President Bola Tinubu has vowed that his government will show “no mercy” to terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and their sponsors, as he announced a sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s security architecture alongside a record defence allocation in the 2026 budget.
Presenting the ₦58.18tn (£31bn) Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly on Friday, Tinubu said his administration was launching a renewed offensive against violent crime, anchored on a new national counter-terrorism doctrine and tighter accountability for security spending.
Hours earlier, the federal executive council had approved the budget framework at an emergency meeting chaired for the first time by vice-president Kashim Shettima. The spending plan, titled Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity, earmarks ₦5.41tn for defence and security — the largest single allocation and the third consecutive year the sector has topped budget priorities since Tinubu took office.
“Security is the foundation of national development,” the president said, adding that defence spending would be tied to measurable outcomes and focused on strengthening the operational capacity of the armed forces and other security agencies through modern equipment.
“We will show no mercy,” Tinubu told lawmakers. “We will act firmly against those who commit or support acts of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and other violent crimes.”
Under the proposed reset, the government plans to introduce a new counter-terrorism doctrine based on unified command, intelligence gathering, community stability and counter-insurgency operations. Tinubu said any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actor operating outside the authority of the state would now be designated as terrorists.
Bandits, militias, armed gangs, violent cults, forest-based armed groups and foreign-linked criminal networks will all be treated as legitimate targets of security operations, he said, along with those who finance or facilitate violence for political or sectarian ends.
Beyond security, the president outlined a budget framework aimed at fiscal realism and tighter discipline. Infrastructure is allocated ₦3.56tn, education ₦3.52tn, and health and social services ₦2.48tn. Total revenue for 2026 is projected at ₦34.33tn against expenditure of ₦58.18tn, leaving a deficit of ₦23.85tn, or 4.28% of GDP.
Debt servicing is estimated at ₦15.52tn, with capital expenditure set at ₦26.08tn. The assumptions underpinning the budget include a conservative oil price benchmark of $64.85 per barrel, daily production of 1.8m barrels and an average exchange rate of ₦1,400 to the dollar.
Tinubu also announced an end to Nigeria’s long-standing practice of overlapping budgets and poorly funded capital projects, promising a single, disciplined budget cycle from 2026. He said all outstanding capital liabilities from previous years would be fully funded and closed by March 2026.
“This is a reset — a very hard one,” he said. “No overlaps, no excuses, no rollovers.”
Acknowledging the economic hardship Nigerians have faced since the launch of his reform agenda, Tinubu said the measures were necessary to stabilise the economy and deliver long-term growth. “The path of reform is seldom smooth,” he said, “but it is the surest route to lasting stability and shared prosperity.”
Responding to the address, the senate president, Godswill Akpabio, called for closer cooperation between the executive and the legislature, arguing that national progress depended on partnership rather than rivalry. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, said the proposed budget signalled restored stability and renewed investor confidence.
