Immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, has again revealed that the Nigerian military he headed was starved of the necessary equipment to make its tasks easier.
In a revelation that is bound to generate serious controversies in the coming days, Badeh, who has been facing heavy criticisms over his speech at his pulling out parade, told a television presenter, in an interview monitored in Lagos, that the last time the military got weapons and equipment was in 2006.
Even at that, Badeh, who disclosed that Nigerian military flies the oldest fighter jets in the world, disclosed further that the equipment provided in 2006 were not enough.
By implication therefore, the last time the military got equipment was during the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
“The Alpha jets we bought them in 1981. That is the backbone of our operations in the Northeast” he said.
Badeh had last week revealed that the Army lacked weapons, funding and adequate training to face its challenges, including that of insecurity in the country.
He also accused successive governments of destroying the Army by listening to and acting on advice from foreign bodies.
Badeh repeated, during the interview session, his earlier claim of fifth columnists in the military that leaked information to terrorist.
“We also had challenges of serviceable equipment,” he said adding: “I think the last time any piece of equipment was bought for the Nigerian army was in 2006 and how many were they?
“They were few. In fact they were few and if we go way back to 1993, from then on, soldiers were not allowed to even go to range to go and practice.
“So a soldier that is not practising how to use his gun, what kind of military are you going to have?
“So those were the challenges we had…when we were faced with Boko Haram, it became a very big challenge.”
He said he and others had tried to increase the military by ourselves. You don’t give me budget might and population, but that they were also faced with challenges of effectively housing them as the number of barracks in the country are not enough to accommodate such recruits.
“We don’t have where to house them. So it is a challenge too that government must face. Government must build barracks for us so that we can recruit more,” he said further stating that the current number of those in the military is not enough to protect the country and its population.
