By Haruna Salami
The Senate on Tuesday refused to consider the 2023 budget for the Ministry of Defence over the failure
of the Minister, Bashiru Magashi to honour invitations extended to him by Senate Ad-hoc Committee on
the resuscitation of Nigerian Navy ship, NNS ARADU, which is the largest on the fleet of the Navy.
The Senate through its Committee on Defence reached the decision after an interjection by former
Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North), drawing the attention of other members of the
Committee to an earlier action of the senate summoning the Minister of Defence to come before its Ad-
hoc Committee to give explanations concerning the Naval ship.
According to Abdullahi, a motion was raised on the floor of the senate chamber in February on the need
to resuscitate the NNS Aradu, which is Nigeria’s flagship and most powerful in the fleet of Nigerian Navy.
He reminded the lawmakers that Senate subsequently set up an Ad-hoc Committee chaired by him to
interface with the Minister of Defence with a view to finding ways to resuscitate the grounded NNS
Aradu.
Senator Abdullahi said the Minister has refused to honor all 3 invitations forwarded to him by his Ad-hoc
Committee in the last three months.
The powerful Naval ship is owned by only three countries of the world: Germany, Argentina and Nigeria.
Abdullahi said the ship is designed to protect Nigeria’s territorial integrity, pointing out that while other
countries have maintained their flagship that represents the strength of the Navy, that of Nigeria
remained grounded.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, Aliyu Wamakka who also spoke extensively on the
need to urgently resuscitate the Navy ship, subsequently asked the Minister of Defence to go with the
budget and return only after he has cleared himself with the Senate Ad-hoc Committee.
