Office of the Presidential Amnesty Programme has rolled out drums in celebration of the relative peace in the oil creeks of the Niger Delta, saying their fire-fighting efforts helped the Federal Government to haul N7.3 trillion in oil revenue last year.
Owei Lakemfa, Head of Media and Communications for the programme, said in an online statement on Monday that they achieved the feat in concert with other government agencies and Niger Delta people.
Lakemfa said they succeeded in halting the rash of oil facilities vandalism, which led to uninterrupted oil production and the country’s oil earnings in 2017 hitting N7.3 trillion as against N5.68 trillion in 2016.
According to him, ‘’the programme has contributed immensely to human capital development in the oil and gas region with 1,431 graduating under its scholarship scheme from 23 countries including 13 Ph.Ds. and 1, 0600 from universities in the country.’’
For Lakemfa, the management is viewing their efforts as a huge success because, ‘’in a sense, the programme has become a victim of its own success as some Nigerians have come to view it as the body that should rectify the age-long challenges of the Niger Delta and bring development to it.’’
While they welcome criticisms and open to suggestions, the programme’s handlers do not appear to be comfortable that critics are not assessing them based on their mandate.
The Amnesty Office is thumping their chest that they: ended the armed conflict in the Niger Delta which was its primary mandate, established a regular forum with the leaders of the beneficiaries which has ensured effective interaction and communications leading to the peaceful resolution of issues, and engaged the beneficiaries, youths, traditional leaders and representative organisations like the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in continuous dialogue which it claimed is partly responsible for the peace being experienced in the oil region.
Handlers of the programme said despite delays in release of funds, they paid the monthly stipends of the ex-agitators up to last December to ensure peace and stability in the area, pointing out that the outstanding month of January 2018 was due to the fact that this year’s budget is still with the National Assembly.
They boasted that they are up-to-date in the payment of offshore and onshore beneficiaries’ school fees in Europe, United States, Asia, Africa and in the country.
The spokesman stated that the Office is accelerating the final integration stage of the programme by placing emphasis on the empowerment of beneficiaries who have been trained so that they can establish their independent businesses.
Lakemfa posited that “Many ex-agitators are now proud farm owners (owning rice and fish farms, poultry, piggery, snailery) etc. and are employers of labour. Some youths were mobilised to protest against the Amnesty Office based on misinformation and misconception.
“Our mandate does not include the provision of housing or pension to beneficiaries. So, the claim that the Office has failed to fulfill this promise, is baseless since no such agreement or policy was ever made. Our mandate is focused on human capacity development to ensuring a peaceful environment to allow for investment and the development work of other agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme is neither a scholarship scheme nor a mass employment bureau. It is primarily to cater for the 30,000 beneficiaries and some youths from the impacted community who accepted amnesty to work for peace in the Niger Delta.’’