Reps urge stronger domestic arms production and tighter controls on crime‑financing in defence and finance sectors

By Gift ChapiOdekina

Abuja – Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, urged Nigeria’s defence industry to expand local capacity for building arms, rather than depending on imports.

He also called on the financial sector to tighten its controls against criminal and terrorist funding.

Speaking at the Nigeria People’s Strategic Conference and Defence Exhibition 2026, held in Abuja over the weekend, Kalu said the event’s theme – “Building a Modern Security Ecosystem: Integrating Private Sector Capacity into Nigeria’s National Security Architecture” – highlighted the need for a homegrown defence ecosystem that creates jobs and reduces vulnerabilities.

He urged the financial sector to strengthen due‑diligence and transaction monitoring to block all forms of illicit funding.

“The conference must translate into binding commitments across all sectors,” Kalu said. “The technology sector should provide platforms for intelligence sharing and early warning. The civil society must bridge gaps between communities and government. The legislature will continue to provide legal scaffolding through constitutional review, appropriation, and oversight.”

He added: “Every sector represented in this room must leave with a specific, measurable role in Nigeria’s security architecture. The defence industry must deepen local capacity so that we do not import what we can produce. The technology sector must offer platforms for intelligence sharing and community early warning. The financial sector must tighten the chokepoints through which criminal and terrorist financing flows. The civil society must continue to build the bridges between communities and government that make sustainable peace possible.”

In the legislature, we will continue to provide the legal scaffolding on which all of this is built. We will review the constitution where it needs reviewing, appropriate resources where they are needed, and provide oversight to ensure that what is promised is delivered. We will legislate not for public applause but for the protection of lives and the dignity of every Nigerian.”

Kalu noted that the House recently voted 289 to 2 in favour of a safer Nigeria through a state police constitutional amendment, describing the near‑unanimity as patriotic rather than partisan.

“I am proud to serve in an assembly that just two days ago voted 289 to 2 in favour of a safer Nigeria. That near‑unanimity was not partisan. It was patriotic. And it must be matched by an equal unity of purpose in this room today,” he said.

“There is a Nigeria on the other side of this season. That Nigeria is not a promise. It is a project. A project that belongs to all of us – both the legislature and the executive, the uniform and the suit, the community and the corporation, the government and the governed. We are a people worth fighting for. This republic is worth building. Let this moment be the moment we decide, formally and finally, to build it together,” he added.

The deputy speaker dismissed the notion that Nigeria was failing. “Nigeria is not failing; Nigeria is fighting. There is a difference. A failing country stops trying. Nigeria has never stopped trying. That is our heritage. That is our irreducible character. But resilience must be met by structure. Courage must be met by policy. The sacrifice of the Nigerian people deserves a security ecosystem worthy of the sacrifice.”

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