Sure-P Missing Funds By Sola Ademiluyi

When the late Afro beat Maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang a hit song about 2.8 billion Naira missing from the treasury during the first tenure of Olusegun Obasanjo with Muhammadu Buhari as Petroleum Minister, it must have sounded like a big deal then. Now such amount of funds is mere chicken feed compared with the trillions of dollars that have been salted away since the return of democracy fourteen years ago.
The nation was engulfed in a crisis last year January as a result of the removal of petroleum subsidy. This was the precursor of the Occupy Nigeria movement that led many Nigerians old and young, rich and poor to protest the inhumane and anti-people policy in unison. The effect of the removal was the hike in the price of the products from 65 Naira to 141 Naira before its reduction to its current 97 Naira.
The Sure-P was established as an interventionist agency to manage the proceeds from the fuel subsidy removal. It is financed by the savings or the difference which would have been used to subsidise premium motor spirits had has been full subsidy for the product. The difference between the 65 Naira cost as full subsidy and the 97 Naira as partial subsidy is what the government uses to fund the project. The funds saved are divided among the three tiers of government.
There was a bit of hope as a committee was inaugurated with Dr. Christopher Kolade a man of proven integrity who had headed the National Broadcasting Commission, Cadbury and was Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom was appointed Chairman. They were to work closely with the Ministries of Finance, Petroleum and the Director-General of the Budget Office to ensure the funds were properly managed and restore the confidence of Nigerians.
The allegation by the Senate that 500 billion Naira was missing jolted the nation and made nonsense of its launch with great fanfare. The Plateau State House of Assembly’s SURE-P Chairman, Dalyop Mancha declared that funds from the project were not disbursed to the state and local governments since January last year.
The bane of the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world has been mind boggling corruption and the impunity with which it is perpetrated. The Senate ad-hoc committee on SURE-P summoned Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Engineer Andrew Yakubu to appear before it and explain to Nigerians how over $3 billion grew wings. As is the norm in this clime fast sliding into a banana republic, they refused to appear before it giving the hapless populace the impression that they can fart and pour faeces on their faces with the confidence that the Heavens would not fall. This is not the first time this arrogance is being displayed. Chief Tony Anenih refused to appear before the House of Representatives Committee investigating the alleged 310 billion Naira scandals while he held sway as Minister for Works and Housing and combined the juicy portfolio with the Chairmanship of the Poverty Alleviation Programme. He has not only gone to become the Chairman of the Board of the Ruling Party’s Board of Trustees twice but is currently the National Ports Authority Chairman. Sir Emeka Offor was summoned by the Senate to answer questions over the abandonment of the turnaround maintenance contract for the refineries he received under the dictatorship of the late General Sani Abacha. He was at least ‘courteous’ to come but insulted the members of the senate committee and by extension the general populace by opining that he was too big for anyone to deal with in the country. How tragic!
The Petroleum Ministry released a report that the country consumed 1.3 billion litres in January last year; it dropped to 941 million the following month and slightly over 770 million by September. Why then have the remittances remained constant and not dropped? Don’t Nigerians have a right to know? Why the secrecy? Why is the NNPC feigning ignorance over this matter? It is high time the Freedom of Information Act Bill is invoked to compel these tin gods to render an account of how they allegedly squandered our commonwealth!
The programme has not even achieved anything. What is the rationale behind paying graduates 18,000 Naira a month that is worse than a piddling? Youth corpers earn more than that. Is the government preaching retrogression? We should be thinking about developing our human capital to the zenith and not fostering an economic structure that makes its most productive minds in their prime no more than glorified serfs.
Nigerians demand an answer to this recent hocus pocus!
@ademiluyitony