The Presidential Amnesty Programme is obviously proving critics wrong with the gains it has continued to record in line with its mandate.
With the peace in the Niger Delta region, there are no doubts that it is achieving its primary objectives.
That has even birthed economic gains for the country, given that militancy has become a thing of the past.
Today, because of the tranquility in the area,Nigeria has been able to attain the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries ,OPEC, quota of 2.2 million barrel of fuel per day.
This fact was even corroborate by the Coordinator of the scheme, Prof Charles Dokubo, who said the situation got so bad that on a particular day in 2008, Nigeria was only able to produce 700,000 barrels of crude oil.
He added that owing to the success of the amnesty programme, Nigeria is now able to meet its current OPEC quota of 2.2 million barrels per day.
He expressed gratitude to ex-agitators in Niger Delta who have continued to keep the peace in accordance with the pact they entered with the Federal Government after accepting the offer of amnesty.
I find it imperative to quote him at this point.
“I am not saying that the situation has attained perfection or eldorado of sorts. I am only saying that the situation would have been far worse in the region and of course for the economy of our dear country if amnesty programme was not introduced to empower the people of Niger Delta region.”
He called on the people of Niger Delta to take advantage of the programme to empower themselves, stressing that if not properly followed, it will cause the demise of the region.
He announced in appreciation one of the oversee beneficiary ,a girl, Onesirosan Agbajoh who went through the Amnesty Program and made First Class in law in University of San Francisco (USF) California and she has been called to the California Bar. He, however advised that many other training will be done locally but students undergoing professional programmes will still be sent abroad.
He said:”If we do not use this Amnesty Programme to empower ourselves, it will eventually kill us. The benefit is for the Niger Delta people. Some persons want to be permanent Amnesty holder. We have fought very hard for this. We will not let them misuse this opportunity.
“What we generally regard as the Amnesty Programme today is just one component, that is the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, DDR, aspect of a four pronged package that originally constituted the Presidential Amnesty Programme as conceived between the late 2009 and early 2010.
“The amnesty office that I inherited is saddled with only one component of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which is the DDR of 30,000 ex-agitators enlisted in the Amnesty programme.
“Before I assumed office, the disarmament and demobilisation of the ex-agitators had been completed in three phases. I am however, privileged to continue with the very critical reintegration phase of the programme.
“The reintegration phase largely entails providing the ex-agitators with either vocational training or formal education. Of course, there is also the re-insertion part of reintegration, which entails adding processes of returning already Trained Ex-agitators to civil society. The quickest way to achieve this is through provision of jobs to already Trained Delegates.
“I constituted a committee to go through the handover note and departmental briefs that I received from my predecessor with a view to sculpting a work plan to retool the programme and make it more impactful to the direct beneficiaries, the ex-agitators and the Niger Delta at large.
“Out of the 30,000 persons enlisted in the presidential Amnesty Programme, 11,297 persons are still in the queue, waiting to be placed in either vocational training facilities or sent to tertiary institutions for formal education.
“My work is about reintegration, there are a lots of people that have not been reintegrated into the program that is my key job to bring in people so that they can get skilled required and get jobs.
“ I have appointed people who are good in data matters and I believe that they are going to do the best and by next month they will remove all those that are not part of the data.
“For the inclusion to be made possible, it will require budgetary provision and Presidential approval. Liaison offices will be created across all the states of the region.
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- Oyibocha–Agbajoh writes from Abuja
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