Posted by By Gbenga Faturoti, Special Correspondent, Osogbo on
The Federal Government is still shopping for N15 billion to settle the entitlements and pensions of retired militay officers.
The Federal Government is still shopping for N15 billion to settle the entitlements and pensions of retired militay officers.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Wole Oke, however explained at the weekend in Osogbo that government's determination to have an accurate data-base of the military pensioners actually delayed the payment of the outstanding arrears, stressing that the government would ensure its payment soonest.
Oke said on another breath, 'The money has accumulated and the 2004 budget cannot contained it. The next year financial estimate will take care of it."
He appealed to the retirees to bear with government and assured that his committee was doing everything possible to ensure that they did not suffer unjustly or to allow their labour to ensure the continuous corporate existence of this country to be in vain.
Oke defended President Olusegun Obasanjo's decision to send Nigerian troops to Dafur in Sudan for peace keeping saying, 'It is the right step as the chairman of the African Union."
'As a responsible and responsive leader of Africa, he cannot allow the avoidable killings in Dafur to continue. It is in the spirit of brotherhood that he took the step. He believes that if the killing is not checked, it can spread to other parts of Africa," he said.
The committee chairman said the defence sector was grossly under-funded saying, 'We still have a long way to go. We need security personnel that have the required capacity to operate in an enabling environment with the necessary equipment. We need communication equipment to monitor the entry and exit from the country." 'American government spends about $45 billion yearly on defence. What we spend is a paltry sum of about N10 billion yearly. This is inadequate," Oke declared.Oke said he had executed projects that have uplifted the lives of the people in his constituency.
He stated added that the people of the South West have gained a lot for being in the mainstream of the nation's politics. 'We are able to monitor and ensure that the principle of federal character is implemented to the letter and the South West is able to get its due share of the national cake."