Legislative Support for the Security Sector

A key element of addressing the National Security concerns of Nigeria is to respond to the needs of the security sector. The Senate will take steps to engage with Nigeria’s security institutions and agencies to understand their specific needs and use its legislative instruments to address them. Already identified needs, including funding and development of a template for the utilisation of National Budget for the procurement of military and security equipment. Presently, procurement of military equipment and hardware is uncoordinated, leaving huge gaps in the quality and synchronisation of military equipment. The Senate will pursue the achievement of its systematic procurement process of military equipment for all of Nigeria’s security agencies. The purpose will be to have a one-stop unit or agency of security that will collate all of the equipment needs of the military to achieve a common procurement system that will serve the needs of Nigeria. This will ensure the elimination of wastages and the accomplishment of a systematic process of procurement for all of Nigeria’s military and defence needs. Accordingly, the Senate will take the following actions:

i. Enact legislations outlining a common system of procurement of military equipment for Nigeria’s security sector.

ii. Enact legislations to ensure that a common system of procurement for military equipment is managed by a specific security agency for the purpose of co-ordination, maintenance of standards,
documentation and information regarding Nigeria’s military and security capacity and identifying gaps and needs.

iii. Institute a process of legislative oversight that provides independent and regular audit of the security sector, including its expenditure, procurement and operations.

iv. Introduce legislative instruments to bring officials within the security sector to account for abuse of financial transparency andaccountability policies.