About a fortnight ago, the head of state, President Muhammadu
Buhari, summoned all the security chiefs in the land to Aso Rock villa, where
he gleefully, categorically and unambiguously announced to them that he had
approved the sum of US $1 billion for the procurement of military hardware
to strengthen the armed forces to prosecute the war against insurgency in the
North-East more effectively.
Responding on behalf of all the security agencies, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, who was obviously beside himself with joy, expressed his unstinting gratitude to the President, assuring the latter that the money would be spent judiciously for the purpose for which it was approved.
As far as the President and the security chiefs were concerned, it was “c’est fini”, a fait
accompli: the next step was the chiefs to begin to withdraw
the approved money from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), a
controversial creation of the former, much maligned ruling party, the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP)!
But then a cacophony of criticisms and unabating furore erupted everywhere in
the country about the unilateral, unconstitutional and illegal approval by
the President of such a humongous amount, any amount, of money, not in an
Appropriation or Supplementary Appropriation Act.
