Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, has asked the Federal Government to drastically reduce National Assembly activities and other non-essential government spending in order to free up funds for tackling Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.
Ndume, who represents Borno South, made the call on Thursday during an interview on a Television programme, insisting that Nigeria’s security crisis has reached a level that requires “unusual sacrifices” from the political class.
The senator argued that lawmakers do not need to sit as frequently as they currently do, suggesting quarterly sittings with salaries and allowances adjusted to reflect reduced legislative workload.
“Urgently, we must discard everything as far as I am concerned. Even if it is necessary to shut down some discretionary services—starting with the National Assembly—you can cut it off and ask us to sit maybe once in a quarter,” he said.
Ndume lamented that while the 2025 budget has yet to take effect, recurrent and overhead expenditures continue to gulp huge funds, benefitting “less than five per cent of Nigerians.”
“Why don’t we shut down all these things and use the money to secure the people first? Our house is on fire, and we need everything to put that fire out,” he added.
Reacting to concerns that his remarks may anger fellow lawmakers, Ndume said he was not bothered, noting that he had survived multiple political disputes in the past.
“I have been in trouble many times. I am not saying you should shut down the National Assembly. I am saying that if reducing our activities will save money and help secure Nigeria, many of my colleagues will support it,” he stated.
Ndume also criticised Nigeria’s poor use of technology in security operations, describing the country’s satellite capacity as grossly inadequate.
According to him, security agencies struggle to track insurgents, kidnappers and other criminal groups because the nation lacks real-time surveillance systems.
“One of the fundamental problems we have is that we don’t have the ability to track criminals in real time. Nigeria has only four satellites, and one is faulty,” he said.
Citing a recent case involving a missing senior military officer, Ndume argued that the nation’s limited tracking infrastructure has repeatedly undermined rescue and investigative efforts.
His comments come a day after President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency amid rising killings, abductions and terrorist attacks across the country.
The President also directed the Armed Forces and the police to embark on massive recruitment to boost frontline operations.
“The police will recruit an additional 20,000 officers, bringing their total recruitment figure to 50,000,” Tinubu said in a statement.
Ndume, one of the most outspoken lawmakers on security issues, said the President’s declaration was timely but must be backed by sweeping reforms, including freeing funds from non-essential government activities to strengthen military and police operations.
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