President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday lamented that the procurement of arms and other equipment for Nigeria’s Armed Forces that once followed due process in the past became open to corruption and shady deals under the immediate past administration headed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He was apparently expressing his displeasure with revelations from the ongoing probe of arms procurement in the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) which has uncovered a can of worms that is implicating some top officials of the immediate past administration who are currently facing prosecution.
“They (members of the last administration) just put foreign exchange in a briefcase and travelled to procure equipment for the military. That is why we have found ourselves in the crisis we are now facing,” Buhari lamented.
The president who made this observation at a meeting with the British Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Michael Fallon, assured, however, that his administration was taking urgent and appropriate steps to restore order, due process and probity to the procurement processes of the nation’s armed forces.
Welcoming the offer of the British government to assist Nigeria in defence procurements, intelligence gathering and training, Buhari reiterated his firm belief that the global community must collaborate more and work with greater unity of purpose to ensure that global terrorism is defeated.
He said, “Terrorism has become very sophisticated now. If developed nations can be attacked, and hundreds of lives lost, how much more developing countries?
“In the West African sub-region, Nigeria is the main battleground of the Boko Haram insurgency. We have made a lot of progress against the terrorists, but we will welcome more assistance from our friends and the international community.”
Earlier, Mr Fallon had told President Buhari that he was in the country to see what more Britain could do to support Nigeria in battling terrorism and violent extremism.
“Groups like Boko Haram don’t believe in democracy and freedom of choice, so it’s a common fight for us all,” he noted.
