The Chief of Army staff (COAS), Lt General Faruk Yahaya on Tuesday, urged the National Assembly, to pass the Armed forces of ‘Nigeria trust fund bill’ before its termination in 2023.
The Army boss made the plea while presenting; ‘performance of the 2022, and defence of the 2023 budget proposal’ of the Nigerian Army before the House of Representatives Committee on Army being Chaired by Hon Abdurrazak Namdaz, APC- Adamawa State.
He stated that passage of the bill, would greatly assist the Nigerian army through improved funding which would in turn boost the Service operations
Gen. Yahaya also called for a review of the current envelope system, which he said had led to inadequate funding of the Nigerian army operations
According to him, “this is because the manpower requirements of the Nigerian army increased to meet expansion of the theater operations of the force.
“The Nigerian Army is implementing the Nigerian Army Order of Battle, 2026 in phases. This has led to the expansion of the Nigerian army from a five to an eight-division force structure.
”I must state without mincing words that the expansion of the Nigerian army has continued to impact significantly on the human resources and lean finances available to the Nigerian army.
“Consequently, the Nigerian army battlefield in the center and other operational commands were established to effectively, provide security for our citizens”
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon Abdurrazak Namdaz, observed that the welfare of personnel of the Nigerian army should be given topmost priority and never compromised, to enable the army, tackle the nation’s security challenges effectively.
He also noted that the committee was aware of challenges confronting the army, especially issue of funding.
According to him, “In recent years, the legislature worked to improve and sustain budgetary provision of the army from the budgeted N463 billion in 2020 to N509 billion in 2021 and N589 billion in 2022,”
Namdaz added that the 2023 budget proposal of the Nigerian army, now under consideration is about N600 billion, urging for judicious application of the provision.