By Anthony Ubani
Every day in Nigeria, somebody dies for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bandits sweep into villages at dawn. Kidnappers block highways at noon. Terrorists strike under the cover of darkness. In 2025 alone, violent conflicts claimed 4,654 lives and left 3,141 people abducted.
The Northwest recorded the highest number of banditry attacks. The North-Central region recorded more fatalities, meaning the killers there are not just busy; they are brutal.
And yet, in the middle of these rivers of blood, a curious claim made the rounds. Vice President Kashim Shettima, the story alleged, had boasted that he could end insecurity across the entire North if only someone would hand him $500 million.
Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that he did say it. Or something close to it. The question is not whether the number was $500 million or $1 billion. The question is why such a statement did not stop the nation in its tracks.
Why did the National Assembly not summon him the next morning? Why did the presidency not issue a clarification? Why did the security agencies not knock on his door to ask what exactly he knows that they do not? Why did the Nigerian public, exhausted and grieving, not erupt in a fury of questions?
The silence is deafening. And it is dangerous.
Here is what we know for certain. Nigeria has spent over ₦32 trillion on defence and security in the past fifteen years
In 2025 alone, military spending jumped by 55 per cent to $2.1 billion
The 2025 security and defence budget reached a record ₦6.57 trillion
The Nigerian Army got ₦1.504 trillion for 2026
These are not small sums. These are fortunes.
And what did Nigerians get in return? More death. More kidnapping. More displacement. Banditry killed 2,724 people in 2025, nearly double the 1,585 killed in 2024.
In late 2025, over 400 schoolchildren were kidnapped across four states in the North-Central region, surpassing the infamous Chibok abduction of 2014.
In January 2026, over 160 worshippers were abducted in one incident. In February 2026, gunmen attacked two villages in Kwara State and killed over 160 people.
So, if the Vice President truly believes that half a billion dollars is all it takes to wipe out this carnage, we must ask: is $500 million too much to spend to stop the daily slaughter of Nigerians?
The answer is no. It is not too much. It is a bargain. If $500 million could end the terrorism, the banditry, the kidnapping, the farmer-herder clashes that claimed 322 lives in 2025, then Nigeria should write that cheque today. Any government that hesitates to spend half a billion dollars to save thousands of lives is not a government. It is an accomplice.
But that is not the real issue. The real issue is what the Vice President knows.
If he has the intelligence, the strategy, and the blueprint to end insecurity not just in Borno, his home state, but across all of Northern Nigeria, why is he not sharing it with the Chief of Army Staff? Why is he not briefing the National Security Adviser? Why is he not sitting down with the Director-General of the Department of State Services?
The security architecture of this country has consumed trillions of naira. It has swallowed budgets, lives, and hope. And yet, the Vice President supposedly holds the master key in his pocket. He knows the answer. He has the formula. He just needs the cash.
This is not a statement to be ignored. It is too weighty. It suggests one of two terrifying things. Either the Vice President has intelligence that the entire security apparatus lacks, which means our military, our police, and our spy agencies are flying blind while the second-in-command sees clearly. Or he is making empty boasts in the middle of a war zone, which means he does not understand the gravity of the crisis at all.
Both possibilities should terrify every Nigerian.
Consider the state of the security budget. Of the ₦20.56 billion budgeted by the Nigerian Army for equipment in 2025, only ₦1.46 billion was released. That is 7.11 per cent.
The Senate Committee on Defence has warned that this underfunding gives the enemy an edge, soldiers are fighting without equipment. Their barracks are crumbling. Their families are not paid death benefits. The Minister of State for Defence admitted that group life insurance for soldiers killed in action has gone unpaid.
And yet, the Vice President suggests that with a fraction of what Nigeria has already spent, he could finish the job.
If that is true, then what happened to the trillions? Where did the money go? The Office of the National Security Adviser reported a capital budget utilisation of 314.59 per cent in 2025, spending over three times what was appropriated while security worsened.
Nigeria ranks at high to critical risk of defence corruption according to the 2025 Government Defence Integrity Index.
So perhaps the problem is not the amount of money. Perhaps the problem is where the money goes.
The Vice President’s statement, real or distorted, touches a nerve because it mirrors what Nigerians already suspect. They suspect that someone, somewhere, knows how to fix this. They suspect that the solution is not as complicated as the government pretends. They suspect that the endless budgets, the endless summits, and the endless promises are a performance designed to mask incompetence, corruption, or both.
If $500 million is indeed the magic number, then the Vice President owes the nation a detailed explanation. He owes us the blueprint. He owes us the names of the people he will hire, the technology he will deploy, the communities he will secure, and the timeline he will follow. He owes us transparency. Because Nigerians are not statistics. They are not collateral damage. They are human beings who deserve to sleep without fear.
The Arewa Consultative Forum has already warned that political leaders are more obsessed with the 2027 elections than with the blood flowing in the North.
They are right. In a healthy democracy, a statement like this would have dominated the news cycle for weeks. Panels would have been convened. Experts would have debated. The opposition would have demanded answers. But in Nigeria, it barely caused a ripple.
Why? Because Nigerians have been conditioned to accept the unacceptable. They have been trained to treat mass death as background noise. They have learned that in this country, accountability is a foreign concept. A Vice President can claim he can end a war with pocket change, and the nation shrugs.
But we must not shrug. Not this time. If the Vice President can solve insecurity, he must be asked to do so immediately. If he cannot, he must be called out for trivialising the deaths of thousands. If he knows something the rest of the government does not, he must share it before sunset.
Nigeria does not need another boast. It does not need another budget. It does not need another summit. It needs results. And if those results are truly available for $500 million, then the only question left is this: what are we waiting for?
The blood of 4,654 Nigerians in 2025 alone demands an answer. The 3,141 kidnapped victims demand an answer. The families sleeping in displacement camps demand an answer. And they deserve it now.
Not in 2027. Not after another budget cycle. Now. Because every day we wait, somebody else dies. And no amount of money can bring them back.
Anthony Ubani, a leadership, governance, and democracy expert, writes from Abuja.
