The Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Defence has expressed shock at the gap that exists between the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Force of Nigeria.
Chairman of the Joint Committee and President of the 9th Senate, Ahmed Lawan, said this.
He made the observation in his response to the presentation by the Minister of Defence, Badaru Abubakar, on the Ministry’s budget on Wednesday.
Lawan told Abubakar that in his speech he said what he was defending was the 2024 appropriation proposal as it relates to the headquarters of the Ministry.
He said: “Honestly, I’m not happy with that.
“You are the Minister of Defence, not Minister of the headquarters and at the press of a button, you are supposed to see the budget of the Ministry of Defence, including everyone, not the Ministry headquarters.
“This to me is a message for the Ministry.
“You are supposed to supervise the work of the entire Ministry of Defence ecosystem, for everyone, all the services, all the other agencies.
“They are supposed to be under your power.”
Lawan was of the view that “this is part of our problem in the defence of our country because it doesn’t make sense to me that the minister will be restricted to defending the budget of only the ministry headquarters.
“That should be the Permanent Secretary’s work.
“The minister is supposed to be in the grip of everything.
“I think there is a need for us to work together with the executive to see how we can address this kind of situation because it is simply not going to work.
“The Ministry of Defence is the Ministry of Defence.”
Another thing that didn’t impress Lawan was the request by the minister for upward review of the ministry’s budget.
The former Senate president said: “Honourable Minister, this budget proposal was done two, three weeks ago.
“It’s supposed to be your business then to know that the prices of diesel and other things are already up and I’m sure they have not increased in the last two weeks.
“You might have been constrained by this envelope.”
Earlier in his defence of the 2023 budget performance and presentation of the 2024 proposal, Abubakar had assured the National Assembly that the Ministry will deliver on its core mandate.
He said: “The Ministry is totally committed to actualising its core mandate and I believe the Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members will assist to achieve this mandate.”
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He used the medium to appeal to the lawmakers to review upward the ministry’s overhead cost in view of the current economic situation which hinders the Ministry to function effectively.