The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Army, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdaz, (APC, Adamawa) has called for more funding in the defence sector outside the budget to tackle the challenges facing the country.
He disclosed this while speaking to journalists on the N13 trillion Proposed 2021 budget presented to the joint sitting of the National Assembly by President Muhammad Buhari on Thursday.
According to him, what is allocated to the defence sector cannot adequately finance the various operations and procure hardware for the various security agencies in the fight against terrorism and other challenges facing the country.
“We shouldn’t be financing our defence needs through budgets. No country uses budget to finance its security needs.
” I know that, the government is giving what it can. It cannot allocate all the funds to the defence sector, because there are other sectors that have to be financed.
“I am not saying what they allocate to defence is wrong. We have a bill in the House, it has passed second reading, we are waiting for the third reading,” he said.
Out of the N13 trillion proposed 2021 budget, Ministry of Defence was allocated N840.56 billion.
It could be recalled that, a bill seeking the establishment of “Nigerian Armed Forces Support Fund” sponsored by Rep. Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos) and six others has passed second reading in the House.
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