The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya has called on the National Assembly to prevail on the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to exempt it from the envelope budgeting system.
The Army Chief made the call on Wednesday in Abuja while appearing before the Senate Committee on Army to defend the Army’s 2022 budget proposal.
Yahaya said envelope budgeting has been a major challenge in adequately funding the Nigerian Army to carry out its constitutional duties.
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He said the Army proposed N710bn for its 2022 budget ,but the finance ministry, using the envelope allocation system, reduced it to N579bn.
Yahaya said the reduction in the budgetary allocation would impede its capacity and pace in prosecuting the ongoing war against Boko Haram and other violent criminals across the country.
He urged the committee to approve N642.7bn for personnel emolument; N29.6bn for overheads and N37.6bn for capital expenditure for the Army in 2022.
The Army also appealed to the National Assembly to implore the finance ministry to begin the release of its 2022 capital allocation in the first quarter of next year.
The chairman of the Senate committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume said the budgetary allocation to the Nigerian Army was grossly inadequate given the circumstances its personnel operate.
He also faulted the system of ceiling the budgetary allocation of security agencies in a country battling acute insecurity.
(Editor-Oloyede Oworu)
