IT emerged, 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.
Sources confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune 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.
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.”
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.