The Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, has asked members of the National Assembly to increase the allocation to the ministry in the 2024 budget.
The minister made the appeal on Wednesday when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Defence.
Mr Badaru cited the rising cost of operations and the increase in the price of diesel and fuel as major reasons for soliciting the increment.
In the proposed 2024 budget, the ministry of defence has an allocation of N78.5 billion for personnel and overhead costs.
But, the defence minister argued that the proposed allocation is not enough to fight insecurity facing the country due to the economic situation of the country.
“I appeal to the distinguished senators and honourable members to review the ministry’s budget given the prevailing economic situation to enable the ministry to function effectively.
“You are already aware of the inflationary trend and the cost of diesel, petrol, and operational costs. The overhead is very low, and we urge you to support us to see how we can improve our overhead” Mr Badaru said.
Mr Badaru explained that heads of military units consume large quantities of fuel and diesel to carry out their official duties.
“Heads of brigades consume a lot of fuel, diesel, we appeal that this can be looked into”, the minister said.
Mr Badaru assured that all funds appropriated in the budget will be judiciously utilised after the final approval.
“Instead of fighting in one sector, and the bandits or insurgents run into another sector, that was the intent of the supplementary budget, and we assure the senators that we will track this expenditure and make sure the monies appropriated will be utilised fully, and we will account appropriately,” he said.
The minister also said the ministry performed excellently in the utilisation of the 2023 budget.
“The budget utilisation is 100 per cent. We had a release of 95 per cent and a utilisation of 92 per cent. On the capital expenditure, we had a release of 94 per cent, and a utilisation of 74 per cent which is also a very good achievement. Before the year runs out, we will reach 94 per cent utilisation. We can say we have done well with our budget performance, we performed very excellently,” he said.
Chairman of the joint committee, Ahmed Lawan, asked why the safe school initiative of the Nigerian military has yet to commence despite the rising insecurity challenges in the country.
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Mr Badaru did not provide the answer before the committee moved into a closed-door session.
Mr Lawan, the immediate past senate president, however, assured that the committee would be committed to the ensuring provision of adequate security for Nigerians.
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