Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, Senator Sunday Karimi, has raised alarm over the immense financial burden that insecurity continues to place on Nigeria, disclosing that more than half of the country’s revenue in recent years has been channeled into combating terrorism and insurgency.
In a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja, the lawmaker representing Kogi West took aim at recent comments by Senator Ali Ndume, who had criticized the federal government for what he described as imbalance in political appointments. Karimi, however, contended that such remarks divert attention from more urgent national priorities—particularly insecurity, which continues to ravage communities, especially in the North-East.
“Over 50% of Nigeria’s earnings in the last few years are being spent on fighting insurgency,” Karimi stated boldly. “These are the issues that should unite our focus, not divisive rhetoric.”
He expressed disappointment in Ndume, a senior senator and former Chief Whip, for choosing to stoke ethnic sentiments rather than champion solutions to the insecurity affecting his constituency and others.
“Rather than playing to the gallery and criticising the government, Senator Ndume, as a leader of his people, should go back home, liaise with his people on solving Boko Haram problems. Insecurity has a local solution,” he said.
Citing his own efforts in Kogi State, Karimi pointed to the establishment of a military base in Yagba West and the provision of logistics support as examples of hands-on leadership aimed at enhancing security.
“The country has lost a lot of its soldiers and trillions of Naira fighting insurgents in Senator Ndume’s Senatorial District in the last decades,” he added. “In fact, I lost one of the young officers, a captain in the Nigerian Army from my Senatorial District, serving in his community three weeks ago.”
He stressed that many young Nigerians have paid the ultimate price defending the nation’s territorial integrity—sacrifices he said deserve serious attention from all stakeholders.
Senator Ndume’s initial criticism of federal appointments was made during an appearance on Arise TV’s Prime Time on Monday, where he accused the current administration of failing to reflect Nigeria’s constitutional diversity in its political appointments.
