CSO writes finance minister Adeosun, calls for proper implementation of defence budget

macfranc007 November 01, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Nnenna Ibeh

- A civil society group has called for the proper implementation of the defence budget

- The group urged the minister of finance to seek ways to ensure that the defence budget is put into proper use

- The group also said it will occupy the ministry of finance if their demands are not met within the next 72 hours

A civil society organization has urged the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, to look into the budget of the Ministry of Defence.

The organization, the Concerned Citizens Coalition for Change, in letter to Adeosun urged the minister to sought for ways of ensuring proper implementation of the Ministry of Defence budget.

The group in its letter signed by the director, Solomon Semaka, said it has taken time to monitor the war against terrorism in the northeastern region of Nigeria and realized that the defence budget has performed poorly.

Semaka said the poor implementation of the defence budget is having a negative impact on the war against terrorism in Nigeria.

He said: "This has manifested in the ability of Boko Haram's straggling fighters to regroup into new threats while military forces desperately wait for crucial releases to fund the next phases of procurement for operations.

"Poor budgetary performance may be reluctantly tolerable in non-sensitive sectors of the national life but is totally a taboo where the security of the country is concerned.

"Poor implementation poses risk to the military as too many things can go wrong when critical procurement like service parts for aircraft, fighting gears and other consumables are not procured or maintenance contractual obligations are defaulted upon."

He also added that the poor implementation of the defence budget could also lead to the bouncing back of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

"The Honorable Minister might have noticed that only the Nigerian Air Force, apparently out of patriotism for the fatherland, has continued to innovatively circumvent the limitations imposed by poor budget implementation to continue aerial bombardment of terrorist bases.

"The Air Force has locally sourced or fabricated critical spare parts to address the paucity of funds for procuring the foreign made versions. While this has given the Federal Government and Nigerians value for money, this is not an ideal situation.

"The insinuation making the round is that the Air Force was responsible for the attack which led to the death of its sister organization’s personnel. But our finding is that the Air Force is doing it’s best but cannot go beyond what is provided by the federal government," the organization said.

He said the Nigerian economy cannot recover or grow if the military is not empowered to eradicate the Boko Haram menace and the other security breaches plaguing the nation.

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He further said that if no action is taken by the minister of finance within the next 72 hours, the organization would embark on a protest to the Presidential Villa and then to the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja to occupy it.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that some retired officer under the Nigerian army have staged a protest in Abuja over over their unpaid entitlements.

The officers appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to order the immediate payment of their entitlements like he did with the ex-Biafra police officers.

The retired soldiers said their case cannot be treated differently since the former Biafran officers have already started receiving payment for their entitlements.

Boko Haram abducted my husband and the Gov't forgot about him - on NAIJ.com TV