BY Dyepkazah Shibayan
Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, says the army now rations ammunition.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Ndume said the army rations ammunition among its personnel and that this practice is “common” among the soldiers.
The senator, who called for improved efforts to boost the performance of security agencies, said the army has continually blamed its poor performance of curbing insurgency in the north-east on lack of funds.
“Never in the history of this country has Nigeria been challenged from various angles like this time. It has gotten so bad that in this country of ours, citizens have resorted to negotiating with criminals to live in peace,” the chairman of the senate committee on army said.
“In Shiroro, residents have entered into negotiations with criminals to allow them to exist in peace. In Nigeria of today, we have a government within government and all these are because of security.
“When we confront the Nigerian army, ‘why are you not performing?’, they will tell us ‘we don’t have money; we only manage with what we have.’ Up to my own village, Gwoza, which used to be the headquarters of the so-called caliphate, it was getting used to Boko Haram attacks.
“I interact with the armed forces very regularly. It is so bad that the Nigerian army is rationing ammunition. Rationing is common. They ration ammunition. I can be quoted, I have gone round the formations; I have not seen a Nigerian soldier holding a brand new AK-47 yet.”
Ndume’s comment comes amid concerns about funding for the army.
Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, had said the federal government released 100 percent of the sums earmarked for the military in the budgets of 2019, 2020 and first quarter of 2021.
In 2017, the national economic council (NEC) had approved the withdrawal of $1 billion from the excess crude account (ECA) to buy arms to combat the insurgency in the north-east.
On Monday, Nyesom Wike, Rivers governor, asked the federal government to account for the arms.
Meanwhile, the presidency gave a breakdown of how it spent the sum in 2019, following criticism by the public.
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