The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning slashed the Nigerian Navy’s N220bn budget proposal for the 2022 fiscal year to N25.8bn.

The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, reported this to the House of Representatives Committee on Navy yesterday during the budget defence.

He said the Navy proposed the N220bn budget estimate in order to adequately tackle rising security issues in the country.

He said the Navy, among other challenges, lacked adequate ammunition and jetties, and was operating with obsolete equipment.

He described the N14.2bn earmarked for the Navy as overhead in the 2022 budget as inadequate, especially in respect of acquisitions of more platforms and equipment needed by the Navy in addressing security challenges in the maritime sector.

Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, commended the Navy for its performance over the last one year despite inadequate appropriation in 2021.

He, however, raised concerns about the delay in the completion of some capital projects of the Navy by contractors handling them, with some of the projects spanning to three years.

He said: “The committee observes with pessimistic views, the spilt over projects (against agreed timelines) by some contractors including some that spanned beyond 3years period without any signs of completion, hand over to the Navy or concrete work-in-progress.” 

He said the National Assembly would not hesitate to call to order “any MDA, and in this case, the Nigerian Navy, where it fails to checkmate any erring contractor whose stock in trade is to waste tax payers monies by taking for granted the delivery of public goods and services within specified timeframe and quality of job(s).