Our attention has been drawn to a report published on Sahara Reporters and
\nsome online news portals credited to a shadowy group alleging fraud in the
\nPresidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) for former agitators in the Niger
\nDelta and calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to sack his Special
\nAdviser on Niger Delta\/PAP Chairman, Hon. Kingsley Kuku.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the report and, indeed, the allegations lack substance and can
\neasily be dismissed as the handiwork of and another futile attempt by
\npolitical jobbers bent on distracting Hon. Kuku, whose consistency and
\nsuccessful implementation of the Presidential mandate on the programme has
\nbrought pride to our nation.<\/p>\n
We could have also elected to ignore it given that the signatory, one
\n\u2018Diepriye Jackson Dikibo,\u2019 and the authors, the so-called Niger Delta
\nAwareness Coalition and Ex-Militant Leaders Forum, are faceless and
\nunknown to the Amnesty Office. Our records have no such entry as Diepriye
\nJackson Dikibo as an \u2018ex-militant leader.\u2019 We challenge them to controvert
\nthis and show proof if such a person exists.<\/p>\n
As a responsible interventionist government agency, deploying public funds
\nin the training of Niger Delta youths whose violent agitation almost
\nbrought our country to a standstill economically just a few years ago, we
\ndeem it absolutely important to always keep the records straight and to
\ndispel the concocted tissues of lies and misinformation in such kind of
\nreports.
\nIn their haste to tar the chairman of the Amnesty Programme with the brush
\nof corruption and fraud, the authors claimed that \u201cNiger Delta youths are
\nshipped away to unaccredited training and educational institutions across
\nMOST of the THIRD World.\u201d Unfortunately, they failed to mention even one
\nof such institutions.<\/p>\n
We however urge them to verify whether the following institutions where
\nour delegates are currently training are unaccredited, are third-rate or
\nin the Third World.<\/p>\n
In the United States of America, there are a total of 70 delegates on
\ngovernment scholarship and undergoing various educational programmes at
\nthese institutions: Alabama State University, Alabama A & M, California
\nState University, Salisbury University, University of Houston, Liberty
\nUniversity in Virginia, and Tissin University in Ohio.<\/p>\n
At the moment, there are 582 delegates in 58 institutions in the United
\nKingdom alone. These include the universities of Birmingham, Manchester,
\nKent, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckingham, and Swansea.<\/p>\n
Others are Kings College, Anglia Ruskin University, Coventry University,
\nDundee University, Robert Gordon University as well as the universities of
\nPlymouth, Portsmouth, Essex, Brunel, Liverpool, and Sheffield among
\nothers.<\/p>\n
Seventy-one (71) of our delegates are at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
\nUniversity in South Africa while 160 delegates are in Limkokwing
\nUniversity (84) and Linton University (76), both in Malaysia, and others
\nin Belarus, Russia, Northern Cyrus, Ukraine, Phillipines, and Ghana (Cape
\nCoast University).<\/p>\n
A robust selection and academic preparation process is also in place
\nthrough partnership with some reputable educational bodies that administer
\nfoundational training programmes to these delegates before they are
\noffered admission into some of the aforementioned institutions. These
\nbodies include the Navitas Group (an Australian educational body that
\nadministers foundation programmes for universities in UK, U.S, Australia
\nand Singapore), the Study Group in UK as well as the Washington Post-owned
\nKaplan Educational Services in UK and U.S (It is currently preparing 180
\ndelegates in Lagos on a seven-month foundational programme preparatory to
\ntheir entry into six universities in the U.S).<\/p>\n
The petitioners equally faulted the aviation training programme, which has
\ntoday produced commercial pilots for Nigeria, on the premise that there
\nare no airlines or aircraft to engage them on completion of their
\ntraining.<\/p>\n
Nothing could be more laughable! Do you wait until there are jobs before
\nyou go to school or build the capacity of our youths? If that is the case,
\nall the universities should be shut down until the government is able to
\nprovide jobs to accommodate the graduates.<\/p>\n
The aviation training component of the amnesty programme is one of our
\nprime programmes that was borne out of a conscious effort to narrow the
\nglobal shortfall in qualified pilots and aviation personnel. At the
\nmoment, 22 of those who qualified as Commercial Licensed Pilots in South
\nAfrica are at the Lufthansa Training Institute in Frankfurt, Germany while
\nanother nine are at the prestigious CAE Aviation Academy in Oxford on a
\n14-month jet\/type-rating programme. On completion of the training, they
\nwill be able to fly the Next Generation aircraft of either Boeing or the
\nAirbus.<\/p>\n
Over 100 others training to become pilots and aeronautical engineers are
\nin Greece and Jordan and at the Fujairah Aviation Academy in Dubai (after
\nwhich they will proceed to the Emirates Aviation School also in Dubai for
\ntheir type-rating training).<\/p>\n
Also, in the last two years, no fewer than 800 Niger Delta youths have
\nbeen trained in several fields in the critical maritime sector. About 100
\nof them were placed in seafaring programmes in the United States of
\nAmerica, Vietnam, Italy, Poland, Ghana and in Nigeria. Nineteen of the
\ntrainees who completed their training at the Gydirma Maritime Academy in
\nPoland have gone on board vessels to gain the requisite sea-time
\nexperience.<\/p>\n
The World Maritime Academy in Sweden will early next year commence the
\ntraining of our delegates while 30 other youths from the region will soon
\nbe deployed to France for power technology training.<\/p>\n
Over 1,000 of our delegates are also on scholarship in five private
\nuniversities in Nigeria undergoing various degree programmes.<\/p>\n
In the last three years since the implementation of the amnesty programme
\nbegan in 2010, no fewer than 16,000 former agitators out of the 30,000
\nbeneficiaries have been trained in various vocational skills and
\neducational programmes or are currently in training locally or offshore.<\/p>\n
These are facts that are verifiable and the figures support our assertion
\nthat the amnesty programme is not a drainpipe neither is it a fraud. The
\nlives of hitherto restive and disoriented youths in the Niger Delta are
\nbeing transformed through these carefully planned capacity building
\ninitiatives undertaken by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration
\nas part of his Transformation Agenda.<\/p>\n
In a few years, the positive outcome of the amnesty training programme
\nwill be visibly felt in our nation and other parts of the world. Already,
\n30 of our delegates trained in welding and fabrication at the Proclad
\nAcademy in Dubai have been gainfully engaged by the Proclad Group in the
\nUnited Arab Emirates while another 30 are undergoing training in France
\nunder a partnership with Schlumberger, which will employ them on
\ncompletion of their training. Samsung is also set to engage another 1000
\nupon completion of their training in welding, fabrication and drilling
\noperations.<\/p>\n
Let us clarify that the inclusion of some non-former agitators in the
\nprogramme, such as the 180 students in Lagos, a large percentage of our
\naviators, and students under the Special Scholarship Scheme, is in
\nconsonance with a typical Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration
\n(DDR) programme, which provides that while attempting to stabilise peace
\nand security in an affected area by educating, training and creating
\nalternative means of livelihood for ex-agitators, effort must be made to
\nside by side educate and train persons affected by the fighting forces.
\nThese include internally displaced persons, adversely impacted communities
\nand vulnerable women and youths.<\/p>\n
Indeed, what Hon. Kuku deserves are accolades and not the mudslinging and
\nwicked propaganda against him by some persons in the Niger Delta, who now
\nsee the amnesty programme as their next target for reasons that are far
\nfrom being altruistic. To achieve this, they have commenced a \u2018Kuku Must
\nGo\u2019 campaign. It is regrettable that such persons still prefer the laissez
\nfaire and business-as-usual approach to government business whereby they
\nsee public funds as free money to be frittered away on frivolities.<\/p>\n
In our country today, it is easy to make wild and unfounded allegations of
\nfraud and corruption by public office holders without any effort by the
\naccusers to prove such claims. The trite principle however remains that
\nwhoever asserts must prove, and we challenge those opposed to Kuku\u2019s
\nhandling of the amnesty programme to OPENLY do so.<\/p>\n
The bad news for them, however, is that the PAP Chairman remains focused
\nand cannot be distracted by the blackmail, subterfuge and antics of
\npolitical jobbers and professional petition writers whose stock-in-trade
\nis P-H-D (Pull Him Down). He is irrevocably committed to his mandate of
\nensuring that the amnesty programme delivers its quota in the
\nTransformation Agenda of Mr President.<\/p>\n
DANIEL ALABRAH
\nHEAD, MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
\nPRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY PROGRAMME
\nABUJA
\nNOVEMBER 17, 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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