By Christiana Ekpa
The Minister of state for Defence, Muhammad Matawalle has requested the House of Representatives Committee on defence to approve an additional 20 billion naira for the payment of families of deceased military personnel.
Speaking at the commencement of the 2025 budget defence session in Abuja, Matawalle who represented the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru called for an improvement in the living standard of the military personnel.
He said: “We have non-payment and accumulated bills of group life insurance, which is very important, Mr. Chairman, the very important issues that we have is non-payment and accumulated bills of group life insurance for military personnel, which I believe or I requested the committee for consideration of maybe the sum of 20 billion as an additional funds for payment of families of deceased military personnel.
“We have another issue. Mr. Chairman, if you look at the budget of 2024, most of the barracks, the allocation being made is zero. How do we expect the personnel of the military to perform while their living standard is inadequate? All the zones, all the zones, all the provision that we made, the allocation in 2024 is zerr and these are the people that we expect them to perform magic. For us in the ministry, we have a lot of challenges.
“While we look at the budget of 2025, just 50 billion. We have shortfall of 18 billion of the last year’s budget. And people expect the ministry to do wonders.
“The Ministry of Defense is supposed to provide some equipment for some of the zones but we cannot. Out of what we have in 2024, we can be able to provide just 20 APCs. What 20 APCs can do? In Katsina alone, Mr. Chairman, if we can be able to have 50 APCs that can go inside bush to flush out those criminals, I assure you, within two months, we’ll finish the issue of banditry.
“There is no provision for that. People have been complaining. Their money being given to defense.What is there? But this is what we have. And people are expecting us to do extra things out of the budget. We cannot do it, Mr. Chairman.
“So I believe this House will consider more funding to the Ministry of Defense, so that even within our own, as administrators, we can be able to provide some equipment to some plush areas of attacks. It is all over the country. If you go to southwest, southeast, northeast, north central, northwest.
“If you look at the budget of 2025, 50 billion to Ministry of Defense. There’s other people outside are thinking that the whole money of Nigeria is into the Ministry of Defense. It is not like that.
“We cannot be able to renovate any barracks in 2024. We have a lot of complaints.
“We cannot be able to pay some of their entitlement, their military, their theatres, operations. We cannot be able to pay. In fact, this month, I have to write a letter to Mr. President to pay even the presidential guard.
“I believe this committee can look into the issue of the Ministry of Defense to see how you can be able to squeeze and add more funding to the Ministry, so as at least you can expect more from us. We thank you very much.
“We assure you that despite the fact that with the limited resources, the Ministry and the personnel are doing their best to ensure safety of all citizens. I thank the honorable members for listening to us. Thank you very much, sir.
Speaking during his opening remarks, the Chairman of the House Committee on Defence, Hon. Babajimi Benson, reaffirmed the National Assembly’s commitment to ensuring effective resource allocation to strengthen Nigeria’s defence sector.
Benson also emphasized the critical role of the Armed Forces in safeguarding national security amidst evolving security challenges.
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