Appraising The N’Delta Amnesty

Inscribed on the T-shirts spotted by most officials at the post-Amnesty Camp in Obubra, Cross River is the phrase: “Amnesty Works”.

The inscription aptly reflects the popular sentiment that the Amnesty Programme, initiated by the Federal Government for ex-militants of the resource-rich Niger Delta region, has been largely successful.

On October 4, it was exactly two years of the inception of the programme, conceived by late President Umaru Yar’Adua, to address youth restiveness in the region.

The militants of the region had provoked serious security breaches, while dislocating the nation’s crude oil exploration and exports.

Their restiveness, they claimed, rose from the perceived neglect of their region for decades by successive governments, despite the fact that the bulk of the nation’s wealth was derived from there.

Also, they decried environmental degradation of the enclave, which deprived the people of any sustainable means of livelihood.

Over the years, the region lost some of its prominent sons in the struggle for enhanced development of the region, among them were Isaac Adaka Boro and Ken Saro- Wiwa; the latter of who utilized peaceful advocacy to advance his objectives.

In 2009, however, late Yar’ Adua announced amnesty for all militants who voluntarily laid down their arms within a specified period of time. The deal paid off as thousands of militants responded by renouncing violence and surrendering their arms and ammunition to the government.

As a follow-up to the offer, a rehabilitation programmme for the ex-militants took off, while the Federal Government initiated other measures to bring development to the region.

For instance, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was established while activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) were boosted to engender real development in the region.

On September 24, the de-mobilisation and graduation of the last batch — Batch 17 — of the first phase of ex-militants to the camp, involving a total of 20, 192 beneficiaries, was successfully concluded at the Obubra Camp.

President Goodluck Jonathan, represented by Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Ibrahim-Kuchi, declared that the amnesty programme had succeeded well beyond initial expectations.

“I make bold to say that after today’s event, our great country, Nigeria, will be entering the annals of history as one of few countries in the world that achieved a successful closure to the disarmament and demobilisation phases of its Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-integration ( DDR) programme.

According to Jonathan, the programme indeed saw some challenges right from inception. Observers recall that though the presidential amnesty programme had been viewed with some skepticism at the onset, the situation is quite different today, considering the impact it has made on the circumstances of youths in the region.

As attested to by Jonathan, the core essence of the amnesty proclamation was to stabilise,

consolidate and sustain security conditions in the Niger Delta, as a prerequisite for promoting economic development in the area in particular and the nation as a whole.

Though Yar’ Adua died in office after a protracted illness, the programme remained on course, being vigorously prosecuted by Jonathan, his successor.

“Not many believed that the goals of the programme would be met at some point,” recalled Jonathan, who expressed satisfaction that two years after, the programme had aided speedy return of safety, security and sustainable development in the region.

Officials point out that besides the amnesty programme, concrete efforts had been made at physical development of the area such as the intensification of work on several coastal roads, particularly the ever strategic East-West Road.

Mr Kingsley Kuku, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, who is also the co-ordinator of the amnesty programme appraised the  programme, saying that it had achieved eight per cent of its objective.

He described the scheme as home-grown — a “Nigeria-made-amnesty”, being the only DDR programme he knew, which was solely funded by the country of operation.

“We have achieved 80 per cent in this amnesty programme. This is the only DDR programme that is solely funded by the country itself. This is Nigerian-made amnesty.”

Kuku bemoaned the international community’s failure to render any financial support as well as the denial of visas to some beneficiaries by some countries in order for them to undertake certain programmes in their countries.

“I plead with the international community to give support to this programme because crisis in Nigeria is crisis in the world. We need absolute support for this programme.

“The president is giving us adequate funding and it is 100 per cent. 1 charge the ex -militants to be disciplined and orderly as they embark on further training in the country and other parts of the world.

The Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FERN), a non-governmental organization committed to the transformational training on non-violence for the ex-militants, described the programme as “fantastic”.

Its Chairman, Mr Allen Onyema said: “The programme has been fantastic. We thank God for a job well done. This is about the most successful demobilization programme in the whole world, though it was not all that rosy from the start.

“There were fears that the U.N. was not involved; a lot of skepticisms, but we were able to show the world that what we could do competed favourably with those anywhere in the word.

“Till date, not a single shot has been fired in the camp. Al1 20,192 of the ex-militants have laid down their arms and gone through the non-violence stage. They were rowdy at the beginning but after passing through the programme, they behaved normally.”

“We will be going to South Africa to witness the first solo flights of five boys who have passed through this programme. We are very proud of this programme.

Lead Consultant for the Amnesty Programme, Dr. Ferdinand Henry Ikwang capped it all thus: “The story would be very long. 1 would just say that 1 remember the whole thing with nostalgia.

“It has been a long journey and 1 thank God that we have not lost anyone in the process. When we started, many people said that it would not work; but we are happy that we have succeeded to this length.

“We were able to disarm all 20,192 persons and we had a large cache of arms and ammunition, gunboats other explosives. We are happy that nobody lost his life in the whole process. To God be the glory.”

As a matter of fact, officials at the camp said that a comprehensive report of the operations at the camp and by extension, the success story of the amnesty programme, had been compiled to be availed the President.

Though the camp shut down temporarily for a break, it has prepared again to host another batch of 6, 160 ex -militants who formed part of the supplementary list to be integrated into the programme.

In retrospect, Ikwang said that officials involved in the programme had worked with passion to make it work, besides the fact that they were mostly from the region and so, was in their ultimate interest to make the programme a success.

“Everybody who is involved in this programme is either from the Niger Delta or part of the struggle or a Nigerian. We had to make it work.”

He praised the sincerity and commitment of late Yar’ Adua to the programme, stressing that it was not approached like any other programme that was laced with politicking.

“But once the ex-militant leaders started responding everybody came out. So, it was not that we on the government side did not believe that we could make it work. There was absolute sincerity on the part of government.”

Ikwang, nonetheless, admitted that the DDR is not an entire solution to the Niger Delta problem. “It is just the beginning of people agreeing to sit down to find a solution to a particular problem. DDR is an entry point and the entry point is that we have entered into the Niger Delta to find out what the problem is.

“What we have done is to initiate the process of healing the Niger Delta. In five years’ time when these boys would come back, we would actually see the impact of what is happening today,” he said.

No doubt, the amnesty programme has made many gains, though there is still room for further improvements.

Effiong writes for News Agency of Nigeria.

Dianabasi Effiong