2026 budget: Tinubu allocates N5.41trn to security, declares armed groups terrorists

The President Bola Tinubu administration has earmarked N5.41 trillion for defence and security in the 2026 budget as part of renewed efforts to tackle terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other violent crimes across Nigeria.

Presenting the budget to the National Assembly on Friday, December 19, 2025, Tinubu said security remains the foundation of national development, noting that without peace, investment and economic growth cannot thrive.

He announced a new national counterterrorism doctrine that classifies any armed group operating outside state authority as terrorists.

The president declared that bandits, militias, armed gangs, kidnappers, violent cult groups and their sponsors — including financiers, informants and political protectors — will all be treated as terrorists under the new framework.

Tinubu said: “Henceforth, and under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists.

“These include bandits, militias, armed gangs, criminal networks with weapons, armed robbers, violent cult groups, forest-based armed collectives, and foreign-linked mercenaries.

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“Groups or individuals conducting violence for political, ethnic, financial, or sectarian objectives are also classified as terrorists.

“Members of any group extorting communities, kidnapping civilians, occupying or seeking to occupy territory within Nigeria will be classified as terrorists.

“The denominator is that if you wield lethal weapons and act outside the state’s authority, you are a terrorist.

“Any individual or entity that enables the listed groups as financiers, money handlers, harbourers, informants, ransom facilitators, and negotiators will also be classified as terrorists. Political protectors and intermediaries, transporters, arms suppliers, and safe-house owners will be declared as terrorists.

“Politicians, traditional rulers, community leaders, and religious leaders who facilitate and encourage violent actions and terror within Nigeria and against our citizens are also terrorists.”

The Star