Reps move to establish world class Military procurement, acquisition center

•As bill scale second reading

By Christiana Ekpa 

The House of Representatives has passed through second reading a Bill seeking to establish a world class organization that shall have the sole responsibility of managing military procurement and acquisitions in the country.

The proposed legislation tilted, “Bill for an Act to Establish Bureau of Defence Logistics Charged with Responsibility of Providing Logistics, Acquisition and Technical Support for the Army, Navy, Airforce and Similar Military Formations; and for Related Matters (HB 2089), was sponsored by Hon. Sulaiman Gumi.

Leading the debate on its general principles, Gumi noted that large forms of military acquisitions have been associated with huge sums of monies appropriated and released for defense and security. 

He argued that spending on defense and security has not been commensurate with results obtained, and the most difficult aspect is accountability in the entire process of procuring military and security infrastructure and apparatus. 

According to him, the Bill seeks to create a professional outfit saddled with the unique mandate of the production, procurement and management of defense and security apparatus as well as logistics for Nigeria.

Gumi said, “It may interest us to note that since 2015, the Nigeria Defense budget has been over One Trillion Naira, annually. The most recent 2023 budget proposal allocates the highest amount of N2.74 trillion i.e. 13 per cent of the total budget to Defense & security. It is true that after the civil war, the major operations of the military especially, has been limited to peacekeeping engagements and in recent times, counter-insurgency in different regions of the country. This has obviously put immense pressure on military spending in the country in order to achieve relative peace. 

“Parts of the reforms that may have arisen from the Security Summit put together by this Honourable House sometime ago is the importance of an effective, coordinated and responsive system of procuring military equipment  where military spending can be done in a transparent and professional manner.

 Indeed, this is the world best practice for nations involved in large military operations like us. Today I stand before you to present the proposal to establish the Bureau for Defense Logistics charged with the responsibility of providing logistics, acquisition and technical support for the Army, Navy, Air Force and similar military formations and for connected matters

“In the United States of America, the establishment of the Defense Logistics Agency after the Vietnam War led to a reduction in cost of making available logistics to the military in that clime. As such, akin to the American scenario, the proposed law is also designed to reduce the cost of providing logistics for the military when replicated in Nigeria. This move is premeditated on the need to encourage more financing and funding methods, including development and expansion of local production of military hardware.”