Nigeria’s Military Doesn’t Get All Of Its Allocated Budget, Says Ex-Air Force Spokesperson Shehu

The former Nigerian Airforce Spokesperson, Group Captain Sadeeq Shehu has said that the military does not receive all the funds in its approved budget.

In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Shehu said most times, those that come in, do not come in on time to tackle insecurity.

He said “In order for the assembly to do a proper work of providing funding or providing oversight, there has to be a very frank discussion between the legislature and the security chief and such discussions are very sensitive in that it may not involve the general public.

“When we say resources, it is a very wide concept. Yes, for many years since we started having security issues, the security budget is always becoming number one or at least number two. When you talk of resources, the devil is in the details. What was provided? How quickly was the money released? What percentage of the security budget is released and at what time? These are issues that we see.

“These are issues that the national assembly can follow up and make sure that we have a balanced budget. From my own experience, it is not all the money we see in naira and kobo on paper that gets to the military and not all that even reaches them on time. It’s a valid point to ask them for all the resources given but how are the resources disbursed? How quickly are they released?”

Speaking on the issue of summons of the security chiefs by the national assembly, the group captain said ‘the summons is too many’ and the security chiefs should have time to do the work they were appointed to do.

“What I am saying is that it is a middle course. Nobody can take the power of summons of the national assembly. Not only the service chiefs, even ministers who are higher than service chiefs. But what I am saying is that the power to summon should be used Pari-passu.

“You gave these people the work to do. If you call them every time, if different committees call them over the same issue, then you are taking the time they are supposed to use for the field to be supervising their officers and men. The issue is to find a balancing point where the legislature will do their job and let the security agents will do their work.” he said

Shehu further stated that going forward, there is need for close collaboration and understanding between the court and the security chiefs on how the processes of handling arrested criminals are being done.

Chioma Kalu

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