Senator Utazi Godfrey Chukwuka who represents Enugu North zone was first elected on June 9, 2015. The 2nd term lawmaker and Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, believes that in 2023, Nigerians should support the emergence of a Nigerian President from the South East extraction for the sake of equity and justice.
From your vantage position, what is your assessment of the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA), Department of State Security and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency(NIA)?
The Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence (NSI) supervises the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), Department of State Security (DSS) and also oversees the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA). Basically, these main agencies have to do with the security of the country. We have had interface with them; the first meeting had to do with their budget evaluation. The second meeting was all about their budget defense, which had the attendance of the permanent secretaries from each agency, and DSS Director. The other agency heads, traveled with the President but they were duly represented by their office personnel.
As the deputy chairman of the committee (NSI), I am working in tandem with my chairman, Senator Gobir and we listened to their requests regarding the security challenges facing the country. We are committed to working transparently together to ensure that we provide enough resources in the budget, for them to do their job.
Security is very paramount in every nation because once security is in place, every other sector of the economy would function effectively but when there are security challenges as it is presently especially in the North East and parts of North West and all over, the nation can’t make any meaningful progress. The rate of herdsmen/farmers clashes, killings, kidnapping has been elevated to another level and these are major challenges to the country utazi.
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As a parliament, we will rise to the occasion of meeting up with their (security agencies) demands in terms of their required resources. Though things seem to be hard but the National Assembly exists to work for the people. However, we must work with Mr. President because at the end of the day, you can approve anything; the Senate can decrease or increase their budget allocation but if the president doesn’t have the political will to grant those resources, it would still end up on the papers. The Presidency directs the release with respect with those here working with him. Mr. President has more insight than we do because he is the Chief Security Officer of the country, so he has all the information.The agencies are working directly with the president, so they brief him directly on the state of the nation’s security utazi. So, it is our duty as a committee to make sure that their demands as duly represented in the budget are met by making sure that they get the money for the needed resources, in order for them to deliver on their security mandate to the country.
How will you rate the budget performance of the agencies in 2019?
To be honest, like we all know, the budget performance of 2019 is the same across all agencies. The 2019 budget is more characterised by personnel releases such as salary payment. As for capital projects, nothing has been released to the security agencies and not just only them. However, we expect that as the government said that they were going to release 40 percent from the budget utazi, the remaining 60 percent for the 2019 will be rolled over to 2020. They are supposed to have had such resources; so basically, budget performance across the board is the same so that’s the issue. We as a committee feel that because of the nature of their job, such releases, they shouldn’t wait like every other agency because they are different from other government agencies; they are a different set of people, they are people who are managing our security. The security architecture of this country is in their hands, so it’s not ideal to want them to wait for ministries like works, Agriculture and Education. We are of the opinion that they should not be subjected to all these rigours they are going through presently. We expect that if the committee works very well, they (security agencies) should be on the Ist line charge and that demands a constitutional amendment but we expect that the minister for finance and budget office should treat them differently. They should make sure that they have timely releases of their budgetary allocations unlike other agencies or ministries, because security is something you cannot just phantom anytime of the day utazi. Insecurity is a challenge that cannot be easily forecast; it can occur anytime and if you are not well prepared and these people don’t have the resources to handle things the way they come, then it means we are distress which is not ideal for us all.
Yes things are hard; all of us are working in a different terrain now financially but security is paramount. Being paramount also means that we also have to be proactive. You said you are releasing 40 per cent, then their 40 per cent should come Ist before others. Give them their resources Ist so that they can focus on their duties and carry it out effectively and efficiently for the people of our country so that every other sector of the economy can work. If security is in place, business men will go about their businesses with confidence and get their business activities done properly. So, everything is dependent on the stability of the security architecture in the country. Few weeks from now, it will be released but our own committee will make sure they get it on time so that it will not affect their work.They ought to be treated differently because their work is very paramount to the nation. If security challenges are present in a country, it will definetly affect every other aspect of the economy.
