By Umar Muhammad Puma
The speaker of the House of Representatives has decried the failure of federal government in appropriating adequate funds for the Nigerian troops, saying the soldiers are being underfunded as they go into the battle fields in different parts of the country.
The speaker made this known yesterday when he received a delegation of the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA), led by the President-General of the association, Kabiru Nuhu Koko who paid him a courtesy call in his office in Abuja.
“We are amenable and we are available, we shall continue to give every support humanly possible to be able to end these senseless killings.
“People should know that we in parliament have our limitation. We cannot commandeer troops, but we can have the legislation. We can only appropriate the fund, of course we have an oversight, but we have a limitation in following the money, in following appropriated funds”, he said, adding also that the legislators are determined to find new ways that would guarantee the improvement of the welfare of troops through their annual appropriation.
“A situation whereby we appropriate fund for our men to be well taken cared-of, well kitted, and for them to have adequate arms, but somebody somewhere is playing politics or is not applying those funds judiciously is unacceptable.
“And we are ready to take on whoever is involved in that. Very soon, as we resume, we are going to have motions that will improve the welfare of our men, because we have received so many complaints that they are not getting what is due to them on the field,” he said.
Earlier in his earlier speech, President-General, Kabiru Nuhu Koko, said the delegation decided to pay the courtesy call on the speaker for being the only government figure who voiced concern and grief over “terrible night killing of school children.”
He then called on the lawmakers to come up with a legislation that would improve security around unity schools across the country, especially as the schools remained the only learning environment that continue to strengthen Nigeria’s unity.
