‘Nigeria’s defence spending less than Mali, Chad’

The report said low morale, bureaucratic delays, inadequate funding, obsolete, defective and insufficient armament over the years “adversely affected the ability” of the military to “live up to expectation.” It lamented that “while Boko Haram operation rages on,” the 2014 budget is yet to be released five months into the year. Quoting the Stockholm International Research […]

The report said low morale, bureaucratic delays, inadequate funding, obsolete, defective and insufficient armament over the years “adversely affected the ability” of the military to “live up to expectation.”
 It lamented that “while Boko Haram operation rages on,” the 2014 budget is yet to be released five months into the year.
Quoting the Stockholm International Research Institute, the report said Nigeria’s military expenditure in relation to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) index of 0.96 percent from 2008 to 2012 “fell below the 2.3% recommended by the United Nations.”
“It is embarrassing to note that the same report that our average military expenditure was less than Algeria’s 3.84%, Mali’s 1.6% and Chad’s 4.24% with similar challenges,” the committee said.
The report shows military expenditure of other countries thus: South Africa, 1.18 percent; India, 2.66 percent; and Brazil, 1.54 percent.
The committee recommended that all security agencies be made first line charge on the federation account to “defeat Boko Haram, terrorists, oil thieves and pirates in our territorial waters, kidnappers and so on.”
Ironically, Nigeria has been spending trillions of naira in its fight against Boko Haram militancy without commiserate impact.