T he founding of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in 2009 was based on the need to restore stability to communities in the Niger Delta where protest activity had generated endemic instability. President Umaru Musa Yar’adua discerned that the cause of this instability was dissatisfaction provoked by the people of the territory’s disenchantment with the national authority’s apparent disregard of their plight. Prominent among the complaints made by the people of the Niger Delta is the inability of the youth to find gainful employment in the country or anywhere else because of the lack of opportunities or adequate professional training.
As a result, those entrusted with implementing and managing the affairs of the Amnesty Programme were mandated to conceive and design programmes that will address the issues about, and provide solutions to, the main problems identified by the people. Having lasted for nearly fourteen years the PAP has evolved into being regarded as one of the most viable intervention agencies that operates in the Niger Delta. In this wise the decision by the Buhari-led APC Federal Government to strengthen the job creation faculties of the programme is particularly appropriate as a response to the wishes of the Niger Delta people.
First Class graduates from the Maritime University in Delta State
Many knowledgeable analysts have expressed support for and willingness to cooperate with plans announced by the new Interim Administrator retired Major General Barry T. Ndiomu to enhance that mandate, as he has embarked on consolidation of some of the programmes which were initiated by previous administrations. His approach to this task has been to operate as if having been appointed to ensure that the original objectives of the PAP are realised the major objective will be to establish lasting legacies for the peoples of the Niger Delta. To this end within the first six months of his having taken up office he instituted a full-scale review of the initiatives and policies put in place by his predecessors. This enabled him to determine how best to sanitise the data base of the organisation and restore credibility to its operations. Having achieved that he also initiated a review of the financial obligations of the organisation especially its indebtedness so that it could execute its professional commitments in a credible manner.
The basic objective of PAP’s training projects is to optimize the relevant curricula of five vocational training centres which are strategically located in five core states of the Niger Delta, and the resuscitation of these institutions will provide the basic legacy that PAP is being reorganized to implement. The location of the five vocational centres illustrates the reach which those who designed the Amnesty Programme intended it to deploy when serving the target area. One centre is situated at the historic town of Kaiama, in the section which has been given the name Boro Town as a memorial tribute to the revolutionary hero Isaac Adaka Boro. Although that centre had suffered some damage when local people, angry over the delay in the commencement of its operations, looted its equipment General Ndiomu has engaged professional experts to restore it to operational readiness.
The Boro Town Vocational Training Centre will provide basic general technical skills for several participants. At Harry’s Town in Degema Local Government Area close to Port Harcourt in Rivers State there is a vocational centre devoted to running a programme of maritime skills designed by special experts, At Agadagba Obon in Ondo State the vocational centre will train participants in special skills for the oil and gas industry. Another vocational training centre is located at Bomadi in Delta State and is charged with developing comprehensive training for technicians in the electric power industry. A vocational training centre at Gelegele in Edo State will provide training in agricultural skills. While all these centres and their strategic locations were established and chosen by his predecessors the commencement of their operations were delayed. The Interim Administrator regards this delay as an emergency and as a result he has devised an innovative solution to the problem of getting them started. Within a few weeks of taking office General Ndiomu initiated a series of detailed discussions with specialist agencies and educational bodies that will serve as partners of PAP to provide credible courses of study at these centres and run them as autonomous institutions.
For example, he has held comprehensive discussions with the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria {NAPTIN) which will eventually result in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for it to run the Bomadi Centre. Plans are already in place to make the oil and gas centre in Agadagba Obon operate as a full-fledged affiliate of a major tertiary institution in the region that specializes in oil and gas studies. The objective of this strategy devised by the Interim administrator is not only to revive the training programmes that had been conceived by his predecessors but also to make sure that these centres became facilities that will turn out a body of skilled young people who can find meaningful employment not only at home but also abroad. The new Interim Administrator’s vision of resuscitating the programme of vocational training is part of an integral reform programme meant to make the original purpose of the PAP bear fruit for the communities of the Niger Delta in a holistic manner. The major objective appears to be to rehabilitate the youth who had mounted protests against marginalization and economic exploitation rather than to punish them. In order to ensure that the impact of the amnesty project will touch the lives of the majority of people in the Niger Delta General Ndiomu and his team have conceived the Sustainable Commercial Agriculture Development Initiative (SCADI).
This initiative will promote cooperative endeavours in partnership with private sector elements in the communities to increase economic profitability in the society. The management of PAP have been engaged in enlightenment exercises to inform stakeholders of the details of this initiative and how it will improve living standards in the territory. As a result, after a recent meeting in Yenagoa which was convened to explain the concept and operative programme of the Cooperative societies being initiated by PAP the delegates released a comprehensive statement of support for the concept. They expressed the wish that all people of goodwill in the territory will support the initiative. The major objective of the SCADI is to ensure that the average citizens in the Niger Delta can enhance their daily existence with support from PAP intervention in the agricultural sector and thus ensure that economic circumstances of the communities will improve comprehensively. This will strengthen public support for the PAP initiative throughout the Niger Delta.
