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Tag: SURE-P

  • ‘How Southwest was shortchanged in SURE-P projects’

    ‘How Southwest was shortchanged in SURE-P projects’

    Former Chairman, Ekiti State Special Intervention and Empowerment Programme (SIEP) Committee, a portion of the state subsidiary Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, Chief Samuel Bandele Falegan, in a letter to former President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo in January last year, highlight how the states in the Southwest were shortchanged in the SURE-P projects.
    The letter reads:

    Your Excellencies

    UTILIZATION OF SURE-P FUND

    I am reluctantly compelled to write this letter to you on the above subject, especially the controversy about the “missing N500billion”.

    The document on SURE-P released in January 2012 contained among other things the following:

    ·   The total projected subsidy reinvestible funds per annum are N1.134 trillion based on average crude oil price of US$90 per barrel. Out of this, N478.49 billion accrues to Federal Government, N411.03 billion to State Governments, N203.23 billion to Local Governments, N9.86 billion to the federal Capital Territory (FCT) and N31.37 billion as Transfers to Derivation and Ecology, Development of Natural Resources and Stabilization Funds.

    ·   In order to transform the economy, in line with the Vision 20:2020 objectives, critical infrastructure projects in the power, roads, transportation, water and downstream petroleum sectors will be executed.

    ·   Public works programmes will include projects such as:

    a.   Environmental Projects

    i.    Execution of flood and erosion-control works;

    ii.  Waste disposal and sanitation community projects;

    iii. Tree planting to combat desertification.

    b.   Education Infrastructure: Rehabilitation and Maintenance of Education Infrastructure and Facilities.

    c.   Health Infrastructure: Rehabilitation and Maintenance of Health Infrastructure and Facilities.

    After deciding to remove oil subsidy, the Federal Government set up a subsidy withdrawal organ (SURE-P) which is to use the proceeds or savings from the subsidy to finance development projects nationwide. Under it, each state, including the Federal Capital Territory, share in the proceeds of the oil subsidy in accordance with the Federal Revenue allocation formula. While each state is free to use its own share for projects of its choice, the Federal share is to cover the whole Federation in key areas warranting development.

    As a follow-up, The Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja made the following release in the Punch Newspapers on Wednesday April 16, 2012.

     

    FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE, ABUJA 

    SAVINGS FROM SUBSIDY REINVESTMENT AND EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME, FEBRUARY, 2012

    At the inception of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the Jonathan administration made solemn commitment to the transparent and accountable implementation of the programme. In keeping with this pledge, here is breakdown of the subsidy saving for February 2012 allocates to the Federal, States and Local Governments.

    At the inauguration of the Ekiti State’s committee, the following are extracts from the Governor’s speech. “On 1st January 2012, the Federal Government announced the full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector of the economy. To an average Nigerian, this only means removal of fuel subsidy and an increase in the pump price of petrol. The pump price of petrol then moved from N65 to N141 per litre and later reduced to N97 per litre.

    In February 2012, the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR inaugurated the subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) headed by Dr. Christopher Kolade to utilize the funds accruing from pump price increase for inventions in critical sectors of the national economy to touch the lives of ordinary Nigerians. On our part, we had wanted to inaugurate this scheme as far back as February 2012, but our accrued share of the gains was not released until May, 2012. As a matter of fact, the Federal Government released the accruals from the savings from the subsidy removal policy for the first five months of the years to the three tiers of government just recently. A separate account has been opened for this purpose in the State.

    This committee that is being inaugurated is a creation of the State Executive Council and it is empowered to provide the implementation plans for the management of the fund with clear concentration on projects that will have a direct impact on the people. In this regard, attention will be given to Youth Empowerment through commercial agriculture which was launched recently, health Care Delivery with particular reference to save Motherhood and Public Transportation which will promote tricycle rather than Okada for hinterland access in our urban and rural areas among other critical schemes aimed at complementing the Government’s various social empowerment interventions.

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, members of this committee have been carefully selected to reflect the importance attached to the assignment on hand. By every standard, these distinguished citizens have proven track record of capability, integrity and courage to call a spade its name. They are people of character who have over the years created a niche for themselves in their various professions and callings as excellent performers. I can say with certainty that they would apply themselves to the work with dignity so that the common man would further have a feel of purposeful governance that our administration has been identified with. This Committee has been structured not to be held hostage by bureaucratic red-tape given the sense of urgency that the various initiatives require.”

    At the Ekiti State level, I was privileged to have been chosen by the State Governor to manage with a committee of 9 members the Ekiti state portion of the SURE-P re-christened Ekiti State Special Intervention and Empowerment Programme (SIEP). With all sense of responsibility our books are available for public scrutiny; we have scrupulously and honestly kept to our mandate.

    For the utilization of the State’s own SIEP, a Bureau of Special Projects was created which as appeared in THE NATION Tuesday March 12 2013 was to embark on the following projects:

    i.    Renovation of 18 General Hospitals;

    ii.  Construction of 3 Mother and Child Hospitals;

    iii. Construction of 16 Local Government Markets across the State;

    iv. Construction of Bus Terminus in Ado-Ekiti;

    v.   Drilling of Boreholes;

    vi. Construction of 36 Bus Stops in Ado-Ekiti;

    vii.      Completion of Staff Clinic at the State Secretariat Complex.

     

    Incidentally the SIEP support funding of the Dualization of ADO-IWOROKO-IFAKI road which is a Federal road project arises from the failure of the Federal Government to reimburse or refund the money owed to the State Government on the road.

    With the approval of the state Governor, the following on-going projects are being       jointly developed with the State Government with financial support from SIEP:

    (A) State Legacy projects

    (i)  Freedom pavilion to which SIEP has contributed over N500million is nearing completion.

    (ii) N350million for Life Academy Centre at Iluomoba.

    (B)  N300million for the state Ministry of Education for the rehabilitation and renovation of three major secondary schools one in each senatorial district.

    (C) N300million for SUBEB for textbooks and core subjects.

     

    The crux of the matter

    However, what you will observe Your Excellency is that while each state has or is receiving its share of the subsidy based on existing revenue allocation, the Federal Government is to use its own portion to intervene in specific areas throughout the Federation.

    Some of such areas as listed in the SURE-P release and contained in the Federal Ministry of Finance shown above is the very crux of the matter. It is the inequity, political disfranchisement and bias in the utilization of the Federal portion which has marginalized the core / South-West of Nigeria that I will illustrate with three specific instances.

     

    The Role of SURE-P As An Instrument of Nation-wide Intervention Development Strategy.

    (i)         Infrastructural Discrimination

    A major marginalization of the core South-West, is the Federal Government announcement that it plans to construct 10 new rail lines as reported in The Punch of 24th December 2012. The information as contained on Page 26 of that paper is partly reproduced below:

    “The Federal Government has announced plans to construct 10 new rail lines to cover other parts of the country currently not linked by rail. The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, said on Friday that already feasibility studies have commenced on seven of the proposed railway lines. Umar who spoke in Lagos at the inauguration of the Lagos-Kano train service and resumption of fuel haulage by train from Lagos to Offa, said that the feasibility studies on three other planned rail line would be done in 2013. He gave the total distance of the areas to be covered by the seven rail lines as 3,421 kilometres. The Minister said that at the completion of the feasibility studies, the railway development project would be undertaken through public private partnership arrangement. Upon final construction of these lines, it will improve mass movement of Nigerians and open windows for rapid economic development minister and regional interaction,” he said. Umar stressed that all the new rail lines would be constructed as standard gauge track for the movement of fast trains. According to him, the new lines would cover Lagos-Sagamu-Ijebu Ode-Ore-Benin (300km); Benin-Agbor-Onitsha-Nnewi-Owerri-Aba, with additional line from Onitsha-Enugu-Abakaliki (500km).

    It also includes a 615km-high-speed rail track from Lagos, Oshogbo and Baro. The minister listed Ajaokuta-Obajana-Jakutu-Baro-Abuja, with additional line from Ajaokuta to Otukpo (533km), Zaria-Kaura Namoda-Sokoto-Ilela-Birnin Koni (520km) as other areas to be covered. Others are costal rail line linking Benin-Sapele-warri-Yenagoa-Port Harcourt-Aba-Uyo-Akampa-Ikom-Obudu Cattle ranch (673km); and Ajaokuta-Eganyi-Lokoja-Abaji-Abuja line (280km). The other three lines whose feasibility contracts would be awarded next year are Port Harcourt-Umuahia-Enugu-Makurdi-Lafia-Kaduna-Bauchi-Gombe-Biu-Maiduguri; Ikom-Ogoja-Kastina-Ala-Wukari-Jalingo-Yola-Maiduguri and Kani-Nguru-Gashua-Damaturu-Maiduguri-Gamborun-Ngala.

    With 10 new railway lines that excludes the core southwest, pray does the phrase “other parts of the country currently not linked by rail” include Oyo-Ekiti-Ondo? Pray why such planned railway not extended between Oyo State (Ibadan) to Ekiti-State (Ado-Ekiti) to Ondo State (Akure)? After all, each state capital was planned to be connected by rail under the Obasanjo administration.

    How will envisaged economic benefits extend to those neglected states? How do they benefit in terms of employment, enhancement of trade and commerce within and outside the communities? How do the neglected states take pressure off the overburdened roads and reduce frequency of road accidents, strengthen social and intercultural relations? How do these excluded states benefit from economic integration so orchestrated? This deliberate marginalization has further shifted the operations of the companies mentioned (Lafarge, Dangote cement etc) which own the heavy duty trucks and trailers to the neglected states to further damage and  destroy both state and federal roads being reconstructed by these neglected states out of the meager funds they get from the federation account.

    You need to travel through Ilesha-Akure-Owo-Benin road and see daily carnage. Ekiti State is completely caught off between Akure and Ado-Ekiti unless you go via Akure-igbaraodo-odo in a circular way. Although contract for Ilesha-Akure road was recently awarded for reconstruction (not dualization), why not the whole hug from Ibadan? Why  should Okitipupa-Ondo-Akure-Benin road not be dualised? Why should Akure-Ado-Ekiti-Omuaran road not be dualised from the same SURE-P funds? More questions are definitely begging for answers.

    Item 2.9: List of Road Projects:

    Of the 1,326km roads, the 295km allocated to SW/S covers Benin-Ore-Sagamu dual carriage way.

    It should be observed that this Benin-Ore-Sagamu dual carriage way has always been factored into the annual Federal budget for roads in the past 20 or more years. The Nation of Saturday 16 February 2013, page 6, carried another news item that the Federal government has obtained fund from SURE-P to dualise Abuja-Benin road. Yet, the federal authorities are aware of the appalling state of federal roads in middle and core Southwest states.

    (Ondo-Ekiti-Osun) where federal roads vertically and diagonally pass through: Akure (Ondo State) to Ilesha in Osun State. The same is true of Iyamoye (Kogi) to Omuo, Ikole, Ogotun in (Ekiti state) to Osun state. Ekiti state has the shortest federal roads in the federation, yet not one kilometre road is considered by SURE-P for rehabilitation out of the poor roads listed above.

    Item E1:33 Irrigation Projects:

    nineteen irrigation projects are listed with four going to North East; three each for North West, South East and South South. The two listed for South West go to Ogun and Oyo States as if those are the only states in the South West. The Ero Water Dam and Lake, covering 11Kilometres in Ekiti State, is one of the largest water/irrigation projects in Nigeria, established at the same time as those listed above in other parts of the country which are to benefit SURE-P. Why should it not qualify for SURE-P’s attention like others listed above?

    Item E2:34 Rural and Urban Water Supply Projects:

    The little Osse mentioned in Ekiti State is put there to demonstrate precedence and involvement. The Ero Water Dam mentioned above can serve the purpose of both irrigation for agriculture and water supply, while Arinta Waterfalls should qualify for Tourism intervention under the Federal scheme.

    Item 36 & 37: Selected Power Projects:

    What is needed here from the Federal Government is a second 132/33KV power substation project in the northern part of Ekiti and the urgent completion of the on-going one which is no more adequate for the state capital, not to talk of the whole state.

    If the Federal Government can embark on all these projects with or in addition to SURE-P funds, why is it that none of the federal roads as shown earlier in these core southwest states is receiving Federal attention?

    While our legislators must continue to be vigilant and alive to their responsibilities to the electorate, they must not underestimate the negative influence of policy formulators who deliberately and mischievously plan and execute such discriminatory policies to their (sectional) advantage.

    That is why I appreciate the action and vigilance of Senator Femi Ojudu (Ekiti Central) in detecting the fraud, if not dishonesty, in the 2013 budget proposal for roads in other states were shown as Ekiti State roads!

    I will like to draw the attention of Senator Ojudu to the dredging and canalization work at Ureje River (that is Ureje Water Works) under the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja. The contract was awarded for N1.2billion and reported to have been completed and paid for in 2010 when, in fact, up till now, no work has been done on the site, which is now overgrown with weeds. The contractor who quoted N890million for the job lost out.

    (ii)       Utilization of Ecological Funds/Environmental Projects Discrimination

    It is common knowledge now and as revealed and confirmed in some daily papers that all PDP States received N2Billion Ecological Funds for the utilization of Ecological and environmental problems to the exclusion of non-PDP states which largely affect the whole of South-West States.

    I have with me as shown in the table below 25 Ecological Projects that the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in Ekiti has submitted to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) all with negative replies as if we are not entitled to attention from this commonwealth purse.

    Each of the affected area deteriorates during every rainy season with the attention of the FEPA drawn to the yearly deterioration and expansion of damage to the areas affected with no positive response from FEPA.

    I have refused to allow my area, Falegan Estate most severely devastated by torrential rain – to be done in isolation from others. The last rainfall not only weakened my walls but had part of the wall broken down under the weight of the heavy downpour. It is available for inspection. A major danger which can lead to a landslide that will affect about 20 houses lies ahead if the next rainy season should meet us here.

    I have it on good authority that my Governor in Ekiti State Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his officials have paid not less than 5 visits both to the Federal Ministry of Environment and FEPA on the issues listed in the table above without any polite or positive result. How do you treat a head of a state government with such derision, contempt and lack of respect? Is this how to live together as one country?

    It is no exaggeration that natural disasters like flood and rain storm incidents have been occurring indiscriminately across the length and breadth of the country with all states facing virtually the same climatic challenges. For instance, the Global Warming Syndrome has made a mess of climatic restrictions to certain geographical locations such that incidents of flood etc now cut across virtually all states.

     (iii)     The screaming headline of the Nigeria TRIBUNE No 15,880 of Friday 27 December, 2013 “N30BN 2014 IRRIGATION PROJECTS SOUTHWEST SHORT-CHANGED” North 80%, SS/SE 18%, S/West 2% cannot but worry people like me at my age at 80 whether Nigeria as at present being governed is worth dying for or whether a patriot is not a fool.

     

    The above is just one item of capital expenditure where the discriminating Minister and her Permanent Secretary are from Plateau State and Bauchi State up North respectively.

    While the 2013 budget proposal for roads in other states were shown as Ekiti State roads (as discovered by Senator Ojudu), the 2014 budget does not show any appropriation for roads in Ekiti. In which case, there is no budget for Ekiti State for two years running.

    The Federal Agency on Roads (so called FERMA) that pretends to operate in this part of the country merely ends up creating more problems that solved. It engages in merely parching the roads and adding more layers of bumps that peel off at the slightest rainfall. The Federal road between Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State and Akure in Ondo State as a good illustration.

    In civilized environment, where politics of subtle and creeping compromise and discrimination does not hold, the ecological problem facing us in Ekiti State is sufficient to declare the whole state a disaster area. It is the prayer of people like me that Nigeria survives and its components love, and as a Nation live together in peace. But Your Excellency, peace won by compromise of principles and discrimination is a short-lived achievement. A fabler with two wives says “Yield to both and you will soon have nothing to yield”, while Wilson Churchill said “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last”. No axe can sit down and withhold his hands from warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.

    Your Excellency, It is not that any N500billion is missing or that Dr. Christopher Kolade resigned because of any missing N500billion. If anything, Dr. Kolade, (who I know very well; we grew up here together in Ekiti; his mother is from Igede-Ekiti, while his father who was a godly Priest in Ekiti here where Christopher was born is from Erin-Ijesha in Osun State). A transparently honest and shrewd diplomat must have resigned because of evidence of compromised cheating, inequities and partiality, made up of ungodly and heartless discrimination against his own part of the country by an organization over which he is supposed to preside. Why should Dr. Kolade continue as of conscience to be Chairman of an organization that discriminates against his own part of the country? Discretion, they say, is a better part of valour. Why are we building some people up and bringing others down, yet pledging we live together in peace as one. It is a spiteful political decision which does not reflect any credit on the balance and maturity of the people who take such decision either on your behalf or at the directive of MR. President. It is an avoidable arbitrariness in the utilization of funds while in turn breeds corruption.

    I can not lay hold on the concluding part of the information above. With this kind of lop-sided and sectional ownership of the main source of income, the country is heading for a serious crisis ahead of itself.

    At a glance, the above can lead to a violent revolution that can make nonsense of a National Dialogue or National Conference, whose end is already being foreshadowed of disintegration if the threat of the demagogue Asari Dokubo were to be taken seriously of a South-South serial nation-wide pipeline vandalisation in the absence of a negotiated “Ijaw State or “Ijaw Nation” that own the oil unless you are re-elected President of Nigeria.

    Here is a cabal, holding the whole country by the jugular. Whether in Government or in Opposition this crop of rapacious, selfish and greedy people including their sponsors and backers can not but be a collective threat to the stability and security of the country and any government now or in future that fails to dismantle them and cancel all their monopolistic grip on the Nigerian economy is doomed to failure.

    While the Dangotes, the Adenugas and Conoil are visibly employing their “lots” for productive use, stimulating the economy through employment generation and business expansion that are impacting positively nation-wide on the economy, all the others merely stand aloof displaying their loots in provocative vanity through “fronts” that create “rentier class” for the rest of the country who is made to eat from the crump that falls from the table, starking their “loots” abroad with their foreign collaborators who readily acquiesce because they use the funds to provide employment for their own people. Their transient political and financial support, however beneficial must be weighed against the lethal danger they constitute in the long run to the stability and security of this country. Their collective threat and stranglehold which must be seen as providing resentment, irritation, agitation, resistance and uprising which are all evident in the rising tempo of national distrust, ethnic and religious conflicts, increase in hitherto unknown crime of kidnapping, wave of pirates’ attack on Nigeria’s territorial waters, must be laid before the National Conference for deliberation because they are all induced by the Nation’s main source of wealth and means of livelihood.

    This class of special people induce jealousy and hatred and create the so-called “Boko Haram” which protest ostensibly against injustice whose cancerous spread has contaminated innocent people individually, corporately, sectorally, sectly and religiously, even the security outfit defending the country.

  • Scrap SURE-P, PENGASSAN urges

    THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), arguing that the N21billion is provided for its operations in the year’s budget should be spent on infrastructure.

    Its President, Mr. Francis Johnson, alleged the SURE-P was set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan to settle some people, adding that it was the major reason for the problem of integrity that dogged the implementation of the programme.

    He said: “Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) for which N21 billion is provided in the 2015 Budget should be scrapped. SURE-P largesse is at the whims of the party in power to settle those it wishes to favour with a lot of integrity issues around the program regarding fostering balance and accountability.”

    He said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), made up of the holding companies and 10 subsidiaries, had been subjected to undue political interference, which he claimed, hindered its autonomy for effective running and competitiveness.

    Johnson said: “Operations and administration of NNPC come under several masters and conflicting instructions, some of which defy the national objectives and aspirations for setting up the national oil corporation and its subsidiaries.

    “Appointment, removal and/or transfer of the heads and the staff of the corporation and its subsidiaries are often executed in the manner that undermine by fiat, the extant national laws, NNPC Act and its Corporate Policy and Procedure Guide.”

    He called for the reorganisation of the NNPC and its subsidiaries to function effectively with clearer mandate and empowerment. This, he noted, would make the NNPC to operate and compete professionally in line with corporate governance principles and without undue political interference.

    On the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), he said there was the need for full autonomy and responsibility, good corporate governance principles and practices.

    He said pipeline vandalism is a major dent to nation and business integrity in the oil and gas industry, adding that the menace is the major cause of incessant shut-in of production, force majeure and high cost of maintenance and repairs

    “The nation has continued to groan in unimaginable economic /revenue losses particularly with the depletion in revenue to the Federation Account and the attendant impact on governance. The menace continues to build up weaning confidence in the Industry’s operators and players,” Johnson said.

     

  • N2.7b SURE-P funds row divides Kaduna Assembly

    N2.7b SURE-P funds row divides Kaduna Assembly

    The Clerk of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Umma Aliyu Hikima, is under pressure to sign and approve the spending of N2.744 billion local governments’ Subsidy Reinvestment Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) funds by Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, it was learnt yesterday.

    The governor, last week, wrote to the lawmakers, asking for an approval to spend the 2014 SURE-P funds for the 23 local governments.

    But Yero’s letter, it was also learnt, has divided the lawmakers.

    While the governor got the approval of some key principal officers of the Assembly, 14 members rejected the letter on the ground that the Executive could not give satisfactory reasons on how it would spend the funds, less than two weeks to the expiration to its tenure.

    The 14 lawmakers described the governor’s request as “gross financial recklessness and last-minute looting and squandering of public funds”.

    It was learnt that Hikima, who has been hospitalised, was being threatened to sign the approval or face suspension.

    The clerk’s inability to sign the approval, sources said, was premised on the fact that the 2014 SURE-P funds were not in this year’s budget.

    The reasoning is that it is improper for the outgoing government to spend 50 per cent of the money on a project captured in this year’s budget.

    A member of the Assembly, who spoke in confidence, told our correspondent that Hikima was threatened to sign the approval of face suspension.

    He said: “I can confirm to you that they want to force the Clerk to sign their approval. In the event that she refuses to sign, they will suspend her and appoint an Acting Clerk who will in turn sign the document for the Executive to spend the funds.”

    Governor-elect Nasir El-Rufai has vowed to investigate and punish anyone culpable in the SURE-P funds’ diversion.

  • SURE-P funds: APC drags Yero to EFCC‎

    SURE-P funds: APC drags Yero to EFCC‎

    Barely 24 hours after Kaduna State Governor-elect, Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai vowed to probe anyone culpable in the N2.7billion SURE-P funds diversion, the State APC Transition Committee has dragged the Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero led government before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    The transition committee is asking the anti-graft agency to stop the Yero led outgoing government from what it described as last minute looting of public assets.

    It accused the ‎outgoing Kaduna State Government of taking elaborate steps to legitimise the ‎misappropriation‎ of N2.744 billion Local Government Sure-P funds,

    According to a letter addressed to the EFCC Chairman by the transition committee and titled:‎‎The ‎attempt to misappropriate ‎SURE-P Funds in Kaduna State, “Yero‎‎ has been putting the legislature under tremendous pressure to approve his utilisation of 50 per cent of the Sure-P funds for a road project, while the 23 local government councils would share the balance.”

    ‎‎The letter signed by the Chairman of the committee, Balara‎be Abbas Lawal‎ read that, “I write to bring to your attention the elaborate steps being taken by the outgoing Kaduna State Government to legitimise the ‎misappropriation‎ of N2.744 billion Local Government Sure-P funds, and to request that you exercise your responsibility of deterring crime by preventing this last-minute looting of public assets.

    “The Kaduna State House of Assembly declined to appropriate the Sure-P funds in the 2015 budget, and promptly removed them from the budgets submitted by the 23 local government councils. The state legislators further resolved that the fate of the funds be left to the incoming administration.

    “The ‎outgoing governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero‎, however has been putting the legislature under tremendous pressure to approve his utilisation of 50 percent of the Sure-P funds for a road project, while the 23 local government councils would share the balance. Coming from a government whose tenure expires in less than two weeks, the intensity of the lobby for the money indicates a certain desperation that is clearly not in the public interest.

    “I ‎wish to therefore request that you urgently investigate whether the Sure-P funds are still intact, or if they have been spent without appropriation thus necessitating a belated approval from the House of Assembly to provide a ‘legal’ means of retiring the funds. If, as it is widely believed in the state, the monies have already been spent, it is crucial to determine the projects, the contractors and the procurement processes that facilitated such a deliberate hemorrhaging of public funds,” it reads.

    Meanwhile, ‎El-Rufai was quoted in ‎statement as saying, “I have been informed of desperate attempts to secure approval to spend N2.744 billion Sure-P funds. Less than two weeks to its exit, the outgoing government of Kaduna State is seeking to pressure the outgoing House of Assembly to permit it to spend 50 percent of the money on the Kawo road project, while the 23 local government councils will share the balance.

    “As governor-elect, it is my duty to caution every official involved in these last-minute deals that the incoming government will ensure that there are consequences for illegal conduct, breach of trust and stealing of public assets. Our government will certainly insist on accountability, and no one should be in any doubt about our resolve, be it the instigators of any impropriety or those who facilitated and executed it,” El-Rufai said.

  • How NEPC, SURE-P, OPS boost employment

    How NEPC, SURE-P, OPS boost employment

    A tripartite partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) and the organised private sector has helped alleviate the unemployment crisis in the country in no small measure, reports Assistant Editor, Nduka Chiejina

    THE Nigerian Export Promotion Council in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance recently organised a stakeholders’ interactive forum on Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), with the theme: ‘Integrating GIS in Non-oil Export Development.’

    The forum was organised to sensitise export sector stakeholders on the benefits of participating in the SURE-P Graduate Internship Scheme.

    The forum was conceived to mobilise export-oriented firms to participate in the GIS as a means of building capacity of interns to be engaged in setting up and managing export-oriented businesses; open up opportunities for job creation in the non-oil sector, especially export business; sensitise stakeholders on the NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP); revitalise the non-oil sector of the economy towards increasing its contribution to GDP growth and provide greater non-oil export job opportunities, focusing on youths as the bedrock of a sustainable national economic development and ensure that the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme, as a fiscal tool, is also used for implementing government economic policies aimed at ensuring capacity building and creating enabling environment for employment generation.

    The speakers were happy with the idea of the partnership between the Nigeria Export Promotion Council and the Federal Ministry of Finance’ Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) and they viewed the integration of internship into the export business as a platform for producing future managers and professionals for the non oil export sector.

    The resolutions reached by the participants commended the federal government for introducing SURE-P and especially the Graduate Internship Scheme, which was viewed as an important intervention in the life of unemployed graduates.

    YEESAP was also commended as a well-thought out project and participants agreed that the interns should be trained on export skills before being deployed to the organisations in order to enable them contribute meaningfully to the participating organisations.

    Challenges

    It has been alleged that some firms and interns were engaged under fraudulent circumstances, with several cases cited in Ondo and Osun states. These cases have been investigated and culprits – both firms and interns – were said to be expunged from the scheme. Monitoring has also been strengthened in all states. In order to address the problem of delayed uptake of graduates by firms, internship firms have been identified and organised in all states to facilitate swift selection/matching and documentation of graduates.

    The Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo, expressed happiness with the partnership formed between NEPC and the GIS.

    In his words, the NEPC boss stated that “this is a clear effort at encouraging government to government partnership and by extension public private partnership (PPP) as well.

    “The NEPC-GIS partnership is an attempt by our two organisations to work together towards discharging our statutory responsibilities as well as achieving some of the targets set out by federal government in the Transformation Agenda in the areas of reducing unemployment, skills acquisition, capacity building and creating pool of trained graduates, capable of adding value to participating employers.”

    Speaking in similar tone, the Project Director, GIS, Mr. Peter Papka, stated that “Graduate Internship Scheme, which is one of the interventions of SURE-P, is a platform that provides young graduates with a one-year temporary work experience to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market as well as boosting their chances of being self employed.”

    According to Papka, “among the objectives of the scheme is the resolve to enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation and in the FCT by improving their skills through work placement.”

    He emphasised that the “graduate internship scheme is providing a platform for the reduction of vulnerability among unemployed Nigerian graduates. Internship from our experience provides soft landing for many such graduates in finding direction for their lives either through jobs or entrepreneurship. It is our hope that this scheme will be sustained as a veritable bridge between school and the job market, so that Nigerian graduates would disrobe the toga of despondence on completion of national service.”

    Mr. Peter Papka noted that different partnering firms around the country indicated that many graduates were willing to excel, while utilising the GIS to do so. The firms, he added, were also utilising the scheme to determine prospective candidates for their employment, without having to search wide.

    To engender more interest in the GIS/NEPC partnership, Papka said government was planning to “review conditions of service for the interns, especially by increasing their monthly stipend and provision of insurance cover has also endeared serving interns to work harder, and other graduates to register; while also stirring interest of more firms/organisations or firms have come to appreciate not just the benefits derivable, but the national implication of their participation, that is why they play their roles by opening their doors to mentor these graduates for 12 months. We have partners among multinational corporations, financial institutions and SMEs, NGOs and government institutions.”

    Special partners

    Partnership has been established with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to integrate GIS into the export trade with a view to encourage and train graduates to key in and participate in government’s divestment into the non-oil sector. The objective of NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP) is to train 500 graduates on export trade, while the outcome expected is that they will be export-ready after internship. YEESAP has been established to achieve this and over 3000 graduates are to be engaged at the first instance.

    Emerging trends

    There are already several lessons emerging from the GIS which are reaffirming the objectives of its establishment and others which would guide future direction of the educational curricula.  One of the key results emerging from the scheme is the high rate of retention of interns by their employers. Many interns have also found employment with other organisations as a result of the skills they have acquired and improved personality they have developed during internship.

    Besides, GIS is gradually emerging as the bridge between educational institutions and the labour market, providing a pool of skilled, trained, experienced and work-ready graduates for firms to select without having to go through a formal, costly process of recruitment.

    To analysts, there is need to take a look at school curricula at all levels and introduce mandatory courses of entrepreneurship, thus preparing school leavers at all levels with a capacity to start and run their own businesses and not seeking employment.

    This is even as more Nigerians are calling for the institutionalisation of the scheme beyond 2015, so that results are sustained and expanded to cater for more graduates and firms. There are also calls for academic reviews of the opportunities that GIS can create for national development in the execution of its mandate.

    Registered graduates who may never benefit from matching to firms are being targeted for an online employability training in order to avail them an opportunity to develop skills through online modules, which are to be developed in collaboration with and certificated by sector professional bodies.

    Nigerians are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of internship in the life of graduates, especially those that are unemployed, in terms of the value they can add during this waiting period as well as the benefits and skills they will develop. Katsina has shown more appreciation to GIS and commitment by establishing its own version of GIS, deploying 600 graduates for a year and paying them N30,000, just like GIS.

    There is a clear need for synergy between all tiers of government in a programme like this for optimisation of benefits and for greater impact. States and local governments are therefore urged to key into such initiative as demonstrated by Katsina State.

    The prospect for this graduate internship is huge. However, there is need for improvement in business environment for the private sectors, who invariably are the greater employers of labour.

    Young graduates are becoming more interested in setting up cooperatives to raise capital and build partnerships, and are thinking more of building their own businesses rather than rely on white collar jobs.

  • How NEPC, SURE-P, OPS boost employment

    How NEPC, SURE-P, OPS boost employment

    A tripartite partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) and the organised private sector has helped alleviate the unemployment crisis in the country in no small measure, reports Assistant Editor, Nduka Chiejina

    The Nigerian Export Promotion Council in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance recently organised a stakeholders’ interactive forum on Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), with the theme: ‘Integrating GIS in Non-oil Export Development.’

    The forum was organised to sensitise export sector stakeholders on the benefits of participating in the SURE-P Graduate Internship Scheme.

    The forum was conceived to mobilise export-oriented firms to participate in the GIS as a means of building capacity of interns to be engaged in setting up and managing export-oriented businesses; open up opportunities for job creation in the non-oil sector, especially export business; sensitise stakeholders on the NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP); revitalise the non-oil sector of the economy towards increasing its contribution to GDP growth and provide greater non-oil export job opportunities, focusing on youths as the bedrock of a sustainable national economic development and ensure that the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme, as a fiscal tool, is also used for implementing government economic policies aimed at ensuring capacity building and creating enabling environment for employment generation.

    The speakers were happy with the idea of the partnership between the Nigeria Export Promotion Council and the Federal Ministry of Finance’ Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) and they viewed the integration of internship into the export business as a platform for producing future managers and professionals for the non oil export sector.

    The resolutions reached by the participants commended the federal government for introducing SURE-P and especially the Graduate Internship Scheme, which was viewed as an important intervention in the life of unemployed graduates.

    YEESAP was also commended as a well-thought out project and participants agreed that the interns should be trained on export skills before being deployed to the organisations in order to enable them contribute meaningfully to the participating organisations.

    Challenges

    It has been alleged that some firms and interns were engaged under fraudulent circumstances, with several cases cited in Ondo and Osun states. These cases have been investigated and culprits – both firms and interns – were said to be expunged from the scheme. Monitoring has also been strengthened in all states. In order to address the problem of delayed uptake of graduates by firms, internship firms have been identified and organised in all states to facilitate swift selection/matching and documentation of graduates.

    The Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo, expressed happiness with the partnership formed between NEPC and the GIS.

    In his words, the NEPC boss stated that: “this is a clear effort at encouraging government to government partnership and by extension public private partnership (PPP) as well.

    “The NEPC-GIS partnership is an attempt by our two organisations to work together towards discharging our statutory responsibilities as well as achieving some of the targets set out by federal government in the Transformation Agenda in the areas of reducing unemployment, skills acquisition, capacity building and creating pool of trained graduates, capable of adding value to participating employers.”

    Speaking in similar tones, the Project Director, GIS, Mr. Peter Papka, stated that “Graduate Internship Scheme, which is one of the interventions of SURE-P, is a platform that provides young graduates with a one-year temporary work experience to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market as well as boosting their chances of being self employed.”

    According to Papka, “among the objectives of the scheme is the resolve to enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation and in the FCT by improving their skills through work placement.”

    He emphasised that the “graduate internship scheme is providing a platform for the reduction of vulnerability among unemployed Nigerian graduates. Internship from our experience provides soft landing for many such graduates in finding direction for their lives either through jobs or entrepreneurship. It is our hope that this scheme will be sustained as a veritable bridge between school and the job market, so that Nigerian graduates would disrobe the toga of despondence on completion of national service.”

    Mr. Peter Papka noted that different partnering firms around the country indicated that many graduates were willing to excel, while utilising the GIS to do so. The firms, he added, were also utilising the scheme to determine prospective candidates for their employment, without having to search wide.

    To engender more interest in the GIS/NEPC partnership, Papka said government was planning to “review conditions of service for the interns, especially by increasing their monthly stipend and provision of insurance cover has also endeared serving interns to work harder, and other graduates to register; while also stirring interest of more firms/organisations or firms have come to appreciate not just the benefits derivable, but the national implication of their participation, that is why they play their roles by opening their doors to mentor these graduates for 12 months. We have partners among multinational corporations, financial institutions and SMEs, NGOs and government institutions.”

    Special partners

    Partnership has been established with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to integrate GIS into the export trade with a view to encourage and train graduates to key in and participate in government’s divestment into the non-oil sector. The objective of NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP) is to train 500 graduates on export trade, while the outcome expected is that they will be export-ready after internship. YEESAP has been established to achieve this and over 3000 graduates are to be engaged at the first instance.

    Emerging trends

    There are already several lessons emerging from the GIS which are reaffirming the objectives of its establishment and others which would guide future direction of the educational curricula.  One of the key results emerging from the scheme is the high rate of retention of interns by their employers. Many interns have also found employment with other organisations as a result of the skills they have acquired and improved personality they have developed during internship.

    Besides, GIS is gradually emerging as the bridge between educational institutions and the labour market, providing a pool of skilled, trained, experienced and work ready graduates for firms to select without having to go through a formal, costly process of recruitment.

    To analysts, there is need to take a look at school curricula at all levels and introduce mandatory courses of entrepreneurship, thus preparing school leavers at all levels with a capacity to start and run their own businesses and not seeking employment.

    This is even as more Nigerians are calling for the institutionalisation of the scheme beyond 2015, so that results are sustained and expanded to cater for more graduates and firms. There are also calls for academic reviews of the opportunities that GIS can create for national development in the execution of its mandate.

    Registered graduates who may never benefit from matching to firms are being targeted for an online employability training in order to avail them an opportunity to develop skills through online modules, which are to be developed, in collaboration with and certificated by sector professional bodies.

    Nigerians are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of internship in the life of graduates, especially those that are unemployed, in terms of the value they can add during this waiting period as well as the benefits and skills they will develop. Katsina has shown more appreciation to GIS and commitment by establishing its own version of GIS, deploying 600 graduates for a year and paying them N30,000, just like GIS.

    There is a clear need for synergy between all tiers of government in a programme like this for optimisation of benefits and for greater impact. States and local governments are therefore urged to key into such initiative as demonstrated by Katsina State.

    The prospect for this graduate internship is huge. However, there is need for improvement in business environment for the private sectors, who invariably are the greater employers of labour.

    Young graduates are becoming more interested in setting up cooperatives to raise capital and build partnerships, and are thinking more of building their own businesses rather than rely on white collar jobs.

  • SURE-P trains 100 interns

    SURE-P trains 100 interns

    A hundred Ogun State-based interns of the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of  Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P) aimed at empowering the youths and reducing the menace of unemployment have undergone training to help them perform well in their places of posting.

    They are among the 248,104 graduates that signed up for the initiative which provides unemployed and underemployed graduates with internship opportunities that will expose them to skills and experiences relevant to industry needs and enhance their employability.

    Speaking during the training and orientation organised by AfriHub Nigeria Ltd, an ICT training and consulting firm, the Director of the scheme, Mr Peter Papka, said the graduates are posted to firms all over the country across all sectors.

    He said since 2012 when the scheme started, positive testimonials have been pouring in from firms that have benefitted from the resourcefulness of the graduate interns, especially those that have been employed.

    He explained that the objectives of the orientation included: to help the interns optimize their internship period by developing useful skills and positive work habits; provide opportunity to share experiences with other participants; and expose participants to opportunities after internship, among others.

    Papka said he was glad with the interns’ enthusiasm in the training. Most of them said it was the first formal training they were receiving on workplace and work life.  He also said many are ready to embrace entrepreneurship.

    “They also admitted a clear and present opportunity that the GIS provides for them to chart the course of their future. Many interns are beginning to jettison the idea of waiting for a job from government, as some are venturing into entrepreneurship both individually and as cooperative groups,” he added.

    Of those registered for the scheme, Papka said: “22,000 graduates have been deployed, with 68 per cent males, 31 per cent females and 1 percent vulnerable. Over 2,000 have exited the scheme, with over 500 having secured jobs. Some of the graduates have won YouWiN grants to expand businesses they set up using GIS stipends and many have set up cooperative associations, which may transform into SMEs. Rather than seeking for work, they are now becoming employers.”

  • How NEPC, SURE-P, OPS boost employment

    A tripartite partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) and the organised private sector has helped alleviate the unemployment crisis in the country in no small measure, reports Assistant Editor, Nduka Chiejina

    The Nigerian Export Promotion Council in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance recently organised a stakeholders’ interactive forum on Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), a component of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), with the theme: ‘Integrating GIS in Non-oil Export Development.’

    The forum was organised to sensitise export sector stakeholders on the benefits of participating in the SURE-P Graduate Internship Scheme.

    The forum was conceived to mobilise export-oriented firms to participate in the GIS as a means of building capacity of interns to be engaged in setting up and managing export-oriented businesses; open up opportunities for job creation in the non-oil sector, especially export business; sensitise stakeholders on the NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP); revitalise the non-oil sector of the economy towards increasing its contribution to GDP growth and provide greater non-oil export job opportunities, focusing on youths as the bedrock of a sustainable national economic development and ensure that the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme, as a fiscal tool, is also used for implementing government economic policies aimed at ensuring capacity building and creating enabling environment for employment generation.

    The speakers were happy with the idea of the partnership between the Nigeria Export Promotion Council and the Federal Ministry of Finance’ Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) and they viewed the integration of internship into the export business as a platform for producing future managers and professionals for the non oil export sector.

    The resolutions reached by the participants commended the federal government for introducing SURE-P and especially the Graduate Internship Scheme, which was viewed as an important intervention in the life of unemployed graduates.

    YEESAP was also commended as a well-thought out project and participants agreed that the interns should be trained on export skills before being deployed to the organisations in order to enable them contribute meaningfully to the participating organisations.

    Challenges

    It has been alleged that some firms and interns were engaged under fraudulent circumstances, with several cases cited in Ondo and Osun states. These cases have been investigated and culprits – both firms and interns – were said to be expunged from the scheme. Monitoring has also been strengthened in all states. In order to address the problem of delayed uptake of graduates by firms, internship firms have been identified and organised in all states to facilitate swift selection/matching and documentation of graduates.

    The Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo, expressed happiness with the partnership formed between NEPC and the GIS.

    In his words, the NEPC boss stated that: “this is a clear effort at encouraging government to government partnership and by extension public private partnership (PPP) as well.

    “The NEPC-GIS partnership is an attempt by our two organisations to work together towards discharging our statutory responsibilities as well as achieving some of the targets set out by federal government in the Transformation Agenda in the areas of reducing unemployment, skills acquisition, capacity building and creating pool of trained graduates, capable of adding value to participating employers.”

    Speaking in similar tones, the Project Director, GIS, Mr. Peter Papka, stated that “Graduate Internship Scheme, which is one of the interventions of SURE-P, is a platform that provides young graduates with a one-year temporary work experience to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market as well as boosting their chances of being self employed.”

    According to Papka, “among the objectives of the scheme is the resolve to enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation and in the FCT by improving their skills through work placement.”

    He emphasised that the “graduate internship scheme is providing a platform for the reduction of vulnerability among unemployed Nigerian graduates. Internship from our experience provides soft landing for many such graduates in finding direction for their lives either through jobs or entrepreneurship. It is our hope that this scheme will be sustained as a veritable bridge between school and the job market, so that Nigerian graduates would disrobe the toga of despondence on completion of national service.”

    Mr. Peter Papka noted that different partnering firms around the country indicated that many graduates were willing to excel, while utilising the GIS to do so. The firms, he added, were also utilising the scheme to determine prospective candidates for their employment, without having to search wide.

    To engender more interest in the GIS/NEPC partnership, Papka said government was planning to “review conditions of service for the interns, especially by increasing their monthly stipend and provision of insurance cover has also endeared serving interns to work harder, and other graduates to register; while also stirring interest of more firms/organisations or firms have come to appreciate not just the benefits derivable, but the national implication of their participation, that is why they play their roles by opening their doors to mentor these graduates for 12 months. We have partners among multinational corporations, financial institutions and SMEs, NGOs and government institutions.”

    Special partners

    Partnership has been established with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to integrate GIS into the export trade with a view to encourage and train graduates to key in and participate in government’s divestment into the non-oil sector. The objective of NEPC’s Youth Empowerment Export Skills Acquisition Programme (YEESAP) is to train 500 graduates on export trade, while the outcome expected is that they will be export-ready after internship. YEESAP has been established to achieve this and over 3000 graduates are to be engaged at the first instance.

    Emerging trends

    There are already several lessons emerging from the GIS which are reaffirming the objectives of its establishment and others which would guide future direction of the educational curricula.  One of the key results emerging from the scheme is the high rate of retention of interns by their employers. Many interns have also found employment with other organisations as a result of the skills they have acquired and improved personality they have developed during internship.

    Besides, GIS is gradually emerging as the bridge between educational institutions and the labour market, providing a pool of skilled, trained, experienced and work ready graduates for firms to select without having to go through a formal, costly process of recruitment.

    To analysts, there is need to take a look at school curricula at all levels and introduce mandatory courses of entrepreneurship, thus preparing school leavers at all levels with a capacity to start and run their own businesses and not seeking employment.

    This is even as more Nigerians are calling for the institutionalisation of the scheme beyond 2015, so that results are sustained and expanded to cater for more graduates and firms. There are also calls for academic reviews of the opportunities that GIS can create for national development in the execution of its mandate.

    Registered graduates who may never benefit from matching to firms are being targeted for an online employability training in order to avail them an opportunity to develop skills through online modules, which are to be developed, in collaboration with and certificated by sector professional bodies.

    Nigerians are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of internship in the life of graduates, especially those that are unemployed, in terms of the value they can add during this waiting period as well as the benefits and skills they will develop. Katsina has shown more appreciation to GIS and commitment by establishing its own version of GIS, deploying 600 graduates for a year and paying them N30,000, just like GIS.

    There is a clear need for synergy between all tiers of government in a programme like this for optimisation of benefits and for greater impact. States and local governments are therefore urged to key into such initiative as demonstrated by Katsina State.

    The prospect for this graduate internship is huge. However, there is need for improvement in business environment for the private sectors, who invariably are the greater employers of labour.

    Young graduates are becoming more interested in setting up cooperatives to raise capital and build partnerships, and are thinking more of building their own businesses rather than rely on white collar jobs.

  • SURE-P trains 85 interns

    SURE-P trains 85 interns

    THE Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) has completed a training for graduate beneficiaries of one of its programmes, the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS).

    The training, put together by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the Federal Ministry of Finance, was coordinated in Lagos by SINBOL Ltd.

    Speaking at the launch of the training, the Director of the GIS, represented by Ngozi Okonkwo, said the programme was aimed at providing about 50,000 graduates with quality work experience as well as improving their job placement options by providing opportunity to acquire professional skills.

    The training, an orientation training to prepare the interns for the workplace, had in attendance 85 graduate interns from disciplines and companies as well as 15 employers.

    The participants praised the Federal Government for the initiative, which, they said, helped them to get jobs as interns, while also giving them the opportunity to gather experience needed for their careers.

    They said they were also happy that the Federal Government gave them stipends for the 12-month duration of the programme.

    The GIS interns were trained in personal branding, studying and adapting to organisations, financial literacy skills, work ethics/etiquette, skills for the workplace, business leadership, performance management, among others.

  • Agwai ‘s sack

    Agwai ‘s sack

    It smacks of pettiness on the part of the FG and unseriousness with the objectives of SURE-P that he headed

    The removal of General Martin Luther Agwai as chairman of the intervention agency, Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) is another indication that something is fundamentally wrong with the philosophy of the Jonathan administration. The agency, a baby of the popular struggle for transparency in the management of prices of petroleum products in 2012 certainly needs men of proven integrity to manage it. This explains the appointments of the first chairman, Dr. Christopher kolade, and Agwai who succeeded the former high commissioner.

    Kolade was recommended for the job because of his vast experience in both the public and private sectors. He has the reputation of a man who could be trusted with public funds but had to bow out when he could not tolerate the practices that threatened his reputation. Agwai, a retired four-star General of the Nigerian Army who had the distinction of rising to the pinnacle of his career had won laurels at home and abroad. He was Chief of Defence Staff in the Obasanjo administration and a commander of international peacekeeping operations. His appointment was meant to allay fears that the government frustrated Dr. Kolade out with a view to derailing the programme. However, Agwai’s sack last week and his replacement with a regular public servant has raised questions about the sincerity of the Federal Government about tackling national maladies.

    We find it inappropriate that the Federal Government could not officially adduce reasons for the removal. A man of such distinction does not deserve such a shabby treatment. If he had done anything wrong, it ought to have been pointed out, if only to allay public fears on the direction of public policy and encourage other men of repute to take public appointments.

    It has been suggested that Agwai was removed for attending and presenting a paper at the 78th birthday of General Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of the country and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. It is surprising that the government did not deem it fit to congratulate the former president, let alone being represented at the well-attended and well-advertised event. It is even more unfortunate that a retired General could draw the ire of the government for honouring the invitation of his former boss.

    Governance at the highest level in the country deserves decorum, decency and grace. A man of honour at the helm of affairs would realise that the trenchant criticisms by General Obasanjo of recent do not make him an enemy. Differences in political opinion should not be allowed to becloud our sense of propriety.

    What the president did in sacking General Agwai smacks of pettiness. A society faced with the sort of crisis in the country today requires the services of all men and women of distinction, irrespective of their political affiliation. The United States of America is one country that owes its rapid development to the part being played by technocrats who are either apolitical or even aligned to opposing political parties. Realising the need for such bipartisan disposition, President Barack Obama saw nothing wrong in appointing a Republican his defence secretary at the inception of his administration.

    We must learn the good lessons. As we prepare to hold another general elections, Nigerians should begin to ask the correct questions of their governments. We must insist that morals and value play great roles in building good societies and thus insist that any government that intends to captain the ship of state must seek good materials and accord them the respect that they deserve. The governments at all levels should realise that public officers are not robots who could be robbed of their independence and viewpoints. General Agwai was entitled to his opinion at the Obasanjo birthday and that certainly is not enough to deprive the society of his sterling qualities in managing SURE-P.

    The presidential system of government is hinged on competence and the drive for excellence, not blind personal loyalty to the leader or the ruling party.

    Now that General Agwai has been sacked from SURE-P, Nigerians, and especially the civil society groups should begin to pay closer attention to the agency and other similar intervention agencies with a view to ensuring that they keep to the highest standards in performing the roles they were set up to fulfill.