The Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has disclosed that recruits in the Nigerian Army, Police and other security agencies in the country are paid less than N50,000 a month.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television‘s Politics Today on Tuesday, Ndume decried the nation’s poor remuneration for security agencies.
Ndume claimed that a soldier is being paid an allowance of N1,200 as his daily money and N2000 as Duty Tour Allowance (DTA), stating that the Nigerian government last increased the salaries of security agents in 2008.
The Borno lawmaker, therefore, asked the Federal Government to urgently review the stipends and salaries of serving military personnel.
He said: “The recruits are paid less than N50,000 in some cases. How can you pay somebody money that cannot buy him a bag of rice, and you expect him to go and sacrifice and put in his best?
“How can you pay a Nigerian Army, for example, an allowance of N1,200 as his daily money and pay him N2000 only as Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and put him in the theatre? Some from Lagos, Oyo, and Ondo moved to Maiduguri.
“Their parents are expecting that they will send them something monthly, and you pay the guy N50,000 or less. These are the major challenges that the government must rise to.”
He asked the government to recruit more security operatives, especially to make up for the deficit manpower in the Nigerian Police Force as well as the Nigerian Army.
Ndume also urged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to ensure adequate equipment for the military to address the nation’s threats and boost their morale.
“What the President must do is to review the salaries of the Nigerian armed forces because it was last reviewed in 2008, we are in 2023.
“We should review the salary of all the security agencies, we should increase the number of security agencies, especially police and the Nigerian Army. We should equip them adequately, and we should motivate them,” he added.
