Christopher Kolade resigns as SURE-P Chairman

Chairman of the Subsidy Re- investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Dr. Christopher Kolade, has resigned.

The former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, said he was leaving at the end of this month before his 81st birthday, which comes up in December.

Recall that Kolade’s Deputy, Major- General Mammam Kontagora (rtd), who would have replaced him, died in May this year.

The development means that the presidency must come up with replacement to fill the two positions in a matter of days.

The letter which conveyed the outgoing chairman’s message dated September 25 and entitled ‘Withdrawal from Chairmanship of the SURE-P Committee’ reads: “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 THISDAY: “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.”