President Buhari And The ‘Approved’ $1b For Arms Purchase

By Chris Akiri

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. 

This announcement, which was made in the full glare of TV cameras and broadcast nationwide, elicited a deafening and rapturous applause from the security chiefs present.

 
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.