Military chiefs got N238bn for weapons, others in two years –Report

The Ministry of Defence together with the Defence Headquarters, the army, navy and air force got over N238bn in 2018 and 2019 to fight insecurity and implement their programmes and operations, according to reports from the Budget Office of the Federation.

The reports, which are the 2018 and 2019 Budget Implementation Reports, culled by one of our correspondents from the website of the Budget Office on Thursday stated that the defence ministry, the DHQ and the three arms of the military budgeted over N316bn for its operations and programmes in the two years.

The Federal Government, however, released about N238bn which represents about 75 per cent of the appropriation.

Within the same period, the spate of the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and violence in the country has gone up, and at least 71 soldiers had been killed by terrorists and bandits between January and July, 2020 alone.

This casualty figure is summed from the official armed forces’ releases, while military sources believe that the casualty figure would be in hundreds.

Some of the military sources said the continual loss of troops to insurgents and bandits in the theatres of operation nationwide was forcing soldiers to embark on mass resignation, with the latest being on July 3 when no fewer than 356 soldiers in the North-East and other theatres disengaged from service, citing “loss of interest” as their reason.

The soldiers wrote to the Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, on July 3, 2020, under Reference NA/COAS/001, quoting the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service soldiers/rating/airmen (Revised) 2017.

The approval of the voluntary disengagement of the 356 soldiers was contained in a 17-page circular from Buratai, AHQ DOAA/G1/300/92, signed by Brig Gen T.E Gagariga for the army chief.

According to the 2018 Budget Implementation Report, the Federal Government appropriated N157bn for capital projects and operations to the military and released N132bn.

Meanwhile, for the 2019 report, the government allocated a total of N159bn for the military’s capital projects and programmes; it later released N106.84bn.

These sums are different from the $1bn which the Federal Government approved from the Excess Crude Account to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East in December 2017.