By Femi Ogunshola
Lt.- Gen. Faruk Yahaya, the Chief of Army Staff has urged the National Assembly to pass the Armed forces of Nigeria trust fund bill before the end of the ninth assembly.
Yahaya made the call while presenting the performance of the 2022 budget and defending the 2023 budget proposal of the Nigerian army.
He said the passage of the bill would greatly assist the Nigerian army through improved funding, while calling for a review of the current envelope system
This according to him has led to inadequate funding of the Nigerian army.
This, he said, was because the manpower requirement of the Nigerian army had increased to meet the expansion of the theatre of operations of the army.
According to him, the army is implementing the Nigerian Army Order of Battle 2026 in phases. This has led to the expansion of the Nigerian army from five to eight divisions force structure.
He said the Nigerian army battle field in the centre and other operational commands were established to effectively to effectively provide security for our citizens.
“I must state without mincing words that the expansion of the Nigerian army has continued to impact significantly on the human resources and lean finances available to the Nigerian army’’, he said.
Rep Abdurrazak Namdaz, Chairman, House Committee on army, said the welfare of personnel of the Nigerian army should be given topmost priority and never compromised.
This, according to him, is to enable the army to tackle the nation’s security challenges effectively.
He said the committee was aware of the challenges confronting the army, especially the issue of funding.
“In recent years, the legislature had worked to improve and sustain the budgetary provision of the army from the budgeted 463 billion naira in 2020 to 509 billion naira in 2021 and 589 billion in 2022’’.
Namdaz said the 2023 budget proposal of the Nigerian army, now under consideration was about 600 billion, urging for judicious application of the provision.(NAN)
