Amnesty programme: Has it worked?

Kingsley Kuku, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme

It is close to three years that the Niger Delta militants were granted amnesty by former President Umaru Yar’Adua; the programme has, however, come under knocks for its poor implementation. EMMANUEL ADENIYI looks at the programme, its grey areas and calls for its review.

If the report recently released by the Bergen Risk Solutions, a Norwegian risk analysis firm, on the security situation and amnesty programme in Nigeria is anything to go by, the era of ex-militants returning to the creeks may soon resurface.

The programme, which took off  as a palliative measure to engage the Niger Delta militants in productive activities following their incessant bombing of oil facilities and kidnapping in the region, has been described in various ways.

To the government, amnesty programme is a successful disarmament effort ever embarked upon by the government to usher in a new era of peace in the troubled Niger Delta region.

In his comment on the programme, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, the programme is a success in view of the increase in oil production in the region since the ex-militants accepted the olive branch held out to them in 2009.

While speaking recently, Kuku said, “The amnesty proclamation is the sincerest, boldest and most profound effort by any Federal Government of Nigeria since 1960 to address the agitation for fairness, equity and development in the oil-bearing Niger Delta.

“It should be noted that with Nigeria producing between 2.4 and 2.6 million barrels of crude oil per day as against the abysmally low 700,000 barrels per day at the peak of the Niger Delta crisis in January 2009, we are currently making production savings of 1.9 million barrels per day for our beloved country,” he noted.

However, the risk analysis firm (Bergen Risk Solutions), in its report, has said that, “The amnesty is now under massive strain and … could fail within months. Frustration among former militants grows as the amnesty programme fails to generate jobs and infrastructure development fails to materialize.

“The possibility that some former militants will return to violence and sabotage of petroleum infrastructure is increasing as the so called ‘Third Phase Militants’ continue to be denied access to the amnesty programme.

“They are present in all the major oil producing states. However, the clampdown on bunkering in Delta State will likely force them into other forms of criminal activity, such as kidnapping and robberies.”

Already, President Goodluck Jonathan has started bemoaning the rate of oil theft in the country, saying that it is only in Nigeria that oil is stolen. Though he blamed the theft on piracy, insinuation is rife that militants in collaboration with foreigners have helped soar piracy in Niger Delta.

Allegations of deception, abuse, government’s insincerity, tribalism and favourtism are said to have dogged the programme in the recent time, thus forcing many people who had hitherto supported the Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme.

The Itshekiri youths, under the aegis of Itsekiri National Youths Council (INYC), alleged their exemption from the programme. The council in April 2012 petitioned the House of Representatives, claiming that Kingsley Kuku deliberately excluded them from the programme, because of what they termed, “the inter-Ijaw and Itshekiri differences.”

Though, Mr. Kuku has denied this and blamed the exclusion of militants of Ijaw extraction from the programme on lack of proper documentation, declaring that only the president could order their inclusion in the programme, it is still believed that the programme is fraught with tribalism and other malpractices. 

Just in May, 2012, 28 out of 90 ex-combatants returned to Nigeria from South Africa in protest of what they termed, “Federal Government’s insincerity”. They said they had gone to South Africa to undergo training in oil and gas industry, only to get there and start learning bricklaying and carpentry.

Apart from being wasteful, the logic behind the sending of the ex-militants to foreign countries to learn petty vocations, which could be learnt in the country, has come under attack. Also questioned is the non-violence transformational training given to the ex-militants in view of their incessant violent fights either among themselves or their host communities.

An Urhobo chief, Martins Okuipe, said in an interview that the huge resources sunk into giving a new lease of life to the ex-combatants were a waste since the lives of many of them had failed to accommodate the transformation and reintegration effort that informed the programme.

“Most of these ex-militants don’t understand what government is doing for them. All they want is money. Many of them are not trainable; don’t be surprised that they could go back to the creeks fighting.

“Federal Government has wasted its resources because the needed transformation expected to be seen in the lives of these boys is absent. How do you explain their constant clashes at home and abroad? It is not just to train them and give them jobs, they ought to be certified fit in character as well, this I think, is conspicuously absent in them.”  

The Special Adviser to President Umaru Yar’Adua on Niger Delta Affairs, ’Timi Alaibe, in an interview, similarly admitted that there were challenges facing the programme, noting that “the challenges… have to do with the background of some of the militants themselves and the initial process of de-briefing. 

"You may take them abroad, and on arrival find that the individual is not even psychologically prepared and then indulge in negative habits and in the process, they get deported.”

It will be recalled that a couple of months ago, some of the ex-militants studying at Ben Idahosa University, Okada, Edo State, engaged some students of the institution in a violent fight resulting in the loss of lives. 

Same situation also surfaced in Ghana when the ex-combatants trooped to the street protesting the non-payment of their allowance only to end up beating a Ghanaian artisan. The prompt intervention of the Nigerian High commissioner was said to have prevented Ghanaian youths from setting ablaze the hotel where the ex-militants were staying. 

Of importance is the fear that most of the former fighters may not get jobs on the completion of their courses and vocation trainings.

Out of the two batches of ex-militants comprising close to 30,000 youths in 2009 and 2010, only few are being trained in fields with good job prospects. Most of them, however, are said to be undergoing training in areas where they could easily become redundant when they return to Nigeria.

Those being trained in India, South Africa, the Philippines, Russia and many other countries in boat building, under-water welding, seafaring, engineering and ICT, experts have affirmed, could become jobless since few companies that could employ them in the country have gone moribund.

The question of whether the ex-fighters being trained are real militants has also surfaced as many have queried the huge number of the trainees drawn largely from three Niger Delta states of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator  Ita Enang, in a show of his disapproval of the implementation of the programme, recently called on President Goodluck Jonathan to stop further activities on the programme, saying it was unthinkable that many people could be exempted.

“I want to say that I’m not impressed with the amnesty implementation plan as currently carried by out the Presidency, as such I want to call on President Goddluck Jonathan to stop the further implementation of the amnesty plan until Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Edo states are made to benefit from the various training programmes offered the ex-militants.

“Currently, it is only those from Bayelsa, Delta, and a few from Rivers states that have benefited, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Edo states have been left out in the programme,” he revealed.

The above has further reinforced the belief that fake ex-militants may have infiltrated the programme, thereby making it difficult for those who were really involved in the Niger Delta struggle to get a place in the programme.

The third phase militants have also harped on the foregoing to criticize government’s sincerity and the people implementing the programme, claiming that individuals unknown to the struggle were planted in the post-amnesty programme to favour party members.