Amosu advocates better funding for military

punchng.com

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, has advised the government against starving the military of funds in the performance of its statutory responsibility of defending the country against emerging threats.

He also urged the government to develop the capabilities of the nation’s defence system and the protection of the interest of the citizenry within and outside the country.

Amosu said this while presenting a book he authored titled ‘Combating Terrorism and Insurgency in Contemporary Times : The imperative of Air Power in Abuja on Wednesday night.

He said, “Accordingly, one or two lessons, which Nigeria must learn from our current fight against terrorism, is that political leadership must never starve the military of necessary funds; develop and sustain the essential capabilities for the defence of the nation and the protection of our interest at home and abroad.”

He added that the issue of inadequate funding played a central role in the limited successes recorded against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East.

Amosu stressed that inadequate funding shouldn’t have been allowed to affect the military operation designed to stop the terrorists in the North-East.

He believed that conscious efforts should have been made to ensure adequate provision for the procurement of arms and ammunition and requisite platform that could be utilised to deal with insurgency.

The Air Force chief explained that the massive acquisition of arms and ammunition and other equipment needed for the prosecution of the campaign against insurgency was responsible for the remarkable success recorded by the military in the operation in the past few months.

Amosu stated, “For the fight against terrorism, the issue of lack of adequate finance should never have been allowed to affect the operations because it is common knowledge that one of the ways of defeating terrorists’ cells is to identify their source of funding and cut it off.

 “If this is accepted, there ought to have been conscious efforts to ensure that participating forces have, at all time, the finance to procure required platforms, weapons and ammunition. After all, what’s the place of prosperity where there is no peace and security?”