A frontline journalist and Editor in Chief of The News Magazine, Bayo Onanuga, has criticized the planned $1bn loan being sought by the Federal Government, allegedly to prosecute the war against the Boko Haram sect, describing it as nauseating.
Onanuga, who is also eyeing the Upper legislative chamber, The Senate, under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State, said that Nigerians will be overrating the Senate and the entire National Assembly “if we expect members to interrogate the President on how money budgeted for defence had been spent, such that our army can not defeat the rag tag forces of Abubakar Shekau, since emergency was declared last year.”
Onanuga, writing on his Facebook page, insisted that the military authorities “really need to be probed; we need to audit past expenses, that led to the situation that Governor Shettima graphically painted: an army that is less motivated and less equipped than the Boko Haram soldiers.
“When Shettima spoke, the military spokesmen and jonathan ridiculed him and painted a false picture of ‘military on top of the situation’. We now know that they were all lying and were not in touch with the true reality on the battlefield.
“As we talk, we do not have an army that could face Boko Haram. This is the stark truth. It’s such a shame, it is such a tragedy that monumental corruption and the brazen theft of military budget have denied our soldiers the tools and welfare they need to fight.
Onanuga, a veteran of many security assaults, especially during the military era, said that “Nigerians should remember that when we waged the Biafran war in 1967-70, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was finance minister for Gowon war cabinet, never borrowed a kobo to prosecute the war.
He insisted that the plan to borrow to defeat Boko Haram and thereby mortgage the future of the country demonstrates the poor leadership that our nation is cursed with, 44 years after another war ended.
“And for us Nigerians,” Onanuga said that instead of waiting for the heavily compromised National Assembly that will approve the loan anyway, “we need to confront our leaders and ask them to justify about N5 trillion spent on defence in the last three years. We need to know. It is our inalienable right as Nigerians. For now, we certainly need another hashtag campaign:#bringbackourdefencemoney.
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