Appearing on Channels Television’s “Views From The Top” anchored by Modele Sarafa-Yusuf, on Monday, former chairman of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Christopher Kolade, said corruption and the loss of credibility of the project were the real reasons why he walked away in 2013.
Kolade cited age as reason why he had to resign as chairman at the time but on Monday, he revealed that partisan politics and all the corruption it brings, played a bigger part in his decision.
“When I discovered that there were individuals in the system that were practicing something that was lower than the transparency that we went in with, I raised the issues. And I discovered that political affiliations and things made this difficult.”
SURE-P was birthed at the height of disaffection with the Jonathan government and weeks after street protests that underlined the fact that the Jonathan government had lost the trust factor with the citizenry. Kolade was persuaded to take the job on account of his credibility and integrity.
Funds saved from oil subsidy were meant to intervene in roads, schools, hospitals and transportation, among other social interventions.
“The government realized people would not believe what they were saying,” Kolade said.
“And the President said ‘we need to gain credibility with the people in this programme. So we believe that if you and your committee can manage this thing transparently in accordance with what we agreed, then that credibility will be there’.
Now 83-years of age, Kolade cited one instance that forced the decision to quit on him.
“We started by saying that we would offer employment to 5000 youths from every state. Of course if you are sitting in Abuja, and you want to identify 5000 youths in all the states, it is difficult unless you involve people who are on the spot.
“Now, it was the feeling of our committee, led by me, that to identify people in the states, we needed people who were politically neutral. In other words, get civil servants to go in there and say according to the criteria you‘ve agreed, these are the 5000 youths from this state. But we were told that would not be acceptable.
“So something was set up called State Implementation Committees made up mainly of people with political affiliations with one party or the other. When that was brought into play, I pointed out that I feared this would politicize what we were trying to do. And that therefore I felt we should take politicians out of this. But I was overruled by those who had the power to overrule me.
“And then, it started happening. I got complaints from Abia state, from Ekiti state that many of the youths being recruited into the programme were supporters of party A or party B and I went back, and said what I suspected is beginning to happen.
“So we need to kill this thing right away and go back to what we agreed. Now, somehow, we couldn’t do that. And for me, if you destroy the foundation on which you are setting up something like that, if you feel that credibility is the key to success in this thing, and then you undermine credibility by politicizing the issues, you are shooting yourself on the foot. And I’m not very good at shooting in the foot because I find out I can’t walk very well after that.”
H/T: Channels TV, Premium Times
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