By Clifford Christopher Clifford
National President, Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), Comrade Kennedy Tonjo West, has bared his mind on certain issues around the Presidential Amnesty Program which late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua painstakingly put together to restore peace in the once troubled region.
The MOSIEND leader congratulated Col. Milland Dikio rtd on his reappointment for a second tenure and commended the federal government for the reappointment but, with some misgiving.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme is a security programme that is meant to cater for 30,000 ex-freedom fighters who on their own volition, submitted their arms just for peace to reign in Nigeria and the federal government to make amends on the problems of the region as enunciated in their various demands back in the struggle. Our concern is, when you give one year it does not speak well of the seriousness of the programme in the sense of what it seems to achieve in one year. A year ago President Muhammadu Buhari set up a committee to look into the Presidential amnesty programme to block financial leakages and give effectiveness, efficiency and seriousness to the programme so that the deliverables can be felt by the beneficiaries. That committee did present a recommendation. Our question is, is the Interim Administrator and one year part of the recommendation? Amnesty is going to come to an end but if you give one year as tenure to be able to plan and round it up and exit as I speak there are hundreds and thousands of beneficiaries of the programme in Rivers State that have not been sent on training in 2013 for instance, we went to Bakana to do reclassification of the exercise for all those who have not been trained. We got about 1,500 beneficiaries that have not been trained and we also got about 800 beneficiaries that are not receiving their stipends that means they were short changed by one way or the other. MOSIEND take is, if you decide now to give Milland Dikio one year, how is he going to conduct re-classification, account verification because right now we are on demobilization and re-integration stage more especially we are in the re-integration stage.
The 9th National president of MOSIEND asked the National Security Adviser to advise Mr. President professionally such that the benefits of the programme will be seen adding that MOSIEND right now is partnering with the aggrieved militant leaders and MEND leaders in Rivers State to conduct a 3-days re-classification exercise. ‘’We have done it in 2013 and we are about to do it again so that we can have all those who are in the programme that have not been trained over the years and present such document like we did in 2013 back to the presidential amnesty programme coordinator for onward training and re-integration. We also want to urge the National Security Adviser to advise President Buhari professionally on how DDR is been conducted because in our mind it is either the advisers of the NSA are misadvising him or he is not advising the president appropriately because about a forthnight ago, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta MEND leaders in Rivers State cried out concerning the issue of short-change that emanated from 2015 – 2016 amnesty beneficiary account verification exercise that was carried out in the stadium. Under Gen. Paul Boroh administration the exercise yanked out these number of people in the system how come the amnesty programme still pays 30,000? I want to say once more our brother, the National Security Adviser should also down play the habit of bossing whosoever he nominates in the sense that Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh, was nominated by the NSA he was removed for one financial misappropriation or the other. Prof. Charles Dokubo, who is also a renowned and erudite scholar that has been working in global and international activities to man the programme was also removed. Now, we have Colonel Milland Dikio, the rest have been coordinators while Dikio is Interim Administrator, that means it is a short programme you are not giving the programme that desired time to come up with a designed programme on how to successfully conclude the demobilization and re-integration in one year unless you have another motive.
The former Bakana youth president projected that the reason why oil production is high in Nigeria is because the Niger Delta freedom fighters decided to eschew violence and militancy, this has made production to be on the increase, argued that the Amnesty programme in this administration is not receiving the kind of efficient robust support that it needs. From 2015 down the last budget that was written was about 65 – 70 billion per-anum and by the time you pay monthly stipends you see indebtedness which Dikio should be given the opportunity, free space and confidence to manage the process. Comrade Kennedy West went further to query what the A.A. Lawal investigation committee is still doing having finished their investigations, ‘’Is A.A. Lawal now the shadow Amnesty administrator for the NSA? A.A Lawal works in the office of the National Security Adviser, he was made the head of the Panel that investigated Prof. Charles Dokubo, when issues of financial misappropriation and high-handedness came into the system but till now A.A. Lawal office still exists one year after Dikko was appointed and six months after Charles Dokubo was removed, you still have all of these irregularities eating the system deeply.
The MOSIEND leader stressed that the reason why the group is coming out to say all these is because we care about the peace, security and socio-economic activities of the region and the instrument that has brought about this peace so we do not take it for granted “The National Security Adviser should give a free hand to the Amnesty helmsman, we are not comfortable with Interim Administrator, we are not comfortable with the one year tenure because it will not yield the desired result that is expected. There will be no time for proper planning and execution; one year is too short a time and such person cannot concentrate unless the NSA is letting the Niger Delta know that they want to wrap up the program by any means necessary. Already there is a rumour that they are calling the leaders to settle them so that they can close the programme, we vehemently say no to such move because the 30,000 beneficiaries should have been trained, re-integrated before the program can come to an end.
Furthermore, the MOSIEND President appealed to the National Security Adviser not to abruptly end the amnesty program. “We appeal to the National Security Adviser not to abruptly end the amnesty program as that will speak doom to the country’s economy and to Niger Delta whosoever he has appointed should be given a free hand and the NSA should publicly terminate the A.A. Lawal panel of enquiry that investigated Dokubo that is still existing behind the scene, increase the amnesty program and MOSIEND wants to bring to the notice of the public that there are hundreds of ex-agitators that are wallowing and are straying within our creeks that have not been properly demobilized, there are so many of them that their stipends have not been paid since Amnesty started and up to 2015 more entered into that cadre”
