Sure-P: Okonjo-Iweala’s Waterloo

on December 02, 2013   /   in Sobowale On Business 12:10 am
By Dele Sobowale
“Every great enterprise starts off with enthusiasm for an exalted aim and ends up bogged down in petty politics”, Charles Peguy, 1873-1914.
But in Nigeria, it almost invariably ends up getting bogged down in colossal corruption. The minute government embarks on a multi-billion naira enterprise the sharp guys devise the plans to subvert it by robbing the programme blind. SURE-P is going the way of National ID Card Scheme, Obasanjo’s $13-16 billion IPP for which we had nothing to show until PHCN was privatized and the National Water Rehabilitation Scheme of another regime.
However, SURE-P is different in one respect – it was so hastily cobbled together, by the Finance Minister,  and full of unattainable goals that the original document was ordered withdrawn by President Jonathan in less than six months. That was after millions of naira had been wasted printing the pamphlets and a multi-media campaign was underway to promote the illusion of progress. It was not Okonjo-Iweala’s finest hour.
The decision to junk the original SURE-P programme was one of the most courageous decisions of the President – given the global profile of the Federal Minister of Finance, Dr Okonjo-Iweala. Unfortunately, for the President and, more so, for the Minister, even what was left was bound to fail to meet the objectives set for it – even if no kobo was stolen. But, unknown amounts of the funds have been stolen already and the Senate might have discovered another whopping misappropriation of SURE-P funds. Corruption being so endemic in the Nigerian system, expecting a multi-billion naira scheme to be corruption free represented the triumph of wishful thinking over historical experience. Now SURE-P is in a mess and that is putting it mildly.

Okonjo-Iweala: Begs for time

Before proceeding, kindly let me remind the reader that as far back as 2011 when SURE-P was announced by a confident, or was it over-confident, Minister of Finance, I had made the following observations; after providing a small catalogue of grandiose government programmes which had failed in the past. Writing under the title: SURE-P: SURELY A DEFECTIVE PROGRAMME, I made the following observations.
“Dr Okonjo-Iweala was also the Minister of Finance in 2004; when the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategies, NEEDS, was launched filled with promises – very few of which were redeemed. One cardinal un-discharged promise related to the launching of NEEDS II. Nobody in government discusses NEEDS I anymore; certainly NEEDS II has been consigned to the dustbin. She was the lead economic manager then as well. She should go and read again what she said in 2004. It might be embarrassing but it would be illuminating – to her. We have learnt our lessons.
Those are actually minor reasons for being skeptical about the new programme, titled, SUBSIDY REINVESTMENT AND EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME (SURE PROGRAMME). The new skepticism is fuelled by SURE itself. The 17-page document, providing the justification for subsidy removal, would be graded D by the most generous Professor of Economics at either Harvard or MIT for several glaring reasons. It contains unpardonable omissions; deliberate or inadvertent and, worst of all, THE FIGURES DON’T ADD UP. In their eagerness to convince Nigerians to swallow the bitter pill of subsidy removal, the Ministers of government and Special Advisers, have sugar-coated the pill beyond reason; it might end up giving us diabetes. It is difficult to believe that they believe those figures themselves. If they do, their individual and collective grasp of figures is not as good as it should be. If they don’t, then, they have demonstrated why Nigerians should continue to distrust government.”
Now, the SURE-P programme is under attack on all fronts. While most Nigerians cannot feel its impact, it is now enmeshed in a looming scandal in connection with what Senators regard as N500 billion missing SURE-P funds.
Top officials of the CBN and the NNPC, which were also fingered as accomplices in this latest national probe were summoned to a Senate Committee hearing but failed to appear prompting Senator Abdul Ningi, one of the longest serving senators to lament that: “Today, again, we sat here glued to our seats for over one hour, awaiting the arrival of the officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or their agents and the Central Bank or their agents”. He went on to add that I have been a member of the National Assembly right from inception in 1999 and I have never seen this kind of impunity and disregard for constituted authority”.
The NNPC, meanwhile, had washed its hands of the missing funds claiming every kobo was paid to the Federation Account, as and when due. That shifts the focus back to the CBN and the Ministry of Finance.
Granted the Minister is not involved in any shady deals. In fact, she is probably one of the few top level officials of this government with personal sound integrity. But, she created SURE-P, very hastily, without adequate controls to minimize the massive embezzlement that follows any major project or programme in Nigeria. Already, the programme is generally perceived as a failure and with its decline in popularity the Minister’s once towering reputation takes a dive also.
To save that reputation, it will not be bad idea if SURE-P is scrapped and replaced with a carefully crafted programme which promises less but delivers most of what is promised. A little success is always preferable to a major failure anytime.