The Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd) said Wednesday that the armed forces were short of man power and funds.
The minister said this during the ministry’s presentation at the virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We spoke about our short comings. We talked about man power shortage, inadequate funding for the ministry of Defence. We talked about all the operations we have been conducting, the successes and failures of each o the operations right from Operation Lafia Dole to Operation Tawase.
“The short comings of each of the operations were discussed and God so kind contributions were made by members of the council and I think in no distant time there will be a change in the conduct of our affairs in the Ministry of Defence,” he said.
Also speaking, Minister of Environment, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, said he also presented a ministerial performance of report to the Federal Capital Territory.
He said the ministry is currently cleaning-up sites impacted with hydrocarbon in the ongoing Ogoni cleanup exercise.
The minister said 775 jobs have been created in the Ogoni clean with more on the way.
He said there is a programme to train 400 women in areas of agriculture, aqua culture and poultry to improve the living standard of the people.
He said the planting 25 million trees is at the forefront in collaboration with the state governments.
The minister said out of 774,000 jobs that the president approved to be created, the Ministry of Environment, as one of the implementing agencies, is to employ 200,000 skilled and unskilled labour, and another 2000 through the erosion department.
He said the ministry is also create jobs in the area of waste recycling that is reduce, reuse, repair and recover waste.
“It is no longer fashionable to just produce, use and dispose because the planet is getting too choked up with pollutants. We are very big in recycling.
“Finally, we are big in erosion control which you all know is a big problem in the south East. As you know south East is more to erosion because of the geologic nature of the area,” he said.
On post-COVID-19, the ministry is working to reduce the emission from carbon dioxide from generators and other gaseous emissions behind climate change.
He said about 4,000 jobs would be created in this area, stressing that they would continue to tap on emissions including vehicular emissions.
He said the ministry is also targeting to create 32 jobs from recycling of engine oil from motorcycles and other vehicles to produce diesel, which can in turn be reused.
On the green bond project, which is to produce clean energy, the minister said the proceeds would be used to produce solar energy for tertiary institutions.
He said already, 20,000 jobs has been created.
