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Nel maggio 2025, il Senato nigeriano approvò silenziosamente un ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ ₦ i nigeriano, la più alta allocazione nella storia breve e turbolenta del fondo. This figure marks a 100% increase compared to its 2023 allocation of ₦ 57 billion. However, the circumstances surrounding this approval raise many more questions than answers.
This approval of the budget was carried out retroactively, well done in the financial exercise that presumably serves. Even more surprising is that the Senate had to suspend its rules to accelerate the passage of the bill, citing the “commendable results” of the fund. But these so -called results remain largely unknown to the public. What is widely known, however, is the unresolved cloud of accusations of corruption and embezzlement that have surrounded the management of the fund.
In 2022, the independent corrupt practices and other related crimes (ICPC) invited both the president and the executive secretary of the fund to interrogate the accusations of bad management. To date, the Commission has not publicly revealed the outcome of its investigations. This lack of transparency deepens only the public suspicion and undermines trust in the same institutions intended to guarantee responsibility.
A good idea undermined by bad governance
Founded by an act of the National Assembly in 2019, the NPTF was a bold political intervention aimed at facing the chronic subfinification of the Nigerian police forces. It was intended to provide a dedicated flow of funding for critical needs: training, equipment, infrastructure and well -being. But like many reforms well intentioned in Nigeria, the NPTF has fallen victim to structural conflicts of interest, poor supervision and weak political will.
From the beginning, civil society raised red flags: the same institution meant benefiting from the fund – the Nigeria police – an undue influence was given in its administration. Without a solid independent supervision, the bottom was structurally vulnerable to abuse. Comparisons were made with the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, which adopts a public-private partnership model and has been widely considered more transparent and effective. Unfortunately, those warnings have been ignored.
While NPTF leadership boasts numerous training programs and vehicle contracts, the realities lived of most police officers and communities that serve a different story. The barracks remain dilapidated. Agents still buy their uniforms. The extortion of the checkpoint persists. If the fund has had some significant impact, it is largely invisible to the public.
Retroactive budget and legal violations
The late approval of the 2024 NPTF budget is not simply an administrative interval: it represents a fundamental failure of governance. How could the bottom manage for months without a formal budget? What expenses have been made in the meantime and on what authority? This contempt for timely appropriation reflects the rooted culture of the Nigerian state, in which the processes are usually bent for convenience.
Even more worrying is the scula deck for the judicial authority. In the Prosecutor General of the State of Rivers against the Prosecutor General of the Federation (2022), the High Federal Court established that the deductions from the account of the Federation to finance the NPTF were unconstitutional, violating section 162 (3) of the 1999 Constitution. However, the 2023 budget approved by the Senate-and probably the 2024-non version committed to include these deductions: 0.5% of the entrances from the entrances from account of the Federation and 0.005% of the net profits of the companies. This is not only a violation of the Constitution, but it is a challenge of the judicial authority.
So far no corrective measures have been taken and no explanation has been offered to the Nigerian people. Did the NPTF continue to receive funds in difficulty at the Court’s sentence? In this case, what does this say about the rule of law in Nigeria?
Expiry of the fiduciary fund: a looming legal crisis
Another problem that has received little public attention is the legal duration of the NPTF. According to Section 2 (2) of the NPTF law (ESTABLISHMP), the Fund operates for six years from 24 June 2019, which means that it had to expire on June 24, 2025. Section 28 provides for a six -month winding period, during which the remaining activities and liabilities should be transferred.
To date, the act of the National Assembly has not been publicly disclosed which extended the duration of the fund. However, the recent budgetary passage and the activities during the fund suggest business as usual. This raises serious legal concerns: does the NPTF still work legally? What becomes expenses made after June 2025, if no formal extension is legal?
This situation reflects a wider culture of institutional illegality in Nigeria: where agencies operate beyond their legal limits and supervision institutions or distinguishing their gaze or are accomplices.
A system that breaks
The tragic irony is that an institution designed to strengthen law enforcement agencies is now widely seen as minimum, transparency and public trust. If Nigeria has to go beyond symbolic reforms, then agencies such as the NPTF must serve not only as financing ducts, but as models of legality, good governance and responsibility.
This includes compliance with judicial judgments. Includes publication audit relationships. Includes legislative compliance with budgetary timing. It includes public transparency on the extension – or the legal deadline – of the fund.
A broken system cannot shelter. And a broken process cannot correct a broken system. Until Nigeria begins to take its laws seriously – until institutions such as NPTF stop operating in legal limbo – no financing amount will set the fundamental rot.
– Okechukwu Nwanguma is the executive director of the support and responsibility support center (Rulaac). He works on police reform, public responsibility and human rights in Nigeria.
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