DECLARATION OF STATE OF EMERGENCY ON INSECURITY: MATCHING WORDS WITH ACTION KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY GEN LUCKY E.O. IRABOR (RTD) CFR FNSE FNIIA AT THE FIRST DAILY 6TH ANNIVERSARY PUBLIC LECTURE · FIRST DAILY NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON SECURITY SHEHU YAR’ADUA CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA TUESDAY, 28 JULY 2026
INTRODUCTION
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is a profound honour to be the Keynote Speaker at the 6th Annual National Public Lecture Series of First Daily Online Newspaper. Today’s theme, “Declaration of State of Emergency: Matching Words with Action,” resonates deeply with the lived realities of someone like me who has borne the weight of national security on the frontlines. With almost 40 years of service growing through the officers’ cadre, serving as Theatre Commander of Operation LAFIYA DOLE (now HADIN KAI) in the Northeast, where I confronted Boko Haram insurgency head-on, culminating as the Chief of Defence Staff, I can say that I have first-hand experience to talk about the state of Nigeria’s security. I coordinated multi-service and multi-national operations during some of Nigeria’s most intense security challenges.
On July 1st of this year, First Daily published the details of this dialogue on the front page of its publication, obviously for publicity. But right over the details was a staggering headline. The headline was: 79,323 Nigerians Killed, 34,773 Abducted in Six Years. There is a tendency, when we encounter figures of this scale, to process them as statistics, to file them somewhere in the mind as data points about a security situation. I want us to resist that today because behind every one of those 79,323 deaths is a name, a face. A child who no longer has a father. A community that buried one of its own and has not fully recovered. We are talking about real human beings. Our family and friends. Citizens of this republic, living under the protection of a state that has, in too many instances, been unable to protect them.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, according to SBM Intelligence, 4,722 Nigerians were abducted in 997 separate incidents. Families paid ₦2.57 billion in ransom. They had to pay the money not because they had it but because they had no choice. I cite these scenarios and figures not to dramatise the situation. I cite them because this conversation must begin with an honest reckoning. Given the gravity of the impacts, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR declared a State of Emergency in November 2025. This is the fit and proper thing to do under the current circumstances. However, the actions and tempo of activities since that declaration demand value-added support and assistance in order to yield greater dividends in our quest for a more secured and prosperous nation.
The complexities of theory and practice of statecraft compels a progressive, all stakeholders, impartial and apolitical involvement in seeking solutions to the country’s existential challenges. In this respect, every citizen of Nigeria, irrespective of socio-political and socio-economic persuasion, must be interested in the search for solutions. On this anchor rests my intention in this presentation. Accordingly, I plan to take a look at what Emergency declaration entails; the imperatives of efficient policing structure as well as strengthening national Defence and Security establishments. Thereafter, I shall consider impediments to combatting Internal Security amongst others.
What Does A State Of Emergency On Insecurity Actually Mean
The phrase ‘state of emergency’ as intended in Section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic, is a legal instrument, grounded in constitutional provisions, with defined powers, defined obligations, and defined consequences. A state of emergency means that the President (or anyone he so authorizes) acquires powers that go beyond what is ordinarily available under the law. This power is for a specific purpose, within a defined timeframe and it is with the objective of achieving what could not be achieved under normal circumstances. What this means in practice is that when you declare a state of emergency, certain processes of government are suspended. Certain functions are deprioritised and resources are concentrated on the emergency. In this case, attention, the most finite resource of any government, is redirected to the declared priority. In effect, Emergency declaration suspends the normal to address the critical.
Now let me put a question to this room: what has been suspended in Nigeria in response to the security emergency? What has been deprioritised? What resources have been concentrated? What procedures have been altered? I have been one of those who advocated for a state of emergency on insecurity. More than that declaration, I believe we should declare war on insecurity and I do not mean a metaphorical war. I mean a formal, constitutional, resource-backed declaration that says: we have identified an existential threat to the Nigerian state and we are mobilising every element of state power at our disposal to defeat it. In my view, we have not done this. Although, there are glimmers of hope and motivation. I must commend Mr President for the 2 major issues currently in public spotlight – the state police and expansion of the Nigerian Army. I shall return to them shortly.
The Question Of Political Will
The most consequential gap in Nigeria’s security response is political will. Technical capacity is important. The courage of our troops on the field is essential but what is more important are the decisions that a genuine security emergency requires and the will to see those decisions through. Political will is the willingness to make decisions, including decisions that are uncomfortable, decisions that require trade-offs, decisions that redirect resources from popular programmes to unglamorous but essential ones. It is the willingness to tell the public: we are in an emergency, and in an emergency, not everything can happen at once. Some things must wait. Security cannot.
Recent figures from the Open Treasury Portal of the Office of the Accountant General are instructive. The Nigerian Army received an approved equipment budget of ₦20.56 billion for 2025. As of the most recent reporting period, only 7.1 per cent of that budget, ₦1.46 billion, had been released. The Nigerian Air Force’s aircraft maintenance budget had an approved allocation of ₦34.71 billion. Only 13.98 per cent had been released. Also, Daily Trust reported that in 2025 Budget for the Nigerian Army, only ₦16.71 billion—or 4.96%—of the ₦336.76 billion budgeted for defence equipment was released. Overall, the Army reportedly received just ₦1.17 trillion—or 25.94%—of its ₦4.52 trillion proposed expenditure. Furthermore, over three-quarters of Nigeria’s total defence budget is consumed by personnel costs alone, leaving an extremely narrow margin for procurement, maintenance, and modernisation. Nigeria’s total military expenditure remains below one percent of GDP. For a country facing a security emergency and desires a quantum leap in development, that figure requires further attention.
Nevertheless, I have to say that the recent rescue operations, the disruption of several kidnapping networks, the clearance of certain operational zones are commendable. These are genuine accomplishments by men and women who are doing extraordinary things under very difficult conditions. But we must build the capacity that makes those achievements not occasional victories but the consistent standard.
THE IMPERATIVE OF STATE POLICE
Police is the primary security agency of any democratic state. When it comes to internal security, the military is a supplementary instrument while the police is the primary one. Sadly, Nigeria’s policing architecture has, for decades, been fundamentally insufficient for the complexity of the security challenges we face. It is one reason why people have advocated for state police. I support state police.
I support it unreservedly. But I support it with a proviso. And I say this because the argument for state police is not simply about bringing policing closer to the communities it serves, it is about devolution of authority i.e command and control level. It deals with improving intelligence, enabling faster responses, and building the kind of trust between security forces and citizens that counter-insurgency and community safety require. None of those objectives are achieved simply by renaming a police station and putting a state logo on it.
The case for state police is empirical and it is urgent. Nigeria’s current federal policing structure was designed for a different era, a different population size, and a different threat. It must be understood that the Police – Federal or State, has a responsibility for law enforcement. Policing, on the other hand, is a composite of law enforcement, good governance and responsible citizens engagement. The police cannot replace the totality of good governance. Furthermore, for state police to meet the aspirations of government and citizens, the Federal police must equally be involved in the planned reforms. These reforms should aim to achieve greater efficiency and accountability. The training, administration, equipment, logistics, code of conduct, among other parameters, must be of high standards. The output should be for both the Federal and State Police.
The concern about governors weaponizing state police against political opponents is legitimate and we cannot dismiss it. History gives us reason to take it seriously. But the answer to the risk of abuse is not to maintain a dysfunctional status quo. The answer is to build the accountability mechanisms that prevent abuse: independent state police service commissions with genuine oversight authority, legislative scrutiny at the state level, judicial recourse for citizens, and a federal framework that can intervene when a state police structure is being used against the people it 6 was raised to serve. What we must not do is repeat the error of creating a structure that looks like reform and functions like the same old problem in a different uniform.
Strengthening National Defence And Security Establishment
I have said it before, and I will say it again in this room with the same conviction: there is no strong nation without a strong and professional military. And a strong and professional military is built with sustained investment, rigorous training standards, competitive welfare, and the institutional respect that motivates extraordinary service.
Equipment matters. I know from personal operational experience what it means when the troops in the field have what they need, and I know what it means when they do not. Modern warfare requires modern tools: night fighting capability, protective gears, all terrain mobility platforms, reliable communications, surveillance capabilities, and combat enablers. These are the minimum conditions for professional military effectiveness. Similarly, welfare is not separate from performance. It is the foundation of it. The family of a soldier serving in a forward operating base needs to know that their housing is secure, that their children can go to school, that medical care is available, that if the worst happens, their sacrifice will be honoured and supported. When that assurance exists, it creates the kind of institutional morale that sustains performance under extreme pressure. When it is absent, the effects are visible in the field. The military knows this. The government must also know it and act accordingly.
Professionalism must also be built and maintained through a defence education system that is properly resourced, a promotion system that rewards competence and integrity, a leadership culture that honours accountability, and a code of conduct that is enforced regardless of rank. The military is central to this project. Its continued development, academic rigour, and operational relevance are not institutional matters. They are national security matters.
On the recent expansion of the Nigerian Army formations, I wish to congratulate Mr President, C-in-C on this development. It is a first step in a very long journey of combat force generation, development, readiness and efficiency. The Table of Organization and Equipment must be to scale for all formations. The personnel recruitment, training, equipment, barracks accommodation, medical support, administrative support amongst others must be planned, both for the existing formations and the newly established ones. As it is for the military, so it should be for all the Defence and Security establishments.
Impediments To Combating Internal Security
I would be remiss, if I fail to mention what is enabling insecurity whilst discussing what must be done to address the challenge. There are several structural impediments to effective internal security response in Nigeria. I would like to mention four of them.
(a) Poverty and Unemployment
Nigeria’s population has crossed 220 million. That population ought to be one of our greatest assets, a market, a workforce, a pool of energy and talent. Instead, it is becoming, in too many communities, a liability. This is because the economy has failed to absorb them. An unemployed, hungry, educated young man with no prospect is a potential security problem. The bandit recruiter who comes to his community knows this. The solution to this problem is not stipends. It is not what is currently described, in some quarters, as “empowerment.” That approach breeds dependency, not capacity. It cultivates electoral support. It is not empowerment to give a man a fish when you could teach him to run a fishery. Labour-intensive infrastructure development programmes, mechanised agricultural development, construction drives that put young hands to productive work are the security investments that function below the surface and prevent the conditions from which insecurity feeds.
(b) Institutional Coordination Failures
Our security agencies frequently operate in silos. The military, the police, the DSS, the Department of Customs, the EFCC, the Immigration Service and Nigerian Correctional Service each has a role in the security architecture; each collects intelligence, tracks patterns, and manages resources. Too often, that intelligence is not shared in ways that allow for coordinated response. Too often, there is jurisdictional competition rather than operational cooperation. The criminal networks we are fighting do not observe our institutional boundaries. Our response must not be constrained by them.
(c) The Corruption Tax on Security
In December 2025, a Senate committee investigating the $30 million mobilised for security interventions found that almost half the project funds had been spent on consultancy and operational expenses rather than on the security projects themselves. That is the corruption tax on national security. Every naira lost to procurement fraud, every contract that goes undelivered, every piece of equipment that exists on paper and not in the field, is a naira that is not protecting a Nigerian.
(d) The Absence of a Truly Whole-of-Government Approach
Security is not the exclusive responsibility of the Ministry of Defence and the security agencies. It is a whole-of-government challenge. Economic policy, education policy, infrastructure investment, judicial reform, anticorruption enforcement. All of these have direct bearing on the security situation. When the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defence are not in strategic alignment; when the budget is structured as though security and development are competing priorities rather than complementary ones; when governors behave as though insecurity in the next state is someone else’s problem. These are not administrative gaps. They are strategic failures.
Deployment Of Technology In The Fight Against Insecurity
There are no quick fixes to Nigeria’s security challenges. However, there are quick wins. Modern security challenges require modern security responses. The adversaries we face, insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, or organised criminal networks, are not static. They adapt. They use encrypted communications. They exploit intelligence gaps. They move faster than conventional security forces responding with conventional methods. Technology is not an option in this environment. It is a requirement.
The good news is that Nigeria has made some movement in this direction. The Nigerian Army has acquired some unmanned aerial platforms. The Nigerian Air Force has acquired unmanned aerial vehicles and attack helicopters. Surveillance systems have been deployed in certain theatres. But the deployment of technology in Nigeria’s security architecture remains, at best, patchy and, at worst, dependent on the goodwill of foreign partners whose interests do not always align with ours.
This brings me to a point that I addressed in my book SCARS, and which Rear Admiral Sola Oluwagbire (Rtd), has developed with considerable depth in his book, ‘Shadows of Power’. He wrote: “Nigeria’s dependence on external sources for its defence hardware is a strategic vulnerability. Over 90 per cent of our military hardware is procured from outside Nigeria, predominantly from Western nations. Whoever controls the supply of that hardware can, at a critical moment, manipulate the terms of its provision, withhold maintenance, deny resupply, or attach conditions that compromise our operational sovereignty”.
Rear Admiral Oluwagbire is on point. The development of a Nigerian military-industrial complex is key. Not immediately, not overnight but as a declared national objective with a funded roadmap. We must begin to produce, maintain, and innovate our own defence technology. This requires investment in research and development, partnership with domestic universities and polytechnics, and a deliberate policy of technology transfer in every procurement agreement with foreign partners.
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Technology must also be deployed at the level of community intelligence. The most valuable asset in any counter-insurgency or counter-criminality operation is information and information come from communities. Surveillance cameras, biometric databases, integrated communications between security agencies, and community reporting platforms are all elements of a technology architecture that serves security from the ground up. These tools exist. Many are affordable. What is required is the political decision to deploy them systematically and the administrative capacity to maintain them.
THE NEED FOR SYNERGY AND EXPANDING RESPONSIBILITES
The security challenges Nigeria faces are too complex, too multidimensional, and too geographically dispersed for any single agency to address alone. What is required is a genuine, operationally coherent joint architecture that enables the armed forces, the police, the intelligence services, civil defence, and relevant civilian agencies to work as a single system rather than a collection of parallel structures. There is no need to multiply operational establishments, neither is it expedient to make coordinating or advisory offices to assume operational roles.
Equally, the role of the security professional must also evolve. The police officer, the soldier, the intelligence officer of the twenty-first century is not simply a person with a weapon and an order. He or she must be a community engager, an information analyst, a de-escalation specialist, and an institutional representative of the state’s legitimacy. This requires training, and it requires time. It also requires that the state invest in the professional development of its security workforce as seriously as it invests in their equipment. This is important because a poorly trained officer with a sophisticated weapon is a liability.
Civil society, the media, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and local government officials are also part of the security architecture. Community intelligence, the knowledge that a local chief or a women’s association leader holds about movements, strangers, and patterns of behaviour in their community, is often the most timely and the most accurate intelligence available. The security architecture must find systematic ways to integrate that knowledge. They must look for ways to earn it through trust, and to use it with discipline.
CONCLUSION
I want to close with what I believe is the fundamental question that this dialogue must answer. At this point, we should not be asking such questions as “is there a security crisis?” We know the answer to that. Nor should we be asking, “does something needs to be done?” It is obvious. The question we should be asking is: “do we have the will, the structure, and the commitment to do what the situation actually requires?”
A state of emergency on insecurity would look like this: every element of state power (population, military, police, intelligence, diplomatic, economic, social, etc) should be directed toward the common security objective. Resources released as budgeted, not held back by administrative inertia. Equipment procurement executed with urgency. The state police bill ratified by the required number of state assemblies and implemented with the training and welfare standards that make it effective. Youth unemployment addressed through productive economic engagement. Technology deployed systematically. Coordination among agencies mandated and enforced. And political leadership that is willing to tell Nigerians not comfortable things, but what is true.
In the course of my active military duties, I have buried colleagues. I have visited hospitals where young soldiers were recovering from injuries sustained in service. I have sat with communities across the country who had lost everything. I have also seen what Nigerian security forces, properly led, properly supported, and properly equipped, can achieve. I have seen the discipline, the courage, and the professionalism that exists in this institution. That capacity deserves to be properly harnessed. Nigeria deserves it.
I believe that, the declaration of emergency on security was a statement of intent. It is necessary to fast-track walking the talk. We need to back the security agencies with resources as the emergency demands. Implement the state police with world class standards on the key parameters. Build the military-industrial complex that will reduce our strategic dependency.
To my colleagues, the security professionals in this room, I say: continue to serve with the dignity and commitment that the uniform demands. We are proud of you. The country is watching. More importantly, the people whose safety depends on your professionalism are counting on you. Keep up the spirit. To all Nigerians, this is your country. Love it. Its security is your business. Play your part. Ask questions. Demand answers. The war against insecurity is a war that can be won. It must be won.
Thank you.