanitarian challenges through the displacement of families,” he said.

“They have also created issues with food security arising from desertion of farms by farmers. It is therefore imperative that we use the instrumentality of the law to address these challenges effectively.”

The speaker said despite these challenges, security forces have continued to work hard to maintain security of lives and property.

He said the trust fund would help increase the funding of the security agencies and enhance their capacities for intelligence gathering, training, and equipment with the overall aim of nipping security challenges in the bud.

Ahmad Satomi, chairman of the committee on national security and intelligence, said the fund will primarily be deployed to the training and retraining of personnel of Nigerian security agencies.

He said it would also be used to procure state-of-the-art security and intelligence equipment and other necessary infrastructure/related facilities for the enhancement of the technical competency and readiness of the nation’s security personnel in all areas of their operations.

“The fund will ensure the upgrade and maintenance of the training institutions to global standards, make resources available for research and development, including the utilisation of the outcome of such research to bring the intelligence agencies, the armed forces, and relevant paramilitary agencies at par with world best security agencies in this digital age,” he said.

“Over the years, Nigerian intelligence agencies have been grossly underfunded. Rather, more resources have been devoted to kinetic responses to our nation’s security challenges.

“The truth which is globally recognised is that kinetic operations cannot sustainably guarantee the provision of peace and security in any country.

“At best, the contribution of kinetic response to sustainability of peace and security cannot exceed 30 percent at the most.

“Therefore, it is time to lay more emphasis on intelligence gathering, intelligence sharing, collaborative deployment and utilisation of actionable intelligence if we must drastically reduce the menace of insecurity and its devastating impact on the Nigerian economy.

“It is expected that the funding deficit experienced by this critical sub-sector will be substantially addressed with the passage of the bill.”

Satomi added that there are provisions in the bill to ensure that resources are not abused and the legislative intent driving the bill is not compromised.