The Chairman of Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) , Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, has said Nigerians should not expect much performance from the programme with a mere budgetary proposal of N102 billion in 2015.
This is even as he has said that SURE-P might ceased to exist after next year because if a mere N102 billion has been proposed for its programmes for 2015, then in 2016 and beyond there might not be budget, adding “This is the danger of relying on oil”.
At a media interaction/dinner on Monday night in Abuja, Agwai said out of the N268.37 billion in 2014, only the road sector gulped N104 billion, wondering what a mere N102 billion will achieve in the new year.
Agwai, while fielding questions from newsmen at the event, Agwai said, with the dwindling oil price, he expected the media to take on the Coordinating Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on why a paltry sum of N102 billion was allocated to SURE-P considering its achievements since it was set up in 2012.
According to him, “the critical media analysis of the SURE-P implementation procedure and processes, in the almost three years of our existence has helped us to improve on our strategies towards efficient and effective delivery of the SURE-P Mandate. We are grateful to those of you who apart from being critical of the job we are doing took out time to specially proffer very sincere and helpful solutions for our embrace”.
Agwai hailed the fact that through the media, the skepticism over the establishment of SURE-P and it’s benefits to the socio-economic well-being of “our country and the citizenry has abated. This is evident through the judicious use of all of the 41 per cent share of the accrued to the federal government from the partial removal of subsidy on the pump price of petroleum”.
Earlier the Convener Communications SURE-P, Muhammed Garba, who is also the National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said SURE-P’s intervention has brought the rails back to life, restored some major roads in the country, improve the maternal and child mortality rate as well as provide social safety nets to several Nigerians among others.
He said it was deliberate to invite the media for interaction because of the importance of the dissemination of information.
