Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, on Tuesday, said the arrest of Simon Ekpa in Finland has significantly reduced the tension in the South-East part of Nigeria.
The defence chief stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Defence for the 2025 budget proposal defence session.
According to him, the arrest of Ekpa, coupled with the setting up Operation Udoka by the Defence Headquarters, was restoring peace in the South-East region.
General Musa said, “With the arrest of Simon Ekpa, it has greatly reduced the tension. Also with Operation Udoka, we’re also doing that, picking up most of the leadership that are there, taking them out, and then making sure that the place is peaceful.
“The sit-at-home on Mondays is gradually diminishing. We’re also working with the political leaders there because we understand, like I say always, we need to have the local support because without it, it’s difficult. You know, the terrain is very challenging, so we need to work together. It is improving.
“Like we always appeal for Nigerians to understand that they have to take ownership of their Armed Forces, they have to take ownership of the security challenges we are facing. It’s not the challenge for the Armed Forces alone or security agencies, it’s everybody’s responsibility to do.
“And we’re happy that we’re beginning to get that support from everywhere. Human intelligence information is coming, it’s flowing quite very well and we are taking adequate action and that’s why we see things are improving.
“What we have done is that we have established and enhanced kinetic efforts for the three Services for our operations. We have the Delta Safe, which is in the South-South for oil theft and militancy. At least for the first time now, we have been able to reach our OPEC oil quota for Nigeria and we intend to do more.
“Our target is to hit 2.2 million barrels a day for Nigeria. It’s not something that we can also do alone. We also need the other stakeholders in the oil industry to also play their own role. We are doing more, providing more security. We are close to 2 million barrels per day. We intend to do more. This year, we want to intensify our operations.
“We have formed groups that are discussing with the locals. And we have found that, that discussion has helped a lot. So we have the religious leaders, the cultural leaders, and every stakeholder is also part of it. We realize that if we carry everybody along, it makes it a lot easier. Like we say, the best General is that General that does not need to shoot. If you are able to solve the problem without firing, it is better.
“So that by the time we do that, those ones are willing to move, we move them out, and those ones that are unwilling, then we go after them. But the kinetic and the non-kinetic must continue to go hand in hand. And it is working very well,” the CDS said.
While calling for the improvement of border management to address the problem of smuggling, the four-star General said: “We have rescued a number of children being trafficked across Nigeria to other countries. And then trafficking of drugs, small arms, light weapons.
“We’re working in tandem with the Customs. When we make such arrests, we call either the NDLEA or call the Customs and hand over to them. So these are extra things that we’re doing.
“Now what is our other concern? Troops’ welfare. We know generally the economy, everybody is having the heat. And we’re no different. So we’re looking at the aspect of also improving the welfare for our troops, the RCA (Ration Cash Allowance). We’re still struggling at less than N2,000 per soldier per head to feed.
“We’re happy that Mr. President has recently increased the salaries to some extent of the junior class, which is the junior grade of personnel, which has also enhanced their ability. We know the country is going through so much and it’s not only the military that needs support, but I think we want to get more, we can do more.
“We also need accommodation. Every year we are recruiting almost 25,000 for all the services. And those ones going on retirement, every year they are not up to 5,000. So you see we’re getting almost 20,000 into the system. The issue of new barracks, construction, old barracks, renovation, these are issues we have to addess because now that we’re beginning to get peace.
“Gradually we’re going to return to barracks. We don’t want to go back to barracks and then we’ll start living in tents or in batchers like it was before. So it’s important that we’re able to work ahead to establish new barracks that have been established and then to be able to carry out renovation.”
The House committee’s chairman, Hon. Babajimi Benson, assured that as representatives of the people, it was the lawmakers’ duty to ensure that every Naira is judiciously spent to strengthen the operational capacity of the Air Forces and deliver tangible results.
“We must leverage intelligence, technology, and best practices to neutralize emerging threats and safeguard our citizens. As we deliberate on the 2025 budget, I urge all defense agencies to prioritize strategic initiatives that align with national security objectives,” he said.
The committee also resolved to increase the budgetary provision of the Ministry of Defence to sustain the successes being recorded in the fight against insecurity in the country.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Hon. Philip Agbese, who commended the military for their efforts when the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, appeared to defend the Ministry’s budget for 2025.
Matawale said the sum of N50 billion allocated for the Ministry in the 2025 budget was grossly inadequate and appealed for an upward review.
He said: “we have some challenges. One, we have an inadequate budgetary provision. The headquarters and civilian personnel unit are unable to meet their obligations resulting in the accumulation of debt on services and staff entitlement.
“We have non-payment and accumulated bills of group life Insurance, which is very important. The very important issues that we have is non-payment and accumulated bills of group life insurance for military personnel, which I requested from the committee for consideration of maybe the sum of N20 billion as an additional funds for payment of families of deceased military personnel. That is one of our challenges.
“Mr Chairman, if you look at the budget of 2024, most of the barracks, the allocation we met is zero. How do we expect the personnel of the military to perform while their living standard is inadequate? All the provisions that we made, the allocation in 2024 is zero. And these are the people that we expect them to perform magic.”
