FAJ: You must have listened to our discussion on the supplementary budget with ₦500 Billion allocated for our security issues… Do you believe the fund will be adequate for us?
DR. KUNLE OLAWUNMI: My years in the military has proven to me that usually, those monies are not used for what they are meant for. Recall that I was also a deputy defence attache to about eight European countries between 2003 and 2007. One of my principal duties was to monitor and provide enablement for Nigerians to purchase arms and ammunition.
I operated in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Israel, Hungary… There was a day a man walked into Nigerian embassy in France, and requested to see the defence adviser but the adviser was in Italy. I said, “how can we help you”?
He said he was in France to buy rockets for our new fighter jets. I looked at this man and couldn’t believe it. I had to quickly call the ambassador to sit down because I thought he was a fraud. Eventually, we discovered it was actually true. He has been given money in Nigeria, contract to buy those rockets.
I told him this is not going to happen… such business is G2G (govt. to govt.)… This gives an example of how our defence project is spent. it is a joke. The challenge with the defence project is oversight responsibilities of the Senate.
This has allowed room for fraud, corruption. We often do not get what we want. As an attache in Israel, then we had problems with our coastlines where this militants operate freely. We made proposition to the government.
We wanted a total coverage of Nigerian seas from Badagry to Calabar and deep into the sea. It was suggested we go to Israel. We went to Israel…
They wanted to give us two maritime patrol
aircrafts, helicopters, UAV’s. The amount was huge. They offered to give us.
As an attache, I flew to Tel AViv to see how far the contract had gone. I was surprised to find out that, after the contract had being signed and sealed, our Nigerian politicians went to tell them that they should remove the maritime patrol aircrafts.
They cut it off, as well as the UAV’s, except the consoles which are radar systems which they use to monitor the sea. When another government came, they reviewed the contract again and paid another money. Till date we never got those items!
In 2004, I was now asked to lead a team. I led the team of the chief of naval staff, and some senior experts, naval officers in the country. We went and we saw our items on the ground.
They said Nigeria had refused to come for those items. They were pleading for us to get them. As at today we never picked those items. There are a lot of things I saw in my thirty-five years in service.
During Babangida/Abacha regime, we had a method of keeping our weapons with the manufacturers in warehouses because of rodents. I went to Italy to check the maintenance of these weapons. The Italians were saying these weapons have been there for a long time.
It is very disheartening, a bit depressing to see what these politicians are doing. I went into academics to keep myself busy.
These people that were in government in the past years are to be tried for treason. The corruption is horrible.
FAJ: When you say these expenditure items passed through some legislative processes and was budgeted for, who has the capacity that overturn them…?
DR KUNLE OLAWUNMI: It is the president, commander-in-chief. Most of the people in power don’t understand the processes.
FAJ: The purchase of the presidential yacht by the navy… Is it possible for a purchase to be delivered without being budgeted for? Secondly, what is the usefulness of a yacht.
DR KUNLE OLAWUNMI: If you go to the Royal Navy, they have. Usually, navy plays two roles; defence and ceremonial. I listened to a lot of discussions about the yacht and I was taken aback.
