By Kamil Opeyemi
The National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu had said that Nigeria had gone bankrupt at the time President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over the mantle of leadership.
He said the resources for almost every facet of government had been depleted saying that Tinubu is currently on a rescue mission.
Ribadu spoke in Abuja at the Chief of Defence Intelligence Annual Conference 2023 themed: “Leveraging Defence Diplomacy, and Effective Regional Collaboration for Enhanced National Security”.
I assure you that the federal government will not rest on its oars in ensuring a robust and viable defence management and security apparatus to address contemporary challenges even in the face of enormous budgetary constraints.
“Yes, we’re facing budgetary constraints. It is okay for me to tell you. Fine, it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation, literally a bankrupt country, no money, to a point where we can say that all the money we’re getting now, we’re paying back what was taken. It is serious!
“But this administration is doing its best to meet our requirements, particularly the armed forces, and I believe that you leaders will be able to testify to that,” the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told the gathering.”
Pleading for understanding by Nigerians, the NSA said all citizens have the responsibility to support the ongoing efforts to rebuild the country.
Let us come together as one and continue to support our armed forces and other security agencies with this work of securing our country for peace and stability.
“They have done an amazingly good job without talking and I believe that with the support and the resolve of the leadership we have today in our country, things will only be better.”
We are just four or five months old, but certainly things have changed and we believe that what they are doing, they are doing it right. We want to encourage them, stand by them and support them 100 per cent and hopefully this country will be okay in a short time,” he said.
At the conference Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru; Minister of State, Bello Matawalle; Permanent Secretary in the defence ministry, Ibrahim Kana; the Chief of Defence Staff, and other service chiefs.