The Presidency has described its critics over President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of $1 billion security fund for the fight against insurgency as those who like to play politics with the lives of Nigerians.
The Presidency said contrary to the claims that the approval of the money was not made through constitutional means, it said that the procedure for the release of the money was still ongoing.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who spoke on a Channels Television special interview programme on Thursday, said the National Assembly would soon be communicated over the matter.
He also countered the critics over the timing of the approval of the fund.
According to him, there was no time issues about security could not be addressed.
His words: “As we speak now the communication to the National Assembly is about ready. Those who have been flexing muscles over the matter should just have bothered to make inquiries from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters.
“If they had inquired they would have been told that the communication would soon be on the way to the National Assembly.
“Talking about the timing, there is no timing that is not good for security. Every time is security time. Those who are reading political meaning into it, it is just unfortunate they play politics with everything and they will play politics with the very lives of Nigerians, which is very bad.’’
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The Presidency said although the money might look big, no amount would be too big to spend securing the lives of the people of the country.
“I remember that the Chief of Army Staff spoke about some trillions of naira recently – security is expensive but human life is much, much expensive,’’ said the Presidency.
The government has been under serious criticism over the approval of the $1 billion for procurement of military equipment to fight insurgency in the country.
The leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, has been in the forefront of the campaign against the fund.
It wondered how so much money could be spent on the insurgency that the government claimed to have overcome.
Also, the PDP called on the National Assembly to probe the fund as, according to it, it did not go through the right channel of approval from the Legislative arm of government.
