Military require alternative funding sources to tackle B/Haram, insecurity –Air chief

Henry Omunu, Abuja

Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar has declared that the military would require alternative sources of funding apart from annual budgetary allocations to effectively tackle insurgency and other security challenges facing the nation.

Air Marshall Sadique stated this on in an interview with journalists after a budget defense session with the House of Representatives Committee on Air Force in Abuja.

He said while the Nigerian Air Force appreciated the support of the National Assembly, insisting however, that there was the urgent need to look beyond the annual budget to seek alternative sources of funds for the military to enable it discharge its constitutional role.

He added that “the air force is a very expensive institution that requires a lot of resources to function.

I must say that the National Assembly has been very supportive in that regard, especially the House Committee and the Senate Committee on Air Force.

“And we’re working closely together to ensure that we get what’s required in terms of platforms, capabilities and manpower so that we can make Nigeria a more secured country.”

Asked if he’s satisfied with what has been proposed for the air force in the 2019 budget, considering the service need for funding as prerequisite for performance, the NAF boss said no institution gets all that it needs in a given fiscal year.

“That’s why I would advise that we get alternative sources of funding, rather than just the budget.

Like I said, the air force is very expensive to maintain. The aircrafts that fly in the North East consumes about 2, 300 liters of aviation fuel every one hour. That’s just one.

“So if you multiply that by the number of hours this team of platforms fly because they fly in formation, they don’t fly separately, so that’s why keeping them in the air is extremely expensive.

“However, we are very happy with the support we’re getting from the federal government and the National Assembly.

And that’s why we’re now going into not only air power projection, but protection of the air access and that’s why you have the special forces training that’s going on.

“And very soon, we will have sufficient capacity to be able to support other sister services in conducting limited ground operations.”

Prodded further on possible alternative sources of funding by reporters, he retorted, that the parliament critically analyze the situation vis-à-vis the requirements of the military.

The air chief added that Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, percentage interest from financial institutions as well as the levying of mobile phone users to facilitate security agencies’ operations should be looked into.

“You have to be safe first before you can think of enjoying your mobile phone. So whatever you as a subscriber is giving to the mobile phone company can have certain percentage of it deducted to fund the armed forces.

“By that, these resources can be channeled straight to the equipment manufacturers and we just get the aircrafts, that all we’re interested in,” he said.