- The Buhari administration should overhaul the project
At the height of the Niger Delta insurgency between 2008 and 2009, the oil-rich region had descended into utter chaos and anarchy. Apart from the proliferation of arms and daily damaging attacks on the country’s oil facilities, kidnapping, particularly of expatriates was rife and had become a thriving business with humongous amounts being paid for the release of such kidnap victims.
So severe were the consequences of the Niger Delta insurgency that it is estimated that Nigeria’s oil output fell by over 50% and counter insurgency operations were costing the government about $19 million per day.
The Nigerian military launched a full-scale offensive against the militants involving heavy land, water and air bombardments.
While this military effort inflicted a heavy toll on the militants, the collateral damage in terms of innocent lives lost and even more damage done to the environment was extensive.
It was at this point that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in an astute move, offered the militants a 60-day unconditional amnesty for the belligerents to lay down their arms and renounce militancy.
On its part, the Yar’Adua administration promised to institute programmes to assist the disarmament, democratization, demilitarization and the re-integration of the repentant militants in a post-insurgency period.
One of the measures taken by the administration was the payment of rehabilitation assistance to ex-militants who turned a new leaf. For some inexplicable reason, during the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was transformed from a time- bound intervention effort to what has become a permanent and extensive bureaucracy.
Even though he has appointed a new Special Adviser on Niger Delta and coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, Mr Paul Boroh, fears have been expressed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration may wind down the Amnesty Programme as part of its comprehensive plan to sanitize and reduce the costs of governance in the country.
In a recent interview, the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr. Femi Adesina, said Buhari would sustain the Programme only after thoroughly studying the current state of the Amnesty initiative.
According to him, “There are lots of issues about the Programme, which the President is studying. After he has carefully studied them, the package on amnesty will be unfolded.
We cannot agree more. There is the need to critically scrutinize the finances of the PAP as well as undertake a cost-benefit analysis to show if the country is getting value for money with this initiative.
For instance, a report indicates that as at March 2015, only 151 out of the 15,451 graduates from the training programmes have been gainfully employed.
It has also been observed that there is little linkage between the training programmes given the ex-militants and the availability of the suitable jobs they desire in the oil, gas and aviation industries. It is believed too that the monthly stipend of N65,000, which is far above the minimum wage of N18, 000 has demotivated many of the militants from seeking paid employment.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration needs to carry out a holistic evaluation of the previous administrations’ approach to addressing the Niger Delta ecological and developmental crises.
Why, despite the 13% derivation fund accruing to the oil-producing states from the Federation Account, the creation of the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NNDC) as well as the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, is the region still contending with unacceptable levels of poverty, youth unemployment, environmental despoliation and inadequate infrastructure?
Does the existence of multiple bureaucracies to deal with Niger Delta issues not create avenues for corruption, waste and unhealthy rivalry thus ultimately sabotaging the purpose for which they were set up?
