Over-sighting Defence Expenditure, By Zainab Suleiman Okino

Premium Times July 12, 2017 Over-sighting Defence Expenditure, By Zainab Suleiman Okino2017-07-11T22:30:51+00:00 Columns, Politics, Zainab Suleiman Okino No Comment

Procurement processes should be transparent and open without necessarily compromising national security. The anti-corruption strategy should be from the top to bottom i.e. from the presidency down to the lowest level, and the military must wean itself from their ugly past, renew and reengineer itself for an open society…

In the 2017 budget, a total of N139.3 billion and N63.8 billion, out of N7.44 trillion, were budgeted for the ministries of defence and interior respectively. Both ministries form the bulk of the security apparatus; whereas the ministry of health got only N55.6 billion and education received N56.7 billion. As imperative as health and education are, security takes precedence over them, understandably because there has to be the guaranteed security of lives and property before education or even health can thrive. However, despite spending a colossal amount of money year in, year out in this sector, our lives as Nigerians remain in the grip of fear – fear on the roads, in work places, in our houses and in our neighbourhoods, partly due to the misapplication of these funds.

These are besides the big threats posed by the Boko Haram insurgency, IPOB, Niger Delta Avengers, kidnapping, and herdsmen-farmer clashes, etc. Common CCTVs taken for granted in city capitals elsewhere, have been mired in corruption controversy here, so criminals reign supreme in Abuja, where over the years, there are known black spots in which people are daily attacked and dispossessed of their belongings. Yet, neither are there CCTVs to track these incidences, nor are the areas well-illuminated. I had a narrow escape at Bolingo junction the other day, and the thought of the encounter still makes me nervous.

The precursor to huge military spending can be hinged on years of military interregnum, which engendered a unitary governance structure and totalitarian streak that gave no chance to the civil populace to question anything. That mindset has led us to where we are and why defence spending is shrouded in secrecy in the name of classified information, not wanting to compromise national security or ‘national interest’, thereby veiling corruption in the process. And as some people have noted, national security is always an excuse for impunity, and for the perpetration of monumental and unimaginable corruption and theft of public funds. This explains why not much headway has been made in tackling defence related corruption.

All that may soon be in the past, now that civil society organisations (CSOs), in conjunction with their international partners, have begun to scrutinise the procurement/expenditures incurred. At a CSO roundtable towards improving public oversight of defence spending organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Transparency International recently, the link between security, development and value for money, and the propriety of interrogating them, came to the fore. Corruption is apparent in the police and in the military, going by the alleged infractions and on-going trials of ex-security chiefs, including the trial of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, who allegedly turned the security/defence budget into a slush fund he shared to politicians, while the rank and file died in the battlefield for the lack of equipment, munitions, material shortages and the absence of troop welfare concerns. Certainly, corruption was and is still apparent in defence procurement contracts. The phenomenon has weakened our internal security and the country’s counter-terrorism capability and has the capacity to destabilise the polity.

…if we all admit that defence budgets are not transparent, extremely difficult to verify; that accountability for improper expenditure is absent and all the fine details are neglected, reforms in the sector is inevitable, and it requires the collaboration of all.

A few months ago Transparency International, in collaboration with CISLAC, produced a 19-page report on defence procurement; it is titled, “Weaponising Transparency: Defence Procurement Reform as a Counter-Terrorism Strategy in Nigeria”. The report chronicles the “unforgivable damage defence corruption has done to the nation’s political stability, counter-terrorism efforts, socio-economic development and well-being of the citizens”. Although the report covers 2011 to 2015, when the Jonathan regime opened the vault for reckless spending in the guise of counter-insurgency operations, the military as currently constituted rose to the defence of the institution and vociferously criticised the report. It was a hasty knee-jerk approach to an institutional rot with international dimensions, because TI’s searchlight is not just beamed on Nigeria; it is working in many other countries to unravel the rot, lack of transparency and accountability in defence/security spending.

Coming back to Nigeria, and as was revealed at the roundtable, $15 billion went unaccounted for between 2010 and 2015. Again in this category, the Air Force was a willing accomplice. Once a pilot was made to fly a dysfunctional helicopter without rotors; the chopper crashed, killing him and his crew, yet $137 million was provided for the procurement of two new Mi-35P helicopters; $7.2 million was provided for acquiring four Alpha jets, but the two delivered were unsuitable for deployment. Again, $45 million was spent on aircraft maintenance, while N12 Million was paid for contracts that were never executed. It was that bad because money meant to purchase and replace obsolete equipment was embezzled by the ‘ogas at the top’. In a nutshell, defence corruption cuts across — from the political to personnel, procurement, finance and operations. Even in deployment of soldiers to the war front, corruption rears its head, because while bogus claims are made, the actual number deployed is less, and what is provided for the welfare of combatants is far less than what is declared.

As such, if we all admit that defence budgets are not transparent, extremely difficult to verify; that accountability for improper expenditure is absent and all the fine details are neglected, reforms in the sector is inevitable, and it requires the collaboration of all. This should start with the military which needs to drive the change by working with CSOs, and not countermanding them each time they, TI or any NGO at that, dig into their closets.

Citizen engagement by CSOs, legislative scrutiny, including capacity building for proper oversight and advocacy are important steps in the defence/security budget, just as we should begin a new phase of scrutinising the phenomenon of the ‘security vote’, whose amount and how it is disbursed are determined by the governors alone.

Procurement processes should be transparent and open without necessarily compromising national security. The anti-corruption strategy should be from the top to bottom i.e. from the presidency down to the lowest level, and the military must wean itself from their ugly past, renew and reengineer itself for an open society in which the culture of integrity and transparency will gradually replace the old order.

zainabsule@yahoo.com, www.zainabokino.blogspot.com

Image credit: Militarymortgagecenter.com.

accountability, Boko Haram, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), Defence, Defence Expenditure, Defence Procurement Transparency, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Transparency International (TI)

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Taster

We women, fear us – we are the reason the world is in conflict of ideologies – in the schools, churches – even in politics – it`s all about us – now combined with a mediocre leadership in politics and in our education system the malaise won`t end anytime soon.
- burning spear
  
  it was not Jonathan who made love to his sons wife—–it was yr uncle Obj–who as a taster of the forbidden fruit took his son’s wife to bed–sadly he owns a private university now–so u can imagine what obtains there—-blame not the shoe less legs of Jonathan—for yr weak legs—
  - Taster
    
    Love, like you`ve just woken up – a cup of coffee with 100mg paracetamol can help.
    - Mrs Saleh
      
      alright my own contribution towards this acts is that when the lecturers try to seduce their students and the student comply what is the reaction of the stuents towards their lecturers and their parents.
  - bissyshobbo@aol.com
    
    Kindly shut ur trap if u don’t have any reasonable thing to contribute to the subject matter.
burning spear

STALE NEWS————–TELL ATIKU ati obj–both own universities–as for obj that is his foood—-to take married women and gals to bed
- bissyshobbo@aol.com
  
  Better take ur meds b4 ur sickness get out of hand
Bayo Ola

Sexual harassment is not necessarily a two way swords as implied by the male lecturer you interviewed. You have to look at this issue from power dynamics. Ladies that are trying to seduce their lecturers are guilty and should be punished, but lecturers in positions of authority are more guilty and should definitely bear the blames. There are no angles of
male philandering lecturers running after female students, or female students deliberately seducing male lecturers,
mainly for better grades that can justify the enormity of compromising our values, our educational system and our youth–invariably the future of everyone. Power relationship is involved. The lecturer wields power over students and are therefore at faults either way. If a student seduces you as a lecturer, the power dynamics empower and allow you to take appropriate disciplinary actions against such students, not to whine about a student seducing you. Philandering lecturers are out rightly dismissed and prosecuted in developed world. This is to protect our youth as well as the educational system. Society as a whole benefit from such a system. A situation where a P.h.d holder and a lecturer fails to see this power dynamic as what compels a female student to attempt to seduce a male lecturer, speaks about the level of our educational system. This should ordinarily be a no brainier. You cannot justify breaking the laws because someone seduces you to break the law. Two wrongs do not make a right.
- DCW
  
  Wit your kind of response, this matter will continue to be debated for a long time to cone. Thank you for talking about power. My question is which kind of power? Act of seduction is emotional. True or false? Who wields emotional power here? Male of female ? Men have physical power, but women have emotional power, and the game is about emotion. So men is at disadvantage here. You are mistaking authority for power. Lecturer is in a position of authority but lacks adequate power to execute the authority. Authority is dormant until power is used to enforce it. It is the authority that entitles you to wield power I agree but if the kind of power you have is not relevant to the prevailing circumstance it is futile. Why did great men like Samson fail for Delilah, David for wife of Uriah, Solomon the king, Esther against the king…, Clinton for Monica, Abacha and the Indian…. Herrod and the dancing damsel.Dont tell me you are stronger than these men, because you know it is not true, These are men fallen by emotional powers of women, in spite of their powers and authorities. Unless we address the root cause, this age-long menace will continue.
  - Bayo Ola
    
    You failed miserably to understand the issue in its proper context. This is not about nuances between power and authority; rather this is about what is legal and what is not legal regardless of the nuances of the language you chose to use. Many Nigerians are too emotional in appraising issues that require less of our mind and more of our head while appraising such issues. Let me put it to you this way: no matter how you try to argue about the power/authority dynamics between a philanderer and a student, the action of the lecturer/who is a philanderer in this instance, is wrong. Many Nigerians are also fond of arguing along this line:
    For examples, when Armed Robbers rob them. They blame the victims for not building a high fence around his/her house allowing robbers easy access to his/her house. Whereas the right thing to do, collectively, is for all of us to work together and address the security problems, bad leadership, poverty, etc, facing the nation. Then no one will need a high fence anymore.Also, when all our roads are bad and impassable, we all begin to buy SUV ( they call it Jeep in Nigeria) whereas what we need to do is to hold our leaders accountable to higher standards, and ask them to fix our roads. Sadly too, when a woman wears a mini skirt and possibly raped by an outlaw that supposed to rot in prison without parole, the police officer that suppose to defend the law and arrest the offender might even ask the woman why she is wearing a min-skirt and inviting a rapist, whereas the issue at hand is someone breaking the law and violating another citizen body in a most barbaric way without their consent. So, when a lecturer violates our young women, no wonder why you, and perhaps many people with such mind set, are arguaing about the nuance to rationalise the power/authority dynamics that exist as excuse to justify a sexual violation and illegal/immoral conduct . Africans!!
    - Sam
      
      Super, I couldn’t have put it any better. The real problem never gets solved while we skate around nuances. Unfortunately, guys like DCW are in the majority and there is a need to educate them. As a society, we have failed to hold those with fiduciary duties responsible for their actions, whether it is sexual harassment, corruption, or in other types of cases. On sexual harassment, just imagine your daughter becoming the victim of one of these philandering lecturers…just imagine.
      - Emlahid
        
        I can see that Psi and Sam are lecturers if not you would have understood better.
    - Psi Ciroma
      
      Africans ALWAYS TRYING TO BLAME SOMEONE ELSE….. WHATS THE ROLE OF FAMILY AND UPBRINGING HERE????
      
      Be Logical…Even abroad a student is supposed to respect herself. why don’t they where pants to lectures. ….Common sense please…..
      
      There is no law against dating OR marrying your patient or student in Nigeria…..its happened severally…… The issue is that many campus girls spend most of their time doing Prostitution and giving out the forbidden fruit is not an issue to them……..
      
      Its the Moral And Religious structure that should be blamed NOT politicians and Lecturers.
      
      Africans ALWAYS TRYING TO BLAME SOMEONE ELSE….. WHATS THE ROLE OF FAMILY AND UPBRINGING HERE????
    - Emlahid
      
      My brother I couldn’t have put it better my self. unfortunately we all have eyes but its not all of us that can see.
Jossy J

Sexual harassment on campuses. This is an area where the PDP led government and the ruling elites has failed Nigeria youths in the past 16yrs because their children are schooling abroad in a safe environment. Even our media has failed to put more light on this issue. In a developed society it is even a crime for a lecturer to tell his student ‘you are beautiful’ or to even have any affair with your student.Shame on NUC. I hope the incoming government will be able to address these society ill. Our girls must be protected. Girls abroad dressed in handless and bump shorts to class in western world without being harassed. I’ve seen Nigeria born lecturers teach abroad and they conduct themselves in orderly manner because they know the implication of sexual harassment- long jail term. If you as a lecturer cannot avoid temptation then resign. A doctor cannot harassed his patient just because she was brought in naked.
Yusuf

I am a lecturer but it hurts me very much to see how the society allow lecturers to sexually abuse innocent girls, it is like slavery, both ways the little girls life is destroyed, she either fall into a sex trap or academic Waterloo. The Lecturer is an out-law in Nigeria, In many cases the management is corrupt and intimidated by ASUU (the most morally corrupt society in Nigeria)
begy

I am happy this issue is brought up, and I do hope that there will a legislation to stop this abuse. I had fair share of it. When I was at University of Jos, one Dr. Ufodike, did not only take my friend, but refused to award mark to my final degree project. The external examiner was surprised, same with the head of department because there was no mark from my supervisor. The department only used the mark from the external exerminer to grade me. In the same vain, One Mr. Alex Mbachu, formerly with ASUTECH Enugu, and later moved to NNamdi Azikiwe Awka, was a terror in the school system. He demanded sex from ladies and money from men. He was quite a dirty and disgust man. He taught finance then. He taught in my MBA class. He was more or less useless and he did not teach but gave assignments only. When asked questions, he would refer the students to one book or the other( with a slogan, that nothing comes for nothing) Most of the men paid their way to even get their papers marked. students that did not turn up within a certain time to pay either in cash or in kind as he put it got a resite. I hate finance and had to change my course because of it. It reminds me of the disgusting man. Just hope that this men can be arrested and prosecuted.

Over-sighting Defence Expenditure, By Zainab Suleiman Okino

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