Buratai Begs Senate to intervene on more funding for Nigerian Army

…Says poor funding slowing down progress on terror war
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.General Yusuf Buratai has revealed the inability of the Nigerian Military to finish off terrorism, in particular Boko Haram in the North Eastern zone of the country anchors on insufficient funding.

Butatai made this known when he appeared for budget defence for the Nigerian Army on Monday, stressing that insecurity in Nigeria has continued to linger because the Nigerian Army lacked adequate resources to nip the problem in the bud at early stage.

He said, Nigerian Army would have gained some mileage in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria while minimising casualties inflicted by the menace, if it had enjoyed adequate funding.

The Chief of Army Staff, however urged the National Assembly to exclude the Nigerian Army from envelope allocation, appealing for inclusion of Army on first line charge in order to be able to access funds directly to tackle insecurity problem in the country effectively.

According to him, it does not augur well for government not to release fund for the Army when there is so much challenges for troops to tackle.

He said, “The inadequate budgetary allocation envelope budget system and subsisting partial release of the funds had negatively affected Nigerian Army toward achieving almost secured environment for the citizenry.

“The Nigerian Army is committed to securing the territory of Nigeria from any violation as the clearance operation to rid the country of the remnant of Boko Haram terrorists and other criminal groups.

“Timely and complete implementation of the budget will enhance the fulfilment of his mandate.

“I pray that the sum of N195.5 billion should be approved for the Nigerian Army personnel enrolment in the 2018 budget. The sum of N26.1billion for overhead while N39.8 billion be approved for capital.”