Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan submitted a request for a $1 billion loan to help fight Boko Haram militants, who for years have waged a brutal and violent campaign across the country to form an Islamic state.
The president wrote in a letter to Nigeria's National Assembly the military is in "urgent need" of funding for new supplies and training so the soldiers can confront the "serious threat" posed by the Islamist militant group, the BBC reported.
"For this reason, I seek the concurrence of the National Assembly for external borrowing of not more than $1bn," Jonathan said.
The president has faced heavy criticism from critics who claim the government is taking a slack approach to stopping the killings, bombings and attacks carried out by Boko Haram. In April, Boko Haram kidnapped close to 300 schoolgirls from their boarding school in the northern Borno state. About a hundred girls were able to escape the militants but most remain missing.
Though Jonathan is seeking funds to defeat the rebels, experts say lenders might be wary because of suspected corruption.
Nigeria's military, for instance, has a yearly budget of close to $6 billion a year, "but it is not seeing that reflected in an increased capacity of military and security forces to deal with Boko Haram and other violent threats," Richard Joseph, a global economy expert from Brookings Institution, told Voice of America.
Nigeria also has Africa's largest oil industry, as well as the biggest economy. But there are concerns the profits make it into the wrong hands, including billions of dollars from oil revenues that are allegedly missing from the national treasury, Reuters reported.
"Corruption is a real menace when it comes to security because insurgent organizations, such as Boko Haram, they both play upon the corruption vulnerabilities of the government," Mark Pyman, a member of the anti-corruption group Transparency International, told VOA.
The National Assembly, which just began its annual two-month recess, is expected to consider Jonathan's loan request in September.
