04:40 GMT 21st December 2011
The tortuous journey
JUST OVER two years ago, the historic Amnesty Programme for former armed militants in the Niger Delta came into full effect. As a step towards resolving the protracted insecurity in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced an unconditional amnesty on June 25, 2009. The terms included the militants handing in their weapons by October 4, 2009, and unconditionally renouncing their aggression and signing an undertaking to this effect. In return, the government pledged its commitment to a programme aimed at rehabilitating them and reintegrating them into society.
At the end of the 60-day grace period, 20,192 Niger Delta combatants had surrendered huge caches of arms and ammunitions to the Federal Government. The Federal Government then launched its Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme for those who accepted the amnesty offer. Another 6,166 were added in November 2010 as part of the second phase of the programme.
Before the Amnesty
Currently, Nigeria produces between 2.3 and 2.6 million bpd but by January 2009, militancy in the Niger Delta had virtually crippled oil production. Investment inflow to the upstream sub-sector of the oil industry had significantly dwindled. Exasperated foreign investors began redirecting their investments to more stable business opportunities in Ghana and Angola, the latter surpassing Nigeria as Africa's biggest crude oil producer at the time.
All this posed a threat to Nigeria's capacity to expand its crude oil reserves as planned. The country was targeting 40 billion barrels proven reserves by end of 2010 but this was becoming unrealistic as key operators in the industry made their exit. The sabotage, oil siphoning rackets and kidnappings of oil workers by gunmen began to hit international headlines. To make matters worse, labour unions in the sector organised frequent strikes in protest against the insecure working environment. It got to a point where Nigeria's exports fell to as low as 700,000 bpd. In 2008 alone, it was estimated that Nigeria lost over N3 trillion as a result of militancy in the Niger Delta.
The Amnesty Programme now
In May, the disarmament phase of the Amnesty Programme came to a symbolic closure when the Amnesty Office, in collaboration with the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, publicly destroyed the arms and ammunition that had been handed in two years earlier.
This exercise took place in Lokpanta, a boundary town in Enugu State and was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan. The action was deemed necessary as the stockpile of recovered weapons could easily have been targeted by.
The demobilisation phase
A total of 2,019 former militants successfully passed through Amnesty Demobilisation Camp in the first phase of the programme, which was overseen by the President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, and involved experts from Nigeria, South Africa and the US.
The ex-agitators were demobilised in batches and the final of 616 batch left the camp in Obubra, Cross River State, on September 24. With that, Nigeria entered the history books as one of the few countries in the world that achieved a successful closure to the disarmament and demobilisation phases of its DDR programme.
Reintergration
Following the completion of their non-violence training and career classification in the camp, the Amnesty Office has successfully placed a total of 5,349 former combatants in skills acquisition/ training centres as well as in formal education both in the country and abroad.
Others are being processed for placement in reintegration centres.
In all, 3,482 Amnesty Programme's beneficiaries are currently in 77 training centres in the country. The overseas quota thus far is as follows: South Africa, 933; Malaysia, 1 72; Russia, 64; Benin Republic, 42; Israel, 22; Sri Lanka 34; US, 56; India 65; Poland, 21; and The Philippines, 129.
The placement of the trainees in skills acquisition/vocational programmes is based on their expressed interests in areas such as pipeline welding, underwater welding, ocean diving, crane operations, oil drilling, automobile technology, fish farming and entrepreneurship, as well as formal education.
In line with President Jonathan's vision, the Amnesty Office seeks to groom these excombatants to become key players in the emerging economies of the Niger Delta states.
It is hoped that many of these youngsters will, in the coming months, be in positions to play key roles in new construction sites; new town development projects; new railway projects; the oil and gas sector; agriculture and pipeline protection projects.
The involvement of theoil and gas industry
Key operators in the nation's oil and gas industry (OGI) have set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to help in the reintegration of 3,000 of the ex-combatants enrolled in the Amnesty Programme. Using the modules and templates of the Amnesty Office, OGI has deployed about 1,000 trainees to skills acquisition centres across the country based on the classification carried out at the Olubra camp. The Amnesty Office is currently persuading the OGI to train amnesty beneficiaries in their areas of need so that they can easily be absorbed into that sector after graduation.
Challenges and possibilities
• The Amnesty Programme is currently contending with the random emergence of groups of unregistered youths claiming rights to the benefits of the Amnesty package. Although the Amnesty Office has told them they cannot be included in the programme since they neither handed in their weapons nor accepted the offer of amnesty from the Federal Government these explanations have not helped much. The Amnesty Office has asked the security agencies to treat them as a purely security problem.
• Related to this is the fate of the programme's beneficiaries once they have graduated from skills acquisition/ training centres. Indeed 1,066 of them have already graduated from various reintegration centres. On this score, the Amnesty Office is liaising with other agencies of the Federal Government as well as the Niger Delta state governors to work out creative ways of generating employment and empowerment. Collaboration with private sector operators is already yielding fruit as a number of former militants have been offered paid employment.
Other programme hurdles
• Slow-paced processes in effecting deployment of delegates abroad as a result of complexities in funds transfer and immigration matters.
• Lack of specialised training centres incountry for ex-agitators' skills building.
Tributes
As the nation commemorates the start of the Amnesty Programme two years ago, we salute the courage of the chief driver of the programme, His Excellency President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR. It must be recalled that as Vice-President, Dr Jonathan was involved in major negotiations and consultations, which led to the brokering of the peace accord between the Federal Government and the Niger Delta ex-agitators.
At the time, Dr Jonathan defied all security advice and warnings to visit militant-controlled creeks in the Niger Delta, especially the dreaded Camp Five in Delta State. He risked his life and breached all protocols for the sake of negotiating a regional ceasefire to bring about lasting peace.
So today, we salute the courage of President Goodluck Jonathan and also pay tribute to his predecessor, the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who graciously yielded to wise counsel and proclaimed the amnesty on June 25,2009.
We also pay tribute to former chief executives of the Amnesty Programme: MajorGen Godwin Abbe (Rtd) and Chief Timi Alai be for their pioneering roles in both the disarmament and demobilisation phases of the programme. We salute the gallant officers of the Armed Forces of our great country, who have, since its inception in 2009, been offering their services to the programme. We are grateful.
We also applaud the efforts of eminent Nigerians who, for the love of our great country, staked their lives and toured the creeks of the Niger Delta to broker peace and achieve the disarmament component of the Amnesty Programme. The nation is indebted to you all.
Finally, permit me to reiterate my commitment to the vigorous pursuit of the vision of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to bequeath a clean, secure, peaceful and developed Niger Delta region that will eventually assume its place as the oil and gas hub of Africa.
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