Security cake

By Hardball

Paradoxically, security votes in Nigeria are usually not for security purposes. News that a former governor of Abia State from 2007 to 2015, Senator Theodore Orji, told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) how he spent N38.8b security votes in eight years for other purposes shows that security votes do not mean what they should mean.

The former governor was reported to have said he received N370million monthly as security vote in 2007 and N410million monthly from 2008 to 2015.

Orji, who is representing Abia Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, “said he shared much of the N38billion with members of the state House of Assembly, his security informants and traditional rulers.” He “claimed to have also given part of the money to military units, the police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and security agencies as what he called statutory allocations.”

In a breakdown of who got what, the former governor “said he gave successive members of the State House of Assembly N5. 760billion, at N60million per month, in the eight years,” and “also claimed to have paid N75million monthly to security informants in 15 of the 17 local government areas of the state within the same period.”

The report added: “The yet-to-be identified informants allegedly pocketed a total of N7.200billion between 2007 and 2015. Some of the security agencies, according to him, received N2million per month.” But he could not provide “a comprehensive list of all the beneficiaries of the largesse,” the report said.  It is unclear how Orji determined those qualified for a share of the cake, and how those who got a share were useful for security purposes.  It looks like the former governor found the money useful for buying the loyalty of the beneficiaries, and not for security purposes as such.

Orji’s account suggests that he never benefitted personally from the security votes, which is another matter. Last year, a prominent civil society organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), had drawn public attention to the abuse of security votes, saying, “Available evidence would seem to suggest that many of the tiers of government in Nigeria have used security votes as a conduit for grand corruption.” It criticised “massive political use, mismanagement or stealing of security votes by many governments.”

Indeed, the organisation had quoted a former governor of Kano State, Musa Kwankwaso, who it said “once described security votes as ‘another way of stealing public funds’.”

The investigation of Orji’s alleged “financial recklessness” as governor is an eye-opener. He is a metaphor for irresponsible power.