TEXT OF BRIEFING BY HON. KINGSLEY KUKU, SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT ON NIGER DELTA AND CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY PROGRAMME ON THE OCCASION OF A MEETING WITH SELECTED EDITORS AND SENIOR JOURNALISTS IN LAGOS
My dear friends, before we begin our usual interaction, permit me to speak to you very briefly about two things that I am extremely passionate about: First is the political stability, safety and security of our great country, Nigeria. The second of course is the Presidential Amnesty Programme for former agitators in the Niger Delta.
Having previously been involved in an aspect of media practice myself, I am well aware that for the Editor and indeed every Journalist, it is bad news that is good news. It is bad news that sells the paper or grabs the attention of viewers and listeners to television and radio channels. In fact a good friend of mine who is an Editor in a leading national publication in Nigeria (I will not mention his name), once confided in me that sometimes when he is in a plane and airborne, he silently wishes that the Plane would crash and he would be the lone survivor and uninjured so that he could rush off to break the story! The instinct of the Journalist is unimaginably wild. It is inherent in his training and that is what the job demands. But truly how far should this journalist instinct and license be stretched especially in times of national emergencies? Given our peculiar circumstances today in Nigeria, how far can the Journalist or better still, an Editor truly go? I stand to be corrected, but I know that globally in war times, Journalists exercise a lot caution and indeed put the greatest and best interests of their nation and their long-suffering people first while exercising editorial judgments. That, I dare say is the whole essence of the social responsibility theory of the mass media or mass communication.
Gentlemen of the Press, the truth is that an overwhelming majority of Nigerians grossly underrate what President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been going thorough since he assumed office as the President of Nigeria. It will not be an exaggeration to assert that this President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, is a wartime President who is saddled with security challenges that were planted, watered and nurtured by the ineptitude and tardiness of successive past leaderships in this country both at the Federal and State levels. For example, it is not my intention to bore you with the history of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram. As seasoned Journalists, I know you all know how that monster was created and nurtured. It smacks of crass insincerity or even a chronic case of selective amnesia for anyone to suggest that President Jonathan has not given the war on terror, as now epitomized by Boko Haram and its affiliates, his very best since assuming Office. Being a true, caring and sensitive leader, President Jonathan never for once balked at the arduous task of confronting head-on this colossal problem that germinated, grew and festered under his predecessors. What this President has refused to do is to allow the spilling of the blood of innocent persons in the guise of chasing Boko Haram militants. Mr. President has rightly cited the example of the confrontation of former militant agitators in the Niger Delta and the military. While men of the Armed forces raised down communities in Niger Delta and killed innocent women and children several of the key militant leaders survived. Today many of them are alive and enrolled in the Amnesty Programme. The very humane President we have today has adopted a scientific, sophisticated and pragmatic approach that is yielding results.
The truth of the matter is that the Boko haram insurgency should not be regarded as just the problem of the north or even just Nigeria’s problem. It is a global problem that deserves collective effort to confront and defeat.
In a nutshell, Gentlemen of the Press, I hold the view that President Goodluck Jonathan deserves commendation for his war against terror, against persons who seek to ruin our economy, sow the seed of discord, sectionalism and hatred so as to make our nation ungovernable. Given my close collaboration with the nation’s security agencies and of course the Office of the National Security Adviser, I am convinced that but for the pragmatic approach of this President in the war against terror, Boko Haram and their sponsors would have since succeeded in either pushing this beautiful country into another civil war or out-rightly breaking it up. It is true that poverty, illiteracy and underdevelopment have aided the festering sore called terrorism. President Jonathan is very conscious of this fact and has said so himself severally. He is poised to clean up the mess that he inherited from successive past governments but how is he supposed to that if his best efforts are either being sabotaged or being mercilessly criticized especially by persons who ought to know better and persons who did nothing to stem this ugly tide when they had the opportunity to do so. This, I insist, is where the media and our dear Editors come in. Like all of us are aware, a Reporter or Correspondent is only as good as his source or sources of information. For the interest of our dear nation, our children and generations yet unborn, I think it is about time we began to query many of our sources, particularly those sources that seek at all times to score cheap political points by portraying the President as either “weak” or “clueless”. Whose side are they really on? Why will any right thinking Nigerian want to seek to score cheap political point with the on-going war against confirmed terrorists who are all too poised to exterminate our people, ruin our economy and destroy our beautiful country. The role the media must play at this crucial time can never be over emphasized. For the sake of our beloved nation and its millions of extremely gifted and resourceful people, I urge you my dear Editors not to yield your front pages and lead stories to persons who masquerade as critics, NGO’s or ‘opposition’ politicians to consciously or unconsciously offer ammunition to persons who want to burn this country. Let us defend our country, lets hold tenaciously to our heritage as one of the greatest nations on the African continent.
Permit me gentlemen of the Press, to reiterate the position of His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, that 2013 will be a good year for our beloved country. I am not merely echoing Mr. President but I am reaffirming this promise based on the information and irrevocable facts that are at my disposal, given my current position as one of his Advisers. Like the President already said, the objective of the Federal Government in 2013 is to ensure by all possible means that more of the Programmes and projects envisioned by the administration, and which are already being embarked upon are further brought on stream within the next 12 months to meet the yearnings of our people, and raise their quality of life
On our part as managers of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for former agitators in the Niger Delta, we shall continue to do our best within our mandate to help consolidate peace, safety, security and development in the Niger Delta. We are resolute in our determination to meet and possibly surpass our set targets for 2013. Like most of you are well aware, our mandate at the Amnesty Office is three-pronged: Disarm, Demobilise and Reintegrate into civil society, the 30,000 former Niger Delta Agitators enrolled in the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
Pursuant to this mandate, the Amnesty Office has since achieved the disarmament and demobilization of the 26,358 ex-agitators enrolled in the first and second phases of the Amnesty Programme. The Demobilisation exercise which was carried out in Obubra in Cross River State, entailed biometric documentation, wellness check, nonviolence transformational training, series of counseling and career classification for the ex-agitators. When we exited the Demobilisation phase of the Programme in December 2011, our beloved country on the watch of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, entered 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. For your information, virtually all the 24 United Nations-piloted DDR interventions in Africa since 1992 are still battling to achieve full Demobilisation even with huge financial and technical assistance from the United Nations and several other international partners. Some of the nations still battling to exit the Demobilisation phase of their DDR Programmes include Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Given the successes of the DDR Programmes in Nigeria and Burundi, there is currently a global push to transfer all such programmes from the United Nations and other international agencies to national governments as is currently the case in Nigeria.
My dear friends, by far the most critical phase of all DDR Programmes is the Reintegration and Re-insertion of the demobilised ex-agitators into civil society. Truly, what makes the difference between the rich and the poor nations of the world is the quality of the people, not just the resources buried under the ground or water. It is the people who explore and add value to natural resources; it is the people who think and innovate and trade. It is the people who create the wealth of nations. But for the people to do this at optimal capacity, they need to be skilled. Conscious of this fact, the Amnesty Office takes very seriously the reintegration component of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. Essentially, the Reintegration component of the Amnesty Programme entails equipping the ex-agitators with skills or formal education that will enable them secure gainful employment. On this score, the Amnesty Office has since inception placed a total number of 13,747 already demobilized ex-agitators in either formal education or skill acquisition centres both within the country and offshore. In 2012 alone we achieved the placement of 7,639 ex-agitators in both vocational training centres and Universities both in Nigeria and overseas. So far 8,372 Amnesty Programme’s delegates have since completed their training and a number of them are now gainfully employed. We have directly helped 112 of then to secure employment within the country and offshore. Please let me clarify that securing job for trained ex-agitators is not part of the mandate of the Amnesty Office. Even then, we have designed a two-pronged post-training agenda for the delegates. First, we have stepped up collaboration with other MDA’s and key players in the private sector with a view to securing direct employment for our trained delegates and the second component emphasizes entrepreneurship training aimed at helping several of the already trained delegates to become not just self-employed but employers of labour. Pursuant to this post-training agenda, in 2012 alone, we commenced post training empowerment and business set-up programme for 2,025 ex-agitators. We have already procured start-up packs for them to become self-employed once they are through with their training. We are running this scheme in collaboration with reputable mentoring firms including SMEDAN.
OUR PROJECTIONS FOR 2013
Gentlemen of the Press recall that I mentioned earlier that for certain reasons the Amnesty Office decided to play down the media coverage of several of its activities last year, especially the deployment of our delegates to vocational training centres and schools overseas. The truth of the matter is that we fear that the Amnesty Programme is becoming a victim of its successes. Like I also mentioned earlier, the mandate given the Amnesty Office by the Federal Government of Nigeria is to Disarm, Demobilise and Reintegrate into civil society, a specific number of former agitators in the Niger Delta who accepted the offer of Amnesty and got enlisted in the post-Amnesty Programme. At the expiration of the deadline set by the Federal Government for the acceptance of the offer and the surrendering of arms, which was October 4th 2009, 20,192 disarmed ex-agitators were enlisted in the Programme. However government eventually realized that several of the ex-agitators who accepted the offer of the amnesty and disarmed were not enlisted for the simple reason that they did not make themselves available for enlistment. They surrendered their arms through their leaders but hid from the men of the Armed Forces who were charged with the task of disarming and documenting them. Given their well-known less than palatable history with the Nigerian military, many of these Niger Delta youths were skeptical about the exact intentions of the Federal Government. Some even feared that the general idea was to round all of them up and arrest or even kill them. So, several of them who surrendered their arms and accepted the offer of amnesty through their leaders were not truly enlisted at the expiration date of October 4th, 2009.
Following the successful commencement of the demobilization and Reintegration phases of the Programme, it dawned on these ones who refused to enlist that government was indeed sincere. They now began agitating, protesting and barricading major high ways both in the States in the Niger Delta and Abuja seeking to be included in the post-Amnesty Programme. Yes, initially government resisted their demand for inclusion but following superior security advice by the Armed Forces and other security agencies, Mr. President approved in October 2010 for the mopping up of these remnants of Niger Delta ex-agitators who though accepted the offer of Amnesty and surrendered their arms but were not enlisted in the programme. This mop up exercise is what we now call Phase Two and the total number of persons enlisted under this phase is 6,166. They too have since been demobilized and are now being reintegrated.
Now, there is a problem. We are currently facing a situation where every unemployed, uneducated or un-empowered youth in the States in the Niger Delta believes that his only ticket to a better future is the Amnesty Programme. This should not and must not be. The Amnesty Programme was designed for a specific number and category of persons. For the past two years we have in press conferences and statements as well as in several meetings with critical stakeholders been making this point: that the Amnesty Programme can not be for all unemployed, untrained and un-empowered youths in the Niger Delta. I regret to inform you that we have not succeeded in dissuading thousands of hapless Niger Delta youths from agitating for inclusion in the Amnesty Programme. In 2012, we witnessed several street protests, barricading of major high ways in the States in the Niger Delta and in Abuja. We took several stringent measures including arrests and detentions to stop these agitations and the agitators but we did not succeed in shutting out these persons. Matters were clearly made worse by the military and security formations, particularly the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta, who severally accepted arms from these persons and promised them inclusion in the Amnesty Programme. To cut a long story short, acting again on the advice of the nation’s security agencies, President Goodluck Jonathan late last year approved the inclusion of another 3,642 disarmed Niger Delta ex-agitators in the Amnesty Programme to bring up the totally enrolled number of persons enrolled in the Programme to 30,000.
Let me use this opportunity to inform Nigerians that this will be the last mop up exercise and final inclusion in the Amnesty Programme. I shall personally do all that is within my power and mandate as the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme to ensure that this is achieved. In fact, for the persons queuing up to be included in this last phase, we have set up a huge hurdle for them to cross. The Chief of Defence Staff working very closely with the Amnesty Office has set up an Inter-Agency Task Force headed by an Air Vice Marshal to verify the claims of these agitators that they were disarmed by JTF and other security agencies in the Niger Delta. The Amnesty Office is insisting that only persons who this Inter-Agency Task Force confirm to have dropped arms within the stipulated period will be accepted for enlistment. We are also insisting that such arms must be identified, retrieved from the security agencies and moved to the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu for destruction. Like we did with the arms retrieved from the ex-agitators who were enrolled in the first and second phases of the Programme. The Inter-Agency Task Force has since commenced its activities and shall be winding up latest second week in February. Once they round off their verification exercise, the Amnesty Office shall immediately commence the reintegration of the freshly included 3, 642 persons
Permit me to clarify that it is the expectation of Mr. President and the National Security Council that the inclusion of these persons in the Presidential Amnesty Programme will go a long way in mitigating the national security breaches often occasioned by the several protest marches along major streets and highways in Abuja and the states in the Niger Delta by these formerly armed youths who truly renounced violence and voluntarily turned in their arms to the Federal Government with the hope of being included in the Amnesty Programme.
Beyond our plan to demobilize the 3, 642 new inclusions in the Amnesty Programme in 2013, the Amnesty Office projects to place a minimum of 3,000 already demobilized ex-agitators in either formal education or skill acquisition centres within the country and offshore in the current fiscal year. We have resolved that in the new year, our training programmes shall be demand-focused and shall explore the benefits of the local content Act and thePetroleum Industry bill (PIB). We shall ensure value for money on all training programmes. We shall support post training empowerment efforts to engage graduate delegates. We shall monitor compliance with the quality standards for all trainings and improve contract implementation and management with regular feedbacks. In 2013, our training focus shall be just five key areas: power sector, Building Construction, oil and gas, maritime and agriculture.
Gentlemen of the Press, for the umpteenth time, I wish to remind us that the fact that several former agitators in the Niger Delta accepted the offer of Amnesty does not in any way mean that the region no longer has aggrieved persons. But my position is this: let all aggrieved persons any where in Nigeria seek and embrace nonviolent and peaceful ways to express themselves. This Government under His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR, has clearly shown that it has the capacity to listen and act in the greater good of the citizenry.
I seek to assure Nigerians through you, my dear friends in the media, that the Amnesty Office has been discharging to the best of its abilities, the responsibilities and mandate assigned to it and as enshrined in the Amnesty Proclamation. But it must be made clear that aspects of the Amnesty Proclamation that deal with the development of critical infrastructure in the Niger Delta is domiciled in the Ministry of Niger Delta. In spite of the criticisms that ministry is currently facing, I am personally aware that working with the limited funds available to him, the Honorable Minister in-charge of the Ministry of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe is doing his very best to tackle the legendary infrastructural decay in the Niger Delta. It is understandable that for a people who have been starved of development for too long, our people have become justifiably impatient. The Ministry of Niger Delta has repeatedly assured that the developmental aspirations of the people of Niger Delta will be met. Let us encourage rather chastise the Ministry or the Minister. It will take time to redress the long years of neglect of the zone. Indeed it is my view that the onerous task of redressing the infrastructural and developmental challenges in the Niger Delta should not and must not be left for just one Ministry. In 2012, Nigeria’s Federal Budget was N4.6 trillion. More than 80 per cent of this sum came from the export of crude oil extracted from the land, shores and creeks of the Niger Delta. Another N4.9 trillion has been budgeted to be spend by Nigeria in 2013. Again the over 80 per cent of the total sum will be sourced from the God-given resources of the Niger Delta. What are we giving back to that region? It is therefore my view that other Ministries, Department and Agencies of the Federal Government must move in to the Niger Delta and help trigger development in the zone and create enabling environment for job creation for the teeming unemployed youths in the zone.
Gentlemen of the Press, as the Special Adviser to the Prersident on Niger Delta, I am on daily basis in touch with leaders and stakeholders in the Niger Delta. They are clearly of the view that the Amnesty Programme is making the desired impact in the zone. I am also very proud of the fact that our humble efforts at the Amnesty Office have helped to save the economy of our dear country from imminent collapse. The key objective of the Presidential Amnesty Programme is to stabilise, consolidate and sustain security conditions in the Niger Delta as pre-requisite for promoting economic development in the zone, which we all know is the nation’s oil and gas base. I make bold to assert that the target of restoring peace, safety and security in the Niger Delta using the instrumentalities of the Amnesty Programme, has been reasonably met; and as a result, the nation’s economy has rebounded. From a production level of a paltry 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day as at first week of January 2009, the relative peace that now prevails in the Niger Delta has aided the remarkable growth of Nigeria’s oil production to between 2.6 and 2.7 million barrels per day as at today
To further underscore the fact that the proclamation of amnesty for former agitators in the Niger Delta as well as the successful management of the post-amnesty Programme saved the economy of our great nation from a looming collapse, kindly note that with Nigeria producing 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, Nigeria and its Joint Venture Partners are currently making production savings of about two million barrels per day. If you compute this savings with prevailing exchange rate of N160 to $1, daily production savings for Nigeria and its JV Partners currently stand at N33.4 Billion per day. If you break this down further especially given that oil production in Nigeria hovered between 2.4 and 2.6 barrels for all of 2012, you would discover that savings for Nigeria and the Joint Venture partners for year ending 2012 is estimated to be at about N6.3 trillion.
Conversely, but for the Amnesty Proclamation and the successful management of the post-Amnesty Programme by His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria and its Joint Venture Partners would have lost by year ending 2012, the staggering sum of N6.3 trillion or much more.
Because of fresh earnings in the oil sector, the President is funding and pursuing the speedy revamping and transformation of several moribund but critical sectors of our economy. President Jonathan is conscious of the fact that no nation can boast of development without an efficient and reliable transport sector. Today, on his able watch, the aviation sector in this country is enjoying a fresh lease and can now compare with the best in at least Africa. For the first time in 20 years, in 2012 alone the Federal Government remodeled and reconstructed 12 Key airports across the country with a view to ensuring that they became true centres of commercial and economic activities. Today these airports are wearing new looks with their terminals totally overhauled for the comfort and safety of air travellers. The revolution in the sector is aimed at restoring Nigeria’s aviation industry to its rightful place as a hub in Africa aviation and to be able to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our dear country.
Under the able direction of Mr. President, the Federal Government has also earmarked 22 airports for rehabilitation this year, while 30 aircrafts will be purchased as part of the government’s plans to boost the operations of the aviation industry. The new development will entail buying and distributing aircraft to domestic airline operators unlike the old practice of giving out aviation intervention funds to them which they allegedly misused.
Make no mistake; the Federal Government is not dashing airline operators plane or money. The funds for the acquisition of the planes, I am aware, would be funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in conjunction with Bank of Industry (BOI). These financial institutions will of course work out the repayment modules. President Jonathan is concerned about the well being of ordinary Nigerians and this drives his transformation agenda. In the aviation sector for example he seeks to help the airline operators to improve safety and at the same time reduce the cost of travelling by air in the country.
I must remind you also that this President has since approved the removal of tariffs and taxes on aviation spare-parts. This is to help the airlines operate safely and profitably as well as to make the sector more attractive for investors because spare-parts are the major cost component in the aviation sector.
Similarly, the achievements of the Presidential Amnesty Programme have helped Nigeria earn enough money to revamp the comatose railway sector after almost 50 years inactivity and criminal neglect. The Nigeria Railway is back, thanks to the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan. Not too long ago, the President himself led several top government officials to take a long ride in one of the new locomotives owned by the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) from Lagos to Abeokuta, Ogun State. The commissioning of the reactivated Lagos-Jebba rail lines which cost the nation N12.13 billion is without any iota of doubt, a major achievement by this administration. The President has also launched the Maiduguri-Duwari Mass Transit Train Service (MTTS). Already, the corporation has begun mass transit train services in Jos, Kano and Kaduna. The railway corporation has also begun an intercity MTTS in Lagos with 11 trains carrying close to 15,000 passengers daily. The other day, I heard the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation saying that the Federal Government is at the verge of replicating similar MTTS services in Enugu and Port Harcourt.
I am also aware that in continuation of efforts to revitalise and modernise rail transport in the country, the federal government recently signed a N67 billion contracts for the rehabilitation of 2,119-kilometre three Eastern rail lines, comprising 463-kilometre rail line from Port Harcourt to Makurdi; 1,016 kilometres rail line from Makurdi to Kuru including spur line to Jos and Kafanchan; and 640-kilometre rail line from Kuru to Maiduguri respectively. The scope of the contracts covers a comprehensive rehabilitation of the track, bridges, and culverts within the 2,119 kilometres track lines. The project is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
For the first time in over 20 years petroleum products and other heavy equipment are now being transported from the southern parts of the country to the north by train. Even then, President Jonathan is determined to ensure that before the end of this year, the NRC would commence operating long distance express passenger train services from Port-Harcourt to Kano, Lagos to Kano; Lagos to Jos and Maiduguri, as well as Port-Harcourt to Jos and Maiduguri. These services will include offer of full air conditioning to the 1st class “seater” or “sleeper” luxury saloons, with restaurant cars equipped with conveniences, just like the ones we see in developed countries of the world.
The successful management of the Presidential Amnesty Programme under President Goodluck Jonathan has also aided the transformation that is currently going on in the critical power sector. All discerning Nigerians can testify to the fact that electricity supply, distribution and transmission have greatly improved in the last two years. In 2010 when President Jonathan assumed office first as acting President and later President, power generation from all the power stations across the country was less than 2,000 megawatt but today with the revamping of these power stations and with the peace in the Niger Delta where many of the power stations are located, Nigeria now generates, distributes and transmits as at today, 4, 517.6 megawatts. President Jonathan projects that by the fourth quarter of 2013 power generation will grow to 10,000 megawatts.
Before this President assumed office, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture was only known for fertilizer procurement and distribution. Today, under a young intellectual, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is altering the mentality and the method of operation of the nations farmers. Farming has truly become a lucrative profession again. Our farmers are shifting from subsistence farming to commercial farming and are making huge incomes. In fact in the coming days thousands of young graduates will opt for farming given the new incentives introduced by this administration.
My dear Editors, permit me to once again reaffirm our sincerest gratitude to you for your firm and very practical support for the Presidential Amnesty Programme for former agitators in the Niger Delta. Because of your support for the Amnesty Programme, strategic oil and gas installations that dot the creeks and shores of the Niger Delta are now relatively safer and as a result, our nation’s economy is reaping bountifully. I dare say that we have achieved this much in the last three years because of the backing and cooperation we have been enjoying from the very vibrant Nigerian media. We are exceedingly grateful. I particularly urge you to be patient with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and support his war against terror and terrorists in our beloved country. I also plead with you to continue to support the Presidential Amnesty Programme. I thank you.
Hon. Kingsley Kuku
Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta &
Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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