By Haruna Salami
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Farouk Yahaya has disclosed that the current “envelope” system of budget in the country is adversely impacting on their performance.
He stated this at the 2022 budget defence of the Nigerian Army on Wednesday at the National Assembly.
According to the Army Chief “Army of the present must, by necessity of the changing nature of the battle space, develop novel processes, strategies and tactics to overwhelm the enemy in kinetic and non-kinetic battles; win hearts and minds; and safeguard our nation’s territorial integrity, prestige and honour.
To achieve this “requires deliberate investment in leadership capacity building, planned strategic procurement of necessary equipment and infrastructure, personnel welfare, battle resilience and combat efficiency”.
Consequently, he said, the NA is gradually implementing the NA Order of Battle (NA ORBAT) 2016. This has led to the Nigerian Army expansion from 5 to 8 divisions, establishment of Nigerian Army Battle Fitness Centre and other operational and administrative commands and units amongst others to bridge the gaps being exploited by bandits and other criminal elements.
“This therefore, calls for a review of the subsisting envelope budget system which over the years have been a major challenge in adequately funding the NA for its constitutional duties.
“It is my hope that this Distinguished Committee would passionately look into this with a view to correcting the anomaly.
The Army Chief said he recognizes the need to constantly boost the morale of the fighting troops hence, he pays them constant operational visits to give strategic directives, adding “this approach has been yielding good results as observed in the unprecedented surrender of Boko Haram Terrorists and their families”.
“As we are all aware, the theatre of operations has expanded beyond the North East to other geo political zones of the country. Thus, manpower requirements of the NA have also been increasing to accommodate the attendant needs”, he said.
In his remarks, Chairman of Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume (Borno South) said “what is allocated to Nigerian Army is inadequate” adding “you can’tput Military budget in envelope while the security challenge is out of the envelope or have ceiling while the problem is above the ceiling”.
He expressed surprise that while 2021 capital budget of the Army was N29 billion, that of 2022 was reduced to N28 billion.
Ndume said the Committee is sure that President Muhammadu Buhari will give the Nigerian Army what it needs to perform.
He supported his position with supplementary budget the President sent to National Assembly for Military this year.
