The above is the expected and anticipated response from any objective
Nigerian on how well the instituted Presidential Amnesty Programme is
doing sef?
The sole Objective of the programme remains to Disarm, Demobilize & Reintegrate the Ex-Agitators into useful and resourceful citizens of the Federal Republic.
Prior to this, it is worthy of Note that the activities of these Ex-Agitators pinched hard on the Nation’s Economy, International Image and Security. As cases of kidnaps and hostilities were rampant thereby disturbing the activities of Oil Exploration which remains Nigeria’s sole Economic mainstay over time.
As the resounding Testimonies of the programme keeps pouring in daily, and as such debunking the earlier claims and criticisms of pessimists who never saw "LIGHT" @ End of the Tunnel of the Presidential Amnesty Programme even prior to its Inauguration in 2009/2010.
As Facts shows that the Nation has enjoyed an overwhelming production of Oil, reaching an all time 2.4 Million Barrels daily as against the epileptic 700,000 daily production owing to the hostilities in the Niger Delta region.
Though the programme has met series of embargoes and brick walls lately, yet it has continued to thrive with maximum support from President GOODLUCK JONATHAN who is committed in maintaing the reigning PEACE in the Niger Delta Region and also bringing to life the true Dividends of DEMOCRACY to Nigerians.
Below is a interview excerpt on the journey to far with the Special
Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and also the Chairman of the
Presidential Amnbesty Programme. Hon. Kingsley KUKU
-Mary Oyibocha-Agbajoh
Mr. Kingsley Kuku is Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta
and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. He speaks on the
successes, challenges, and post-2015 fate of the five-year
amnesty programme pronounced by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
on June 25, 2009, which has been implemented since 2010. Kuku says the
amnesty programme has discharged its mandate
and calls on other relevant federal government agencies to keep their
parts of the amnesty deal.
He also bemoans the endless appearance of Ex-militants in the Niger
Delta seeking inclusion in the amnesty programme, saying this could
doom both the programme and peace in the region, in this recent
interactive session with journalists in Lagos. Vincent Obia brings the
excerpts:
What is the update on the amnesty for Niger Delta armed agitators
proclaimed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2009?
At the end of the deadline, 20, 192 persons came out from the various
states, various camps in the Niger Delta, led by leaders like Chief
Tompolo, Chief Ateke Tom, Boy Loaf, Fara Dagogo, and so many
ex-agitation leaders.
We have said it severally that the acceptance of this offer was
voluntary and government entered into a contract with those who
accepted this offer by promising a proper and non-forceful DDR
programme. By DDR I’m talking about Disarmament, Demobilisation,
Rehabilitation or Reintegration of those who accept the offer of
amnesty.
What is the extent of implementation of the DDR?
As I’m taking to you, the entire 20, 192 persons, being the first
phase, the original phase of the presidential amnesty programme, have
been disarmed; they have also been demobilised at Obubra in Cross
River State.
We are at the reintegration phase, the last arm of the DDR exercise
for the 20, 192.
As we were going on with this programme, the successes of the
programme have turned out to be the points of agitation by those who
were no involved from day one. And it pushed us to a realm where more
Niger Delta youths, more persons in the Niger Delta agitated,
demonstrated. They blocked the East-West road, came to Abuja,
demonstrated and claimed to have been part of the Niger Delta
agitation, to have been ex-militants, ex-agitators who didn’t believe
in the 60 days grace period and its implications and that now believed
that the programme was real and they must be accommodated.
How did government react to these fresh demands?
The federal government in October 2010 added 6, 166 ex-agitators whose
arms and ammunitions were collected and received by the JTF and other
security agencies in the Niger Delta, pushing the total number by the
end of December 2010 to 26, 358 ex-agitators in the presidential
amnesty programme.
A few of us thought that was going to be the end of the programme and
we were going to have the opportunity to consolidate, concentrate on
what we are going to do in the realm of reintegration. Again, the 6,
166 ex-agitators of what we would later call the second phase of the
amnesty programme, have been disarmed, they have also been
demobilised. We will reintegrate them at the time we are through with
the first phase, so that the last will not become the first in terms
of those that will benefit in this programme.
Are there any further agitations for inclusion in the amnesty programme?
Surprisingly, security agencies in the Niger Delta, again, have come
up with scenarios of receipt of further arms and ammunitions from
youths in the Niger Delta, who as far as I am concerned are claiming
to be part of the Niger Delta agitation. It gives us a sense of an
unending disarmament programme, which is not in tandem with the spirit
of those of us who planned the amnesty programme when General Godwin
Abbe was made chairman of the first presidential amnesty committee.
The terminal nature of this programme was made very clear, from 2010
to 2015. A five-year presidential amnesty plan was approved. So the
programme we are running is not unending, it’s a terminal programme;
it has to terminate come 2015. That is going to be the end of the five
years plan date.
Is there room for a review?
However, the country has a responsibility to x-ray and review the
programme at the terminal date and see its relevance in terms of
continuity in the country or whether we would be able to find
alternative existing or statutory government platforms to continue the
projects the amnesty programme has started, if not ended. Because a
situation where the amnesty programme would have a few people left in
2015 has nothing to do with disarmament or demobilisation. It’s going
to be in the realm of reintegration.
What would be the fate of persons whose programmes under the amnesty
scheme continue beyond 2015?
Imagine that you sent somebody to the university this year on the
platform of this programme and the person’s university education is
going to last four years. Already you know that from 2013 he is going
to finish his university education in 2017. Should we because of that
say that the amnesty programme must continue in the name of those who
are going to be in the university at the time?
We do believe that government is a continuum. There are other MDAs of
government, which are also doing scholarship programmes. In our own
wisdom, if we are through with the skills acquisition programme for
those who are not in longer programmes, those in educational
programmes that are entitled to longer benefits in terms of four or
five years education programme, can be inherited by the PTDF or other
government agencies, even the Federal Ministry of Education.
Scholarship boards can inherit them for us to comply with the terminal
date of 2015 for the presidential amnesty programme.
Nigerians must know that this programme is meant to end 2015. The
Niger Delta people and the youths in the Niger Delta must know. Those
in governance, in oil and gas policy-making machinery must know that
this amnesty programme is planned to end 2015. It cannot remain
unending, where every unemployed youth or group of women can wake up
the next morning and call themselves a name and block the East-West
road, Abuja road, and agitate to be included in an unending programme,
whether you are entitled to it or not.
Until we are able to make Nigerians understand that this is the way
this programme is, the sanctity of this programme will be
misunderstood. People will begin to misinterpret the intent of
government with respect to this programme. As one of the planners of
this programme, I cannot kill this truth. We must continue to tell
Nigerians this truth. It is in the light of that spirit of ending this
programme in 2015 that we are continuing with our reintegration
programme and the demobilisation programme.
What happens to those who have submitted arms to the military
authorities after the second phase of the amnesty programme?
The JTF and other security agencies have come up with another
compilation of names who claim to have submitted arms as ex-militants
in the Niger Delta. And today, the federal government has instituted
an investigation panel led by Air Vice Marshal Gbun, supported by many
military and police officers, with a few civil critical minds. They
are moving down to the Niger Delta with the military and security
formations in the region to verify the claims of submission. If today,
a group of youths say they have submitted 1, 000 AK47 rifles, the Gbun
taskforce, which we call interagency taskforce, must verify the truism
behind the physical existence of this 1, 000 AK47s claimed to have
been submitted by these youths in the Niger Delta. If that is
verified, they must physically transmit them to the 82 Division of the
Nigerian Army in Enugu, where we will physically destroy these arms
and ammunitions. Because the ones the federal government collected in
the phase one and phase two of the programme have been physically
destroyed at Enugu.
Do you think there would be an end to the receipt and destruction of
weapons from repentant armed groups?
I was privileged at the time to have been appointed special adviser to
the president and chairman of the presidential amnesty programme. And
I actually on behalf of Mr. President participated in the destruction
exercise at a community called Ukpanta in Enugu State. This exactly
will be done to these arms and ammunitions if found to be true as
claimed by the security agencies. If it is true that they have
disarmed and these arms and ammunitions are being collected, an
additional 3, 642 ex-agitators would be added. And as far as the
presidential amnesty programme is concerned, and as far as Mr.
President is concerned, that is the final phase of the presidential
amnesty programme in terms of inclusion. But the amnesty programme is
not a platform to engage or empower every non-ex-militant, unemployed
youth, woman or man in the Niger Delta.
How can the pressure on the amnesty programme from unemployed youths
in the Niger Delta be dealt with?
Suffice to say here that as of 2009, oil production was as low as 680,
000 barrels per day. Allocations to states in the Niger Delta were
that low. Now peace has returned, facilities are safe. Oil and gas
production are on the increase. The amnesty programme has been able to
come up with an additional two million barrels per day, talking from
2009 to date. The Niger Delta states are getting more money from the
Federation Account, accruing from increase in production.
The question is, must every Niger Delta youth be made to accept to be
called an ex-militant to be trained, or be included in the amnesty
programme to be engaged? No.
It is the belief of the presidential amnesty programme that the states
of the Niger Delta must constitute alternative youth empowerment,
women and locals engagement programmes in their various states and
stop youths who do not have rights to claim of militancy or agitation,
which ended with the amnesty programme on October 4, 2009 with the
addition made in October 2010.
May it end today and let the states take responsibility for youths,
women and young men in their various states in terms of providing
platforms of engagement and empowerment. This is the only way the
amnesty programme would survive, even till 2015.
What would be the repercussion of persistent agitation for inclusion
in the amnesty programme?
If we continue to open the East-West road to demonstrators in the name
of calling themselves, illegally, ex-militants and forcing the hand of
government to include them in the amnesty programme, security agencies
in the Niger Delta would be looking at them because of possible
complicity, then we are heading for doom even with the presidential
amnesty programme. And when that happens, the Niger Delta would boil
again. Production will come down and definitely, state allocations
will be down again. The Niger Delta will be back to abyss. Nigeria
will suffer more. This is the relevance of the programme we are
running.
How would you evaluate the disposition of the National Assembly to the
amnesty programme?
The leadership of the National Assembly and the members who do know
and value the relevance of this programme have given enough support to
it. We want to use this medium to thank members of the National
Assembly, the president of the senate and the leadership, speaker of
the House of Representatives and the leadership, chairmen of the House
and Senate committees who have done so well to give basic support to
the amnesty programme, knowing fully the relevance and contribution
the programme’s success is making to the growth and development of
this country.
Does the amnesty programme have a mandate for security in the Niger Delta?
We do need to state here that the amnesty programme, the way it is
being managed, has nothing to do with securing the Niger Delta, from
planning to execution. The mandate is meant to stabilize
-@MOAgbajoh
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