An ex-minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, has disclosed that despite the federal government’s humongous security funding, soldiers on the battlefield receive only a small percentage.
Responding to questions on NIN-SIM linkage and factors contributing to insecurity at the Young Professionals Colloquium held recently in Katsina State, Prof. Pantami said the country’s major insecurity setback is not related to intelligence gathering but to the failure to act on the intelligence collected.
He explained that the bulk of the federal government’s security funding remains with top officials and does not reach the soldiers on the frontline.
Pantami noted that sending soldiers to the battlefield to fight terrorists without life insurance or proper death benefits demoralises them, adding that they are aware that if they die on the battlefield, the future of their children will not be secure.
He further emphasised that Nigeria will continue to experience setbacks in security as long as the government fails to take care of the families of soldiers who are sacrificing their lives to protect the country.
He, however, urged the government to establish a mechanism to ensure that a larger portion of the security budget reaches those on the battlefield.
He said, “I admire the effort of our security institutions. Intelligence institutions like DSS and NIA. I commend their efforts because they usually intercept Intelligence but intercepting Intelligence is one thing, acting on it is another thing.
“Most of the setback we are having is not about Intelligence gathering, it is about utilising it to take action. Furthermore, based on my experience with what I did in the ministry of increasing salaries. Let me give you an example, the government is spending huge amounts of money on security. Unfortunately, an insignificant percentage is the one that is reaching our security officers who are on the battlefield. More than 90% is on top. Very insignificant is reaching them.
“You ask a soldier to go and fight kidnappers or terrorists but if he dies today, his death benefit is less than 10 million and he has 10 children at home. Who can sacrifice his life for 10 million naira? In some situations, they are getting less than 2 million naira as a death benefit. No compensation, if he dies no one will take care of his family. The system is not effective to take care of his family. Who is willing to go and sacrifice his life while his children will be out of school because of that sacrifice?
“We must work on the system to the extent that whatever is budgeted will reach the people on the battlefield. If they die on the battlefield, the system must take care of their children from where they are until they graduate from the university. If they are into business until they are successful.
“As long as our system will not take care of the families of those sacrificing their lives to protect our country, then definitely we will continue to have many setbacks in our security architecture, and there is no doubt about this. Whatever is budgeted, there should be close supervision so that it will come down to the people on the battlefield, and they should be the highest earners in Nigeria.”
