As concerns mount over the excesses of the Boko Haram sect, the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday put the total amount spent by the country’s security apparatus at $32.88 billion.

In a paper delivered on behalf of the party at Porticullis House in the British House of Commons by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for politicising the heinous activities of the insurgents.
It said President Goodluck Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency had been a spectacular failure, accusing him of deliberately not pushing for a quick end to the security crisis for political reasons.

While giving statistics on total security sector spending (covering defence, police, Office of the National Security Adviser, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), and security-related service-wide votes (e.g. on amnesty programme, internal security operations, the party said the yearly budgetary allocations to the security sector in the last five years had gulped $32.88 billion.

It explained that on the average, the Boko Haram insurgency has fuelled increases in security spending to around 25 per cent of annual federal government budget.

“ In light of the rebasing of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) put at N80.3 trillion or $509.9 billion), the yearly average 2010-14 is $6.58 billion, equal to 1.3 per cent of GDP. The total for the five budget years amounts to 6.5 per cent of Nigeria GDP,” the party said.

APC alleged that there were not much to show for the huge monies purportedly expended.

“There are recurring reports and stories in the media about how frontline troops and soldiers have inferior weapons and firepower compared to Boko Haram’s and how Nigerian soldiers have been fleeing battlefields (into Cameroun), and communities and military barracks being easily overrun by Boko Haram fighters.

“This begs the questions about where and how is the money being spent? Is it truly spent on security? Is corruption taking place in security spending? What and where are the military hardware acquired? Who is supplying security equipment – manufacturers or third party agents?

“Since 2011, the President Jonathan-led PDP government has increased security spending, declared and renewed emergency rule, issued propaganda claiming the capture and killing of Boko Haram members (including the leader Abubakar Shekau), destruction of Boko Haram camps, countless assurances of improving security and wining the battle against Boko Haram.

“Over the same period, however, the empirical realities are that Boko Haram has become more audacious in its attacks through increase in the scale, number and spread of attacks, even against supposedly fortified military bases.”

The party said more Boko Haram killings and casualty levels among civilians and security personnel had led to a growing number of Nigerian Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees, now estimated by the UNHCR at over 600,000.

“The key issue in all of this is this – are all these mere empirical coincidence or statistical correlation or are there genuine organic and logical connections (some form of action and reaction)? Certainly it is my and APC belief that there is a pull and effect logic at work.

“Put simply, President Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency has been a spectacular failure, and this is deliberate for political reasons. Where and even if the President Jonathan-PDP administration may claim to know nothing about the origin of Boko Haram, it has actively sustained the crisis, profiteering from it.

On the issue of politicisation of Boko Haram insurgency, Muhammed said the bane of Nigeria’s anti-terror fight was that PDP and the federal government were bent on linking the opposition to the sect’s activities.

“I have carefully chronicled Boko Haram’s evolution to counteract the rationale of PDP-Jonathan’s administration failed attempt to link it to the APC.

“What is the PDP’s logic and rationale for linking the APC with Boko Haram? This is based on a faulty logic of presuming that the APC is a sectional (northern), as opposed to a national political party, that the APC is made up predominantly of Muslims, that it is a North/Islamic party; and therefore the APC must directly or indirectly support and sympathise with Boko Haram; and finally that Boko Haram is a northern and Muslim plot to resist and challenge a southerner-Christian Jonathan’s presidency.

“This position is inconsistent on several fronts. First, Boko Haram climaxed during the reign of Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, hence could not be a northern plot against a southern-Christian president. The 2009 security operation which led to the death of over 1,000 members of Boko Haram was ordered by a northern-Muslim president!

“Second, it was the PDP, from 2009 till date, that transformed Boko Haram from a movement into an insurgent group, from a moderate Sunni group to a Salafist-Jihadi franchise, from a local group with localised (socio-economic and cultural change) agenda to an international violent Jihadist group.

“Thirdly, while it is true the APC is the number one grassroots party across northern Nigeria, so also is the case in substantial parts of southern Nigeria. The APC is a proper Pan-Nigerian party that reflects the ethno-religious and cultural diversities of Nigeria.

“The APC has functional structures across the 774 local government areas and 36 states plus Abuja. As a matter of fact, as of today, APC has seven state governors from the northern part of Nigeria and eight from the Southern part of the country,” he said.

But Muhammed while absolving his party, said Ali Modu Sherif, and all known persons directly or indirectly implicated in Boko Haram are members of the PDP or persons serving or with close ties to the Jonathan’s presidency.

In addition, he said Boko Haram is similar to other ethno-political militias in post-1999 Nigeria, that has emerged against the backdrop of “deepening poverty, social-economic deprivations, corruption, poor governance, police brutality and governance failures under the PDP since 1999.”

He said it was no coincidence that the northern half of Nigeria, including the Northeast corner (Boko Haram base), are the poorest in the country, adding that the 2010 assessment by the National Bureau of Statistics had rated the region highest with 77.7 per cent for the North-west and 76.3 per cent for North-east.

According to Muhammed, the World Bank also noted that economic growth and opportunities were not equally shared by different parts of the country, that growth was fastest in southern and middle agro climatic zones, with much slower growth in northern states.

As way forward, Muhammed said APC was advocating for an urgent formulation of a holistic counter-terrorism strategy that emphasises the synergistic use of military, political and economic elements, and roles for civil society and other critical stakeholders.

He repeated the stand of the party for a political negotiation with Boko Haram, stating that all recent cases of internal security challenges including the OPC, MEND across Nigeria have all been resolved through political negotiations of some sort.

The spokesman, who restated his party call for an ICC-led investigation into the alleged involvement of Modu Sheriff and General Azuibuike Ihejirika in insurgency activities, said APC was in support of the mobilisation of local and international peace building organisations to work with communities and groups affected by Boko Haram as well as reforming the security sector to make it for efficient and effective.
Source: Thisday

Jona ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Show us receipt of the expenses PDP

And we are still losing towns to the insurgents, haba!! corruption don kill us finish!

Thieves are boko haram.
Boko -haram are thieves
The federal government is a thief.

apc talking trash and pointing accusing fingers every time.
Apc get busy, tell us your manifestoes and how possible it is to transform Nigeria. senseless propaganda and name calling can't fetch you votes, manifesto will!

VICTORCIZA: apc talking trash and pointing accusing fingers every time.
we all know apc are worst in handling money, check apc states and their debts

Chia.....ur name ought to be removed from PDP's occupysocialmedia payroll. You are a disgrace!!

koboko66:

Chia.....ur name ought to be removed from PDP's occupysocialmedia payroll. You are a disgrace!!

says the sstupid iidiot

hmmm

lie mohamed lying from birth

why must he go all d way to london n politicize terror attacks in 9ja?

Its time APC n their supporters realize dat BH is a pan-9ja problem n put politics aside n rally round gej 4 solution

If it likes let it gulp $300 billion. We shall do the needful to defeat Boko Haram and APC sponsored terrorism in this country.

APC are busy complaining that Defence Budget Gulps $32.88bn if they don't release the money they would start saying FG and GEJ are not serious about putting an end to the insurgency or BH . APC must always complain about everything as if, If they were the ruling party they would do better.