The Chairman Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute the Federal Executive Council.
Speaking to journalists on Monday in Maiduguri, Ndume sighted poor representation and lack of connection with the grassroots people as reasons for his demand.
The lawmaker, who represents Southern Borno at the National Assembly affirmed that going by the 90% budget performance of 2020, the Buhari-led government is working but the impact is not being felt at the grassroots level, blaming the ministers.
“I am telling you the FEC should be reconstituted. Let him bring in people that are connected to the grassroots,” he said.
“The President should look at his cabinet especially the FEC. You are talking about those fighting war, what of those that are sitting down there? They are disconnected. We have ministers that don’t know anyone in their local government, but you people are not talking about them.”
He also blamed the army’s inability to end the war on poor funding and shortage of the required equipment.
“When you say the Nigerian army performed better in Sierra Leone, Liberia and all that why was that? They had the good training, resilience and gallantry but above all they had all they needed; United Nations was providing everything they had their helicopters they had ammunition they had everything,” Ndume added.
According to the lawmaker, it is unfair to expect the army to perform optimally when their needs have not been met.
He however expressed optimism that with the new platforms recently acquired by the Nigerian air force and the army, as well as a budgetary allocation of ₦500 billion with ₦100bn going to Operation Lafiya Dole alone, 2021 promises to be a better year.
