Some security experts and a civil society organisation have said the N4.85tn spent by the Buhari regime was gulped by corruption allegedly perpetrated by the ‘corrupt service chiefs’ and other officers.
Saturday PUNCH reported that the Federal Government has provided N4.85tn to the armed forces in the last eight years, through its yearly budgetary allocations.
The budgetary allocations made by the Federal Government to the Army, Navy, and Air Force were mainly to cater for personnel and overheads, as well as recurrent and fixed expenditures.
According to documents from the Budget Office of the Federation made available to one of our correspondents, the Nigerian Army received N3tn between 2015 and 2022, while the Nigeria Navy got N889bn from the Federation Account in the same period.
Expressing their frustration that such an outrageous sum has not been able to deal decisively with the problem, they asked the government to audit the security budget for the past seven years.
A renowned security expert, Mr Jackson Lekan-Ojo, said the service chiefs should explain to Nigerians where all these monies dispensed in the last seven years have gone.
He said, “The thing is that when we look at insecurity, they do not consider the government being frugal. This government is not frugal at all. They promised to fight corruption, but instead of doing so, they fertilised corruption.
“If one wants to be corrupt, why must it be in the area where it would be detrimental to every other sector? Insecurity will adversely affect the economy, socio-political life of the country.”
Knocking members of the National Assembly, he said, “The people in the National Assembly that are threatening Mr President about impeachment now, they have never been up and doing. There is the principle of checks and balances in the democratic setting, but it is not used.
“They will do a budget for the Ministry of Defence, army and navy headquarters, but no one will ask how the last one was spent. If they do another one now, that one, too, will go the way of the previous. There must be an audit of the account.
“This is why these people have become so corrupt. If these terrorists have the effrontery to accost the presidential convoy and damage our rail system the next day, went to Kuje prison housing terrible criminals; what can they not do, We are in danger?” he said.
Some security experts and a civil society organisation have said the N4.85tn spent by the Buhari regime was gulped by corruption allegedly perpetrated by the ‘corrupt service chiefs’ and other officers.
Saturday PUNCH reported that the Federal Government has provided N4.85tn to the armed forces in the last eight years, through its yearly budgetary allocations.
The budgetary allocations made by the Federal Government to the Army, Navy, and Air Force were mainly to cater for personnel and overheads, as well as recurrent and fixed expenditures.
According to documents from the Budget Office of the Federation made available to one of our correspondents, the Nigerian Army received N3tn between 2015 and 2022, while the Nigeria Navy got N889bn from the Federation Account in the same period.
Expressing their frustration that such an outrageous sum has not been able to deal decisively with the problem, they asked the government to audit the security budget for the past seven years.
A renowned security expert, Mr Jackson Lekan-Ojo, said the service chiefs should explain to Nigerians where all these monies dispensed in the last seven years have gone.
He said, “The thing is that when we look at insecurity, they do not consider the government being frugal. This government is not frugal at all. They promised to fight corruption, but instead of doing so, they fertilised corruption.
“If one wants to be corrupt, why must it be in the area where it would be detrimental to every other sector? Insecurity will adversely affect the economy, socio-political life of the country.”
Knocking members of the National Assembly, he said, “The people in the National Assembly that are threatening Mr President about impeachment now, they have never been up and doing. There is the principle of checks and balances in the democratic setting, but it is not used.
“They will do a budget for the Ministry of Defence, army and navy headquarters, but no one will ask how the last one was spent. If they do another one now, that one, too, will go the way of the previous. There must be an audit of the account.
“This is why these people have become so corrupt. If these terrorists have the effrontery to accost the presidential convoy and damage our rail system the next day, went to Kuje prison housing terrible criminals; what can they not do, We are in danger?” he said.
