Troops find it difficult to survive at the front lines – Ndume

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Muhammadu Ndume, has raised an alarm over the grave impact of the naira redesign and the cashless policy on the operations of troops at the front line.

“Naira redesign and the CBN’s cashless policy are actually gravely affecting the strategic operations of troops at all front lines of insecurity across the country,” Ndume told newsmen in Maiduguri, Saturday, February 4.

“Troops find it difficult to survive at the front lines due to the fact that they lack the cash to buy their daily basic needs at the remote communities across terrains of insecurity in the country where they cannot access cash due to the challenges posed by the currency redesign and cashless policy,” he complained.

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Senator Ndume recalled that hitherto, soldiers access daily stipends easily from ATMs and Points of Sales to enable them to provide for their daily basic needs to sustain their fighting spirit because the terrains of their operations are inaccessible for their daily rations to be delivered to them.

“Now a soldier stays for hours on the ATM queue or PoS when he should discharging his duties at the front line, just to access the stipend,” he lamented, saying, “this situation has dampened the morale of the troops at the front line.”

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Ndume picked holes in the claim that the policies are to plug the sources of terror financing and other security breaches, saying, “the terrorists have said that they are already in possession of the new notes.”

He called on the Federal Government and the CBN to make arrangements for the troops to access their cash easily in view of the critical nature of their duties, and also make the new notes available everywhere at every time.