In an effort to enforce transparency and accountability in government, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has demanded that the Military should account for its expenditure, especially on hardware that was acquired for defence. The Vice President stated this during a virtual presentation by the National Defence College Course 30 participants themed “Defence Transformation and National Security: Strategic Options for Nigeria of the Future”. In recent times, Nigeria has been greeted with varying security challenges that are threatening all parts of the country including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, where the seat of power is located as casualties of terrorism were record not too long ago.
According to records from the federal government, it has been over the years budgeted billions of Naira for the military hardwires that will be deployed to combat the insecurity and nip terrorism in the bud.
However, some experts believed that after spending such a huge amount of money by the federal government, the situation has remained unabated, this has raised more questions than answers that require accountability of the system.
During the presentation, the Vice President said, “There needs to be more accountability because every time you hear about ‘we not having enough equipment,’ there must be accountability.
“I will like to see a framework for greater accountability within the Ministry of Defence that ensures that they are able to account for military expenditure,” he said in a statement issued Thursday by his spokesman, Laolu Akande.
In his remarks, he revealed that after spending such an amount on the hardware for the military, it was expected that the military should be a step ahead in their game as compared with terrorists since they have superior firepower.
Osinbajo said, “If you look at the challenges that we are facing and the nature of those challenges, it is evident that we need to be many steps ahead of non-state actors in particular who are perpetrators of this asymmetric warfare that we are experiencing.”
He charged the military that “If we say the local companies should produce some of the mobile platforms like Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle (MRAV), if we give them the contracts, they will produce, but if we choose to import rather than produce locally then we will never develop our military-industrial complex.”
Earlier, Col A A Adamu opined that among other things, it is high time the military should be restructured to suit the contemporary challenges of the time.
Major government functionaries that were present at the occasion include; the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; the Commandant of the National Defence College, Rear Adm. Murtala Bashir, and representative of the Inspector General of Police, among other senior officers from the college.
Some stakeholders in the country had on many occasions demanded that the spending on security was getting out of hand as there was no accountability with the foot soldiers always crying for lack of equipment amidst the spending to confront the terrorists.
Recall, on December 14, 2017, Nigerian governors approved the release of $1bn from the country’s excess oil account to the federal government to buy arms for the effective execution of the Boko Haram war.
The release of that money attracted widespread condemnation from various CBOs alleging that it was an act of embezzlement by the Buhari administration as the money depleted the account by half.
However, in a dramatic twist in 2019, the National Security Adviser, Major Gen. Babagana Monguno said that the money released to the military could not be accounted for by the service chiefs.
Later his office in a press statement that the NSA did not say money was missing debunking the earlier claim.
Subsequently, the Presidency also reacted saying the said funds for procurement of weapons at the time of the former service chiefs were not missing, disclosing that procurements had been made but the arms were yet to be delivered.
The then Service Chiefs were, Gen Abayomi Olonisakin (Chief of Defence Staff-CDS); Tukur Buratai (Chief of Army Staff-COAS)); Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (Chief of Naval Staff-CNS); Sadique Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff-CAS).
Buttressing the claim of the NSA office, Senior Special Assistant to Buhari on Media, Mallam Garba Shehu said, “About the $1bn taken from the Excess Crude Account with the consent of state governors used for military procurements, I want to assure you that nothing of that money is missing.
He explained, “The reference by it in the interview of the BBC Hausa Service by the National Security Adviser has been misconstrued and mistranslated. NSA made two critical points -one is that we don’t have enough weapons, which is a statement of facts, and two procurements made have not been fully delivered.
