Core Aims Of The Establishment Of PAP & Achievements Of The Current Interim Administrator

By Preye Bagou

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was a brilliant idea and vision initiated and signed into law by Late President Umaru Yar’Adua on the 25th of June, 2009, to tackle youth restiveness, militancy and obstruction of oil exploration in oil producing communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The presidential amnesty programme was primarily designed to pursue the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of the militants into entrepreneurs or employable citizens who will become net contributors to the economy through effective collaboration with relevant public and private institutions and state governments in the region.

Disarmament Of Ex-Agitators.

Repentant militants from the Niger Delta region voluntarily surrendered their weapons to the federal government in 2009 for peace and stability in the region for oil exploration. Arms and ammunition from over 29,000 ex-militants were recovered.

Demobilization Of Ex-Agitators.

Essential informations on the background and stations of the disarmed ex-militants were collected. They were then counseled, trained, documented and were enrolled into the presidential amnesty programme with a welfare stipend of sixty five thousand naira (N65,000.00) monthly.

Reintegration Of Ex-Agitators.

It was the mandate of the federal government under the programme to reintegrate beneficiaries fully into the society after training and empowering them to the status of entrepreneurs or employable citizens who will become net contributors to the economy of the Niger Delta region.

The presidential amnesty programme was designed to engage ex-militants and youths from the impacted communities in formal education, vocational skills acquisition, scholarship and empowerment schemes to be entrepreneurs or employable citizens in public and private institutions.

The presidential amnesty programme shall be responsive to the hopes and aspirations of the ex-agitators and youths of the impacted communities of the Niger Delta for sustainable peace, stability, security and socio-economic growth and development of the region.

However, the people of the Niger Delta must understand that the presidential amnesty programme was initially designed to be terminated by the end of December, 2015. In essence, the programme has elapsed the initial time-frame for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of the ex-agitators.

But the federal government was magnanimous in extending the programme for more few years, with proper consideration of the unattained reintegration of the ex-agitators as entrepreneurs or employable citizens into public and private institutions, as it was initially designed for.

It is important to note that the programme has not achieved the core objectives and requisite result due to managerial deficiencies in previous administrations, irregularities and other unforseen economic factors that affected the completion of the programme.

Achievements Of The Current Interim Administrator.

The current interim administrator, Maj-General Barry Ndiomu (retd), has made deliberate tremendous efforts and contributions in restructuring the presidential amnesty programme towards achieving the core objectives of the establishment of the programme since assumption in office.

Immediately after few months in office, Ndiomu set up an internal audit and verification committee to correct abnormalities and irregularities in the presidential amnesty programme by carrying out a verification exercise, which resolved issues of multiple accounts linked to a single Bank Verification Number (BVN).

The verification committee was also charged with the responsibility of getting the bio-data of the total number of beneficiaries including the total number of scholarship students onshore, offshore and the actual cost of funding monthly stipends, scholarships, trainings of beneficiaries of the programme.

The interim administrator verification exercise that birthed the single bank account of beneficiaries and direct bank payment of beneficiaries monthly stipends of the presidential amnesty programme, curbed a lot of challenges experienced by beneficiaries of the programme in previous administrations.

Maj-General Ndiomu as a man of intellect, wisdom and competence, held meetings with ex-agitators, traditional leaders and political leaders including courtesy visits to state governors of the Niger Delta to identify challenges of the programme with the sole purpose of achieving the core objectives of the programme.

He further collaborated with different federal security agencies, ranging from the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps etc, with the sole purpose of absorbing trained beneficiaries to be gainfully employed in public and private institutions across boards.

The presidential amnesty programme under the current administrator has moved from a focused welfare programme to proper engagement of teeming youths of the Niger Delta region in the aviation sector in local and international institutions through the scheme, Aviation Resuscitation Program for Cadet Pilots and Aircraft Maintenance Engineers.

Cooperative Initiative/Scheme.

The presidential amnesty programme under the visionary and competent leadership of the current interim administrator, Maj-General Barry Ndiomu launched a N1.5 billion cooperative scheme to empower business-minded ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region.

The scheme called Presidential Amnesty Programme Cooperative Society Limited (PAPCOSOL) was designed to create a more viable means to improve the standard of living of ex-agitators of the programme, as part of what the programme was designed for.

The cooperative scheme was initiated and launched to encourage the ex-agitators to engage in more sustainable means of livelihood, rather than solely depending on the monthly stipend of N65,000, which offices has been established in Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers States, and will be managed by an advisory board.

The Ndiomu’s cooperative initiative is considered as the best practical approach towards ensuring the sustainable reintegration of ex-agitators, which will be serviced with a monthly sum of N500 million, that will be focused mainly in agriculture and manufacturing.

The beneficiaries will be provided with the requisite technical support and guidance from the presidential amnesty office on business ideas to creatively, innovatively, effectively and productively employ the funds that will be accrued to them, in order to avoid wastage of the funds.

Despite the distractions of protests and defaming publications against the amnesty boss, Ndiomu has remained resolute and unwaveringly committed to the ideals of the presidential amnesty programme with the sole purpose of achieving the core objectives of the programme for the benefit of the Niger Delta.

Holistically, the presidential amnesty programme has a total number of three thousand four hundred and fifty (3,450) ex-agitators and youths from the impacted communities. Over two thousand beneficiaries of the programme has been trained in vocational skills acquisition and scholarship schemes.

Unarguably, the programme has been improved tremendously under the current interim administrator, as a result of his proactive, creative, innovative and result-oriented steps in reforming and transforming the programme for the attainment of the core objectives of the programme.

The interim administrator, Maj-General Barry Ndiomu (Retd), has made tremendous efforts and steps in reforming, transforming and restructuring the presidential amnesty programme, which improved the programme for the attainment of the core objectives of the programme.

The programme will continue to make progress and attainment of the core objectives, if ex-agitators, beneficiaries of the impacted communities, traditional leaders, political actors work closely with the current interim administrator, Maj-General Barry Ndiomu (Retd).

Special Presidential Social Intervention Agency (SPSIA).

The Special Presidential Social Intervention Agency (SPSIA) will be an alternative of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), which will further address challenges facing the people of the oil-producing Niger Delta region.

To further address the issues of the Niger Delta, Ndiomu proposed a more reliable and sustainable social intervention scheme to the federal government, which will further build and strengthen sustainable peace, stability, security, socio-economic growth and development in the region.

The Special Presidential Social Intervention Agency is designed to be funded by the federal government and requisite contribution from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Niger Delta Development Commission, IOCs etc, which will be supervised by a Special Assistant to the President.

The termination of the presidential amnesty programme will create further unrest in the Niger Delta, the Special Presidential Social Intervention Agency will curb challenges that will arise from the termination of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

The core objective is to further address youth restiveness, militancy and other social vices in the Niger Delta, as the major oil-producing region in the country, which contributes a large percentage of the country’s economy and national income.

Let’s continue to support and work closely with the current interim administrator of the presidential amnesty programme in addressing the challenges facing the people of the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.