Sen. Ndume Reveals NASS To Adjust Defence Budget

The Chairman Senate Committee, Army, Senator Ali Ndume, has revealed that the National Assembly would adjust defence budget to meet the security reality of our time.

Senator Ndume revealed this while addressing newsmen in Kaduna on Thursday, where he led a joint team on fact finding mission at an army formation in the state.

He stressed that the allocation to defence in the 2020 budget was too small to meet the current security challenges of Nigeria.

Ndume lamented the allocation to the Nigerian army while stressing the importance of security to the country.

He said “There is nothing more important than security to Nigerians. Even if half of that budget is to be spent on security they will be glad, because if you are not secured all other things will not work.

“We have security challenges in this country and Nigerian Army is in the forefront of trying to address the challenges.”

The chairman of the committee also revealed that his team visited the Governor of the state, El-Rufai, adding that, the visit was necessary in order to galvanized support for tackling security challenges in the country.

Ndume said “We have gone round to see for ourselves and now we paid a courtesy visit to the state Governor and we also sought for his assistance to make sure that we all put hands on deck to tackle the security challenges.

“Now that the budget is before us we will surely try to make adjustment so that the budget for defence will be something that will make a difference.

“A country that is not secured is not a country, and the Nigeria army which is saddle with the responsibility of securing the territorial integrity of the country will be useless if within the country is not secured,” the senator added.