By Henry Uche, Lagos
The legislator representing Borno South in the red chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Ali Ndume, said that President Muhammadu Buhari should be held responsible for the insecurity and other misfortunes ravaging the country over the years, as the commander-in-chief of all armed forces.
Ndume, who is the chairman, Senate Committee on Army, made this known in a monitored interview on Sunday and noted that the (police in particular) need to recruit between one to two million Personnel, the military inclusive as well as other paramilitaries agencies.
According to him, technology, logistics, medical care, payment of allowances as and when due and other resources are needed to boost the morale of the military personnel.
“We have about 400,000 police personnel to watch over 200,000,000 Nigerians which is inadequate. We need more recruits. I’m looking at one to Two Million for the police,”
The senator decried the federal government’s inability to track and hunt down criminal elements in a different guise in the country, but at the same time was able to block the communication numbers of ordinary citizens for not-too-serious reasons.
“You find it easy to block citizens’ telephones, but you don’t block the bandits telephone. Bandits call people on the telephone, and nobody can tell us where they are. Every day what we hear is rhetorical when they said they condemn bandits’ actions.”
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He revealed that one of his relatives was shot last week on the farm and later died in the hospital.
“One of my relations was shot on the farm, he died in the hospital. The government is not doing enough for the welfare and security of the people.
“The president is not the Director-in-Chief, but the Commander-In-Chief. He should take responsibility for not only the failure to secure Nigerians and improve welfare but other things that happen in this government. For him as a president, it’s him, God will ask as the commander in chief. The service chiefs are appointed by him at his pleasure,”
On the impeachment move against the president, he said he had made it clear from the beginning that if the president is not doing well, the NASS have the constitutional right to remove him, however, the impeachment move at this time was unnecessary.
“What is important now is how to fix insecurity. The military is trying their best under the circumstances they find themselves. But how can one perform when out of N17tr budget, but the capital allocated to defence and security is less than N30bn -very insignificant, how do you expect them to perform? It doesn’t add up.
“And only half of that amount was released, I think just Two weeks ago. The money was supposed to be used to buy arms and weapons. Are we serious? No! Russia and Ukraine have been at war, but they don’t talk about how much they spent, they only talk about what they have achieved and take action appropriately,”
He suggested a state of emergency for the welfare and security of citizens if necessary, to ensure that the welfare and security of citizens are ensured.
Responding to N8tr sunk in defence in seven years and N4tr spent in 5 years without significant result, he said “If your house is on fire, do you care how much (in quantity) of water you used in put out the fire? What the Nigeria army need is not the money even, what they need is the equipment and what it takes to confront the war, and they should be paid including their duty allowances, medication and logistics,”
He added that he cares less about how the military spends its money, but what is important to him is the result. “Let’s spend all the money and let’s have peace. I don’t like the idea of talking about what we spend when we’re in trouble,” he stressed.