An appraisal of the state fund and empowerment programme in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper presents an appraisal of the Goodluck Jonathan’s policy on Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). Distributive politics is one of the most important and controversial aspects of the policy chain. In the Nigerian nation, more than anything else, the greatest obstacle to the nascent democracy is the pervasive insecurity of lives and property as evidenced by the spate of armed robbery attacks, political assassinations, and poor power distribution coupled with the seeming helplessness of security agencies to handle criminal acts. The situation is worsened by the increasing number of unemployed Nigerians some of whom are ready recruits for criminal activities. The above statement from an editorial comment by a national daily in Nigeria indeed epitomizes the central focus of this paper, the aim of which is to analyze the nexus between democratic nurturing, sustenance and eventually consolidation via-a-vis the battles with one of the major ills of the Nigerian nation. Fifty-two years after independence, Nigeria still battles with one of the major fall-outs of democratic dispensation: the politics of trying to appease all sectors of the polity. This paper highlights and assesses the nature, quality and value of particular issues and matters that have dominated the Nigerian federal polity and which have created untold unpleasant experiences and pains at one point or the other since independence. The SURE-P programme is aimed at alleviating the suffering of the teaming youths in Nigeria, especially those that was affected by the oil-spillage and jobless youths. However, the research employed as a focal point, a unique data to explain the implementation of the SURE-P programme. The paper painstakingly appraises many of these issues and concludes that all stakeholders in the federal polity should thread softly, be objective, rational, altruistic and magnanimous in order not to make the existence of true federalism (social, political and economic cohesive existence of the people, peace and tranquility) a fleeting illusion and a mirage. It also focuses on critical analysis of the SURE-P programme of the immediate past President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Keywords: Political, Democracy, Corruption, Society, Nigeria, State