Special Adviser to the President on
Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley
Kuku, has said the Federal Government is finding it difficult to stop
the amnesty programme initiated for ex-militants in the Niger Delta.
He, however, maintained that there was
no going back on the 2015 terminal date for the programme, stressing
that failure to draw the curtain on the initiative could bring about
instability in the region.
The Presidential Amnesty Proclamation was initiated by the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009.
Kuku said, “We are currently battling
with exit strategy challenges. It will be in the best interest of
Nigeria for government to terminate the programme by 2015. If it is not
closed by 2015, it will lose its taste. This is because it will become
an alternative government in the Niger Delta region.”
Kuku, according to a statement by the
Amnesty Office on Wednesday, as a guest lecturer at the 7th Business Law
Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association’s session on Business Law in
Lagos, urged governors in the region to commence youth engagement
programmes that would create empowerment opportunities for the
ex-militants in their respective states.
He said the inability to secure jobs for
the ex-agitators that had been trained in many technical areas relating
to oil and gas may portend more danger for the region. He said these
youths might be tempted to eke out a living from illegal sources.
Kuku added that the gains of the programme could be eroded if the Federal Government failed to close the programme by 2015.
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If there are no jobs for those guys, things will get out of hand oh! Hmmm
ReplyDeleteIf there are no jobs for those guys, things will get out of hand oh! Hmmm
ReplyDeleteIf the millitants after granting amnesty and trained no job have been secured for those boys then the purpose of Niger Delta millitant amnesty instituted by late Musa Yaradua is defeated,null and void especially now that the opposition are heating the polity when 2015 is not even visible for Nigeria democracy headway- God have mercy
ReplyDelete