Izuchukwu OkosiThe former Nigerian Airforce Spokesperson, Group Captain Sadeeq Shehu has disclosed that the military does not receive all the funds in its approved budget.
Speaking on the subject of the Nigeria Police Force being underfunded and unable to meet up with the United Nations (UN) recommended ratio of 1 policeman to 40 people instead of the prevalent 1 to 1,000, Group Captain Shehu stated that the intentions of those coming into the force is not to tackle insecurity in the country.
“For the assembly to do a proper work of providing funding or providing oversight, there has to be a very frank discussion between the legislature and the security chief and such discussions are very sensitive in that it may not involve the general public.
“When we say resources, it is a very wide concept. Yes, for many years since we started having security issues, the security budget has always becoming number one or at least number two. When you talk of resources, the devil is in the details. What was provided? How quickly was the money released? What percentage of the security budget is released and at what time? These are issues that we see.
Shehu makes a pertinent point that the military’s budget do not get them on time.
“These are issues that the national assembly can follow up and make sure that we have a balanced budget. From my own experience, it is not all the money we see in naira and kobo on paper that gets to the military and not all that even reaches them on time.
“It’s a valid point to ask them for all the resources given but how are the resources disbursed? How quickly are they released?”
Speaking on the issue of summons of the security chiefs by the national assembly and in the light of the utterances of Simon Ekpa, the leader of the factional Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who is based in Finland, the group captain said ‘the summons is too many’ and the security chiefs should have time to do the work they were appointed to do.
“What I am saying is that it is a middle course. Nobody can take the power of summons of the national assembly. Not only the service chiefs, even ministers who are higher than service chiefs. But what I am saying is that the power to summon should be used Pari-passu.
“You gave these people the work to do. If you call them every time, if different committees call them over the same issue, then you are taking the time they are supposed to use for the field to be supervising their officers and men. The issue is to find a balancing point where the legislature will do their job and let the security agents will do their work.” he said
The former security chief validates the importance of the summons: “It’s normal. We’ve seen it happen several times with the security challenges we are having with the National Assembly, either one of the committed of several of the committes.
“This is good for our democracy. This is also good for civil-military relations. It’s a language to tell us that the National Assembly has much powers as the Executive has on security matters except a fee things that the Executive can do that the National Assembly can also do.
Nigeria’s police stations over the years do not have enough operational vehicles. The Force are also grossly handicapped
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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