|
BNW |
|
B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Govt, experts disagree on N36b cost of Darfur peace mission
IN the event of the Federal Government single-handedly picking the bill for keeping Nigerian troops in Darfur, Sudan, the country may spend about N36.4 billion ($270 million) on the peace operation in six months, The Guardian has learnt.
This translates to an average of about N198 million ($1.5 million) daily.
Although no government official was forthcoming on the total expenditure on the nation's 155 soldiers, which left the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja a fortnight ago for Darfur, independent sources and United Nations (UN) technocrats estimated the cost of the exercise in the first six months at N36.4 billion.
The contingent for the troubled Darfur region is code-named Operation Save Life II.
The soldiers were deployed to Sudan at the instance of the African Union (AU) now headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo to bring normalcy to the region.
Commenting on the issue at the weekend, Foreign Affairs Minister Ambassador Olu Adeniji, however, faulted the amount, maintaining that it was not close to the mark. He declared "Yes, Nigeria is prepared to assume leadership in this matter hence we are also sending troops but we are certainly not bearing the entire cost. That is the much I can tell you."
Prodded further on the exact cost of the mission which experts have said goes beyond the sheer maintenance of troops, Adeniji said: " What is important is that we are not spending much. This is not the 90's where we were paying all the bills. And in accordance with the new foreign policy thrust, we are not doing anything that will be a further drain on the nation's over-stretched resources because as you know, this will be counter-productive. So, what is
happening in Darfur is at the instance of the AU. The cost for Nigeria will be very minimal as part of the bill will be discharged by the AU"
The government is reportedly stepping up moves to get an enhanced UN involvement in the Darfur mission. Diplomatic watchers have raised concern over the footing of any bill by AU bearing in mind that besides Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt, very few other African nations are up to date in the payment of dues to the AU commission.
Making a case for the deployment of one company of Nigerian troops to Darfur, President Olusegun Obasanjo said the action was in accordance with section 5(4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In a letter dated August 11, 2004 and addressed to the Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, the President averred: "This approval should equally make allowance for the Nigerian contribution to be expanded as may be necessary to one battalion but not more than two battalions."
The President, who was silent on the cost, said his decision was predicated on the "dire situation" on ground in Darfur in furtherance of the briefing already given to the Senate Committee by Adeniji.
Diplomatic watchers fear that the latest gesture, said to be in the spirit of African brotherhood, appears a subtle negation of the newly-introduced constructive concentricism which ties foreign aid to economic and political gains to Nigerians.
This is not the first time Nigeria is sponsoring peace missions on the continent. It solely funded the peace operations in Liberia, which cost was conversatively put at $12 billion. Nigeria also brought peace to Sierra Leone, where it deployed troops under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).
Before Adeniji dismissed the independent figures at the weekend, senior Foreign Affairs Ministry officials in Abuja severally parried The Guardian enquiries on the approved level of funding for the Darfur mission, stressing that it was a Defence affair.
Defence spokesman, Col. Ganiyu Adewale, said: " I cannot just give you the costs like that for as you know, there are so many things involved in any peacekeeping mission."
According to him: "Costing is done at higher levels. There are so many things. Those are not the kind of information you just release like that on your finger-tips. So, at what area are we looking at? Is it money for allowances or uniforms?
"For logistics? Whether they are going with APC (Armoured Personnel Carriers) or a particular set of equipment. These things vary. Sometimes, we even have to be flying our food down. It's a whole lot."
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, Fidelis Okoro spoke in the same vein. He said: "I cannot give you details now especially as regards spending. Yes we have a tentative proposal regarding intent and it cannot just be made public like that."
Okoro further hinted that the Presidency might not get all that it is proposing for the Darfur mission.
"It will be our duty to decide. To help in the appropriation. If the executive says this is what we intend to spend, we are going to look at it as the responsible committee, consult sensibly and come up with what is
appropriate...but first the Senate has to deliberate on it before I can let out any detail. This is the standard procedure"
When viewed from the constructive concentric standpoint, the Sudanese peace operation fits into the middle range, next to the core circle.
The former president of the Nigerian Society of International Affairs (NSIA) now head of international relations department of the University of Abuja, Professor Eno Ukaeje, urged the government to explore the possibility of the AU or the UN picking the bill for the Darfur mission.
" This is what we think is appropriate given the current economic situation in the country our capability in real terms otherwise despite recent pronouncements we are again dancing in the grand circus show of the illusion of a great power without realising it ab-initio."
Meanwhile, the African Union (AU) special envoy and former Head of State, Gen. Abubakar Abdulsalami, tackling the crisis in Darfur, has met with Sudanese government officials and rebel leaders in a bid to break the deadlock in peace talks.
The three-week-old AU-brokered talks aimed at restoring peace in Darfur were suspended until tomorrow because of differences on the key issue of security and disarmament.
Abduljabbar Dofa, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), told Agence France Presse (AFP) that Nigerian-born AU special envoy General Abdulsalami Abubakar had been meeting with the two sides ahead of the plenary session.
"The special envoy is intensifying efforts to get both the government side and the rebel movements to reach a compromise," he said.
"The envoy stressed the need for us to bring our views together so that we can make progress," he added.
AU spokesman Assane Ba said that although formal talks had been suspended, consultations would continue in the next three days.
He said mediators were looking forward to an intervention by Obasanjo as AU chairman and host to move the talks forward.
"We hope that the two sides will reach a compromise when they meet with President Obasanjo," he said.
Obasanjo had previously met the two parties at the start of the peace talks when they disagreed on humanitarian issue and the rebels staged a walkout.
Up to 50,000 people have lost their lives and some 1.4 million displaced since February 2003 when two rebel groups -- the SLM and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- took up arms against the government in Khartoum.
|
|
||||||||||||
