With N78.58bn allocation Defence minister calls for upward review of ministry’s 2024 budget

The Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, on Wednesday, appealed to the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Defence to upwardly review the budget of the Ministry of Defence.

According to the minister there was need to review the overhead cost of the ministry’s budget due to inflation and rising cost of diesel.

The Minister, who told the federal lawmakers at the National Assembly that the ministry intends to use its 2023 supplementary budget and part of its 2024 budget to end insurgency and terrorism simultaneously, made the appeal while defending the ministry’s budget at a joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives committees on defence.

“The purpose of the 2023 additional budget is to have simultaneous operations in all our theatres so we can end insecurity at once,” Badaru said, adding that the ministry was determined to ensure that terrorists rooted from one location did not go to another to continue their heinous activities.

Badaru said he believed that the Federal Government would end the war, but would not disclose its strategies openly.

The minister commended the committees for always assisting the ministry in its resolve to end insecurity, explaining that the ministry’s N78.58 billion appropriation for 2024 was higher than the N62.9 billion appropriation for 2023, and commended the National Assembly for its commitment to end insecurity.

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While justifying his call for an upward review of the ministry’s budget, Badaru said: “We want you to help us to increase our overhead cost. We consume a lot of fuel, and I appeal that this be looked into.”

Senator Ahmad Lawan, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, in his comment, said the joint committee would work assiduously to scrutinise the ministry’s 2024 proposal.

He noted that security remained the backbone for education, the economy, and others to function, adding that more resources should be given to defence to handle insecurity.

Lawan that it was not enough to approve money, but it was paramount to establish how such monies changed the situation.

“If you are given N100 billion; how has it improved the security situation in the country’’? he queried.

“It will not augur well to appropriate money without justification,’’ he stressed.

The former Senate president, however, commended security agencies for working hard to secure the country.

In his contribution, Rep. Babajimi Benson, Chairman of the House Committee on Defence, said the National Assembly would continue to make efforts to invest in security to ensure the growth and development of the country.

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