Why Dr. Chrisopher Kolade Resigned As SURE-P Boss

On Sunday, that the chairman of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Dr Christopher Kolade, took the decision to resign his appointment following what was called perceived harassment from the committees of the National Assembly.
A source stated: “The N500 billion declared missing by the Senate Committee on SURE-P was actually the money distributed to the states and local governments as their shares of the fund. The Federal Government got N300 billion.
“It is surprising that the Senate which fine-tuned the SURE-P at take off will pretend not to know that the funds are to be shared among the three tiers of government. This is sad and it painted the managers of the fund in bad light. The old man was disappointed.”
Sources confirmed that too many invitations by the committees of the National Assembly in recent times had unsettled the elder statesman, who was said to have expressed sadness that some persons might be targeting his reputation.
A source said that the old man was of the view that most of the questions usually asked by members of the National Assembly committees during sittings were things they can easily crosscheck from the Ministry of Finance.
Besides, a source said that the National Assembly commitees have unduly publicised the SURE-P in negative light even when there are no facts to back up the claims.
For instance, a source said that Dr. Kolade was embarrassed recently when a committee of the National Assembly announced that N500 billion SURE-P funds was missing.
He was said to have held the belief that an institution like National Assembly should not be seen speculating about national finances, especially where it has the statutory powers to get the right information.
“Frequent National Assembly harassment is what forced the respected Boardroom specialist to quit,” said a source who confirmed that the man got the impression that some forces were out to rubbish anyone connected with SURE-P.
It was however gathered that Dr. Kolade was happy that he had left a solid structure in the SURE-P, adding that the intervention credited to the fund are traceable and largely fraud-proof.
Letter to the Presidency
“I wish to inform you, respectfully, of my decision to resign from the position of Chairman of the SURE-P Committee.
“My desire is that the resignation should take effect as soon as Mr. President names a new chairman, but not later than the end of November, 2013.


“Mr. President, it has been a worthwhile experience for me to serve as chairman since the inauguration of the committee in February 2012. However, as I approach my 81st birthday, I wish to retire from the more time and energy consuming parts of my responsibilities and activities, one of which is the SURE-P Committee chairmanship.
“Mr. President, please accept my sincere thanks and appreciation for the opportunity to serve in the position of chairman, as well as my prayers for good progress and success for Nigeria in the years ahead.”
Kolade had stated that although he is still mentally and physically fit, time has come for him to attend to his private life and his family.
Shedding more light on why he chose to bow out at this time, the former Chairman of Cadbury Plc told reportedly said, “As at the time I was asked to come and take charge of the SURE-P, on the day that the President spoke to me, I was a few days away from my 79th birthday. So at the end of last year, I was 80 years old. I thank God that I’m strong, and in good health and my simple mind is still ticking, but there comes a time when you are at my age that you ask yourself, is this what you should be doing now? Should you be spending your time at this moment fighting rumours and trying to explain the same information many times?
“So, middle of this year, I went to the President and said to him, I want to leave but if you remember my deputy chairman then, Mamman Kontagora had just died. So the President now agreed that he would appoint another Deputy chairman and that I would work with this Deputy chairman for a while so that the place is not suddenly empty. The Deputy chairman dies, the chairman goes but that is what we have been working on and I have actually written a letter to the President to let him know that latest, at the end of this month, I’m out of SURE-P. So, he has that letter.”
The respected administrator added that he decided to make his planned exit public in order to prevent another round of rumour.
“We feed on rumours and both in my family and in my religion, they don’t like rumours. The letter was dated September 25, 2013. So if you hear or if rumour begins to indicate that I’m leaving, I want you to know that members of my Committee already know that I’m going. So, it’s not a secret.