The Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, has assured Nigerians that the war against insecurity will come to an end if the various security agencies get the required support from the government and the citizens at all times.
To realise this objective, the minister called for increased allocation to the ministry to enable it to adequately fund all theatres of operation across the country.
Abubakar stated this on Wednesday when he appeared before the joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Defence to defend the ministry’s 2024 budget estimates.
The minister, who pointed out that the 2024 budget as it relates to the Ministry of Defence was N78,581,164,993, said the aim was to ensure sustained and simultaneous operations in the theatres in the country to send terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements out of the land
“We believe we can end this war. Definitely, it (insecurity) will come to an end but it is better to discuss what is happening across the theatres of operation behind closed doors
“On the issue of the progress we have made and if the war will end, I suggest we should have the discussion in a closed-door meeting with joint committees where we will have all the services and operation theatres commanders. We would talk in a closed-door meeting and talk extensively on the operational areas and what we are doing, what we envisage would happen, but we believe we can end the war against insecurity.
“We will explain to you in detail what is happening across the theatres of operation. Our aim is to have simultaneous operations in all our theatres, so that all of them would work and we will try as much as possible to end the insecurity at once instead of fighting it in one centre, and the bandits or insurgents will be moving to the other centres,” he said
This, Abubakar noted, informed the 2023 supplementary budget which he pledged to monitor to ensure value for money.
“I am sure that we would track expenditure and make sure money being appropriated is utilised fully and we would account as appropriate.
“The ministry is totally committed to actualising its core mandate. We seek the support of members of the House and the Senate. I appeal to the National Assembly to review the ministry’s overhead cost in view of the prevailing economic situation to help us function effectively. The overhead is very low and we call for support,” he stated.
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