Funding hindering Army’s performance - Buratai

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai yesterday said partial release of fund was negating performance of the Army to tame insecurity in the country.

Speaking when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Army for budget defence, Buratai said inadequate budgetary allocation, subsisting envelope budget system and partial release of funds have negatively affected the Nigerian Army towards achieving an utmost secured environment for the citizenry.

He said the security challenges across the country would have been tamed before it escalated, if budgetary allocation to the Nigerian Army was released fully and timely.

He said at the moment the Nigerian Army was engaged in war against the Boko Haram terrorists and other internal security operations in virtually all the 36 states.

“This commitment has extended our core constitutional roles and had impacted significantly on our human and material resources,” he said.

He said in response to the security needs of the country, divisions of the Army have been expanded from 5 to 8.

For this year, he said the Army requested N261.6billion but that the ministry of budget and national planning allocated N233.05bn. He urged the Senate to review the allocation upward.

From the N21.6bn capital proposal of the Army, Buratai said they intended to procure drones and establish aerial reconnaissance intelligence Centre withN2.05bn, rehabilitation of barracks N4bn, procurement of arms and ammunitions N4.8bn and N4.5bn for the activation of the three newly established divisions.

Committee chairman, Senator George Akume (APC, Benue) scored the Army high, saying “The Army has done very well from what has been released to it in 2017 budget.”