The myriad of problems facing the amnesty programme have left a sour taste in the mouth. More worrisome is the fact that the programme has been ingrained in administrative crisis barely a month of the inauguration of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. The cause could partly be the delay in appointing a new coordinator for the programme by the new government, but more importantly, the major problem is lack of institutional focus and discipline on the part of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government in its pursuit of the programme.
Since May 29 handover date to a new government, the public gets besieged by the programme’s challenges such as absence of a coordinator which has recently been solved through the appointment of one by government; the sad issue of over 2,000 ex-militants being thrown out of the Liverpool’s John Moores University and other institutions in the United Kingdom. Also gloomy is the revelation that 13 amnesty trainee pilots have been dropped by Lufthansa following the failure of the Federal Government to pay up their fees, and the issue over N10billion unspent funds in the programme’s coffers, amongst others.
The Amnesty Office is responsible, at government’s expense, for scholarship programmes of ex-militants’ education in countries, including the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Poland, Russia, India, Ukraine and South Africa. It is unfortunate that militants under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua-initiated amnesty programme that commenced in August 2009 have reportedly not been paid their promised monthly stipend in the last three months due to absence of an authorising signatory. Kinsley Kuku, former Special Adviser to the immediate past President Jonathan on Niger Delta, and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), left office with his boss.
The scheme was designed to assuage the militants to lay down their arms. But under the present scenario, most of the ex-militants are reportedly broke, indolent and restive, a development that could put the oil-rich communities, once again, on the edge. President Buhari on his inauguration day stated in his speech that the programme’s December 2015 terminal date, was sacrosanct: “The amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is due to end in December, but the government intends to invest heavily in the projects, and programmes currently in place.’ The evidence on ground is to the contrary so far.
‘It is good that a new administrator has been appointed for the Niger Delta Amnesty Scheme; but the government should forthwith fulfill whatever agreement it had with the ex-militants, notwithstanding the change of guard at the centre. After all, government is a continuum. We call on the new helmsman in the amnesty office to move fast to sort out all the pressing problems’
We appreciate the fact that the government has appointed a new administrator for the amnesty office. We expect positive change to manifest earnestly in all spheres of the amnesty duties. We want to believe that the new appointment was not informed by the perceived veiled threat of Government Ekpemupolo, a.k.a. Tompolo, a notorious militant leader who recently called an aborted meeting of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) ‘ex-generals’ and ‘commandants’. The halted meeting was to discuss the state of the nation in relation to the Niger Delta.
It is good that a new administrator has been appointed for the Niger Delta Amnesty Scheme; but the government should forthwith fulfill whatever agreement it had with the ex-militants, notwithstanding the change of guard at the centre. After all, government is a continuum. We call on the new helmsman in the amnesty office to move fast to sort out all the pressing problems. He should also not run the place like a ‘one-man show. The time has come to discard the free cascading of the Jonathan era by putting in place a proper and sustainable system to run the amnesty programme.
