Dollar Crisis Affects Purchase Of Arms, Ammunition By Nigerian Military – CDS, General Musa Tells National Assembly

 

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has revealed how the foreign exchange crisis impacts negatively on the purchase of arms and ammunition by the Nigerian military.

Musa made this known when the service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, appeared before the House of Representatives on Tuesday, where they listed their challenges and needs in a bid to improve the security situation in the country.

The CDS stated that due to the dollar crisis, the security agencies did not often get value for money despite the huge budgetary allocation for defence and security in the past couple of years.

He said, “We don’t produce what we need in Nigeria and if you do not produce what you need, that means you are at the beck and call of the people that produce these items. All the items we procured, were bought with hard currency, none in naira. Most times when funds are released, by the time you turn these funds into dollars, they can only get us very little.

“For example, during the last regime, about $1bn was set aside for defence procurements. Out of that amount, over $600m was for the procurement of the aircraft. So the whole money had gone.

“For any ammunition we buy, we buy it in dollars and we spend in millions. So many times when people see that funds are being released to the armed forces, they think it is so much but by the time you convert them to dollars, you do not get so much.

“One precision missile for our drone costs $5,000; so imagine how many we would be able to use and how many we can procure. Those are the challenges,” he said.

He also emphasised the need to leverage on technology in the fight against insecurity in the country.

“There is a need to exploit the contemporary global shift in the utilisation of space technology and cyber warfare for national defence and security. So far, we have initiated the process of establishing a joint cyber warfare intelligence command where such emerging technologies will be exploited to enhance the capabilities of the armed forces of Nigeria.”

Musa explained that men and officers of the various security agencies were not magicians who could put an end to the spate of insecurity troubling the land without support from the public.

Source: Sahara Reporters