President Goodluck Jonathan

The relative peace, which now prevails in the Niger Delta area, underscores the universal truism that guns and bullets do not necessarily achieve lasting peace after all.
After all manners of hostilities and their attendant calamities, reason and dialogue had always been the last resort at the end of the day, to the mutual benefit of all the parties to such crises.

To this end, political analysts believe that the tactful and visionary initiative of the late President Umaru Yar'Adua to solve the Niger Delta crisis has been largely responsible for the current peace in the area.
The initiative, they say, has largely fostered trust between the government and the people; the oil firms and the host communities, to achieve enhanced economic activities in the region.

On a salutary note, President Goodluck Jonathan has sustained his predecessor's amnesty programme, to the extent that several erstwhile militants have been rehabilitated to meaningfully contribute to the nation's development.
``The amnesty programme has achieved the purpose for which it was incepted; many ex- militants are now reformed and have become partners with government in the development of the nation,” former Minister of Niger Delta Godsday Orubebe told the Senate on June 29 during his screening for a fresh ministerial appointment.
``Many of them have been trained in various skills at home and abroad and are now gainfully employed. There is now, a more peaceful atmosphere for economic activities in the region,” he added.

Orubebe's appraisal came against the backdrop of youths' restiveness in the Niger Delta area, which seriously disrupted oil production activities in the region to the detriment of the nation's economy.
Recently, the Federal Government's amnesty offer became effective. Under it, an unconditional amnesty was granted to militants who renounced violence as a means of political agitation and voluntarily surrendered their weapons at designated centres in the region within 60 days.

At the end of the grace period, about 20,000 ex-militants had keyed into the programme by voluntarily surrendering their weapons to the authorities.
To reciprocate their gesture, the Federal Government began a rehabilitation and reintegration programme for the ex-militants, in addition to tackling issues relating to the perceptible underdevelopment of the region through new schemes.
The militant organizations in the Niger Delta had used the perceived neglect of their region and the attendant environmental degradation as a factor to agitate for a more equitable distribution of the nation's resources to favour the oil-producing region.

Like Orubebe, many citizens believe that the amnesty programme is already a success story within the few years of its existence, judging by the number of youths who had undergone skills-acquisition schemes to become gainfully employed.
Mr Henry Ugbolue, the Head of Media and Communications department of the Amnesty Office, lauded the amnesty programme's implementation processes, saying that the programme had impacted “very positively” on the lives of the ex-militants who now had a bright future.

Ugbolue said that the establishment of the Obubra Camp, where the ex-militants are taught various skills and vocations, was just a starting point in the success story of the programme.
He said that besides skills' acquisition, the ex-militants were “demobilized” the euphemism for the ascertainment of their medical and psychological status by health experts and psychologists.
A non-governmental organization, the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN), which has faculty members from the U.S. and South.

Africa, undertakes an aspect of the training programme at the Obubra Camp regularly.
Observers say that the continuous involvement of such organizations in aspects of the rehabilitation programme is imperative and underscores the necessity for all stakeholders to collaborate with the government to achieve a lasting peace in the Niger Delta.

They say that anything to the contrary will adversely affect the larger society as no meaningful development can take place in a region that is riddled with crises, as this will invariably engender instability and threat to national economy.
On the relevance of the skills acquisition component of the amnesty programme, Ogbolue said that the provisions of the Local Content Act made it mandatory that most of the jobs, hitherto given to expatriates, should now be made available to Nigerians.

He pointed out that if skilled manpower was not available locally, a vacuum would definitely exist, which on the long run, would negate the youth employment policy of the Federal Government.
``There is no way such skilled jobs can be taken up by people who do not possess the appropriate skills; hence the need for proper training of the ex-militants to occupy those positions, to satisfy the needs of the oil industry and provisions of the legislations,” he said.

Officials, nonetheless, point out that skills acquisition programme put in place for of the ex-militants at the camp include sea welding, sea faring, pipeline welding and crane operation, among other skills that are required in the oil and gas industry.
They add that in peculiar instances, some categories of trainees are sent to countries like the U.S., Ghana, South Africa, Malaysia, Russia, among others, to further undergo certain specialist programmes.
By official records, an estimated 15,000 ex-militants have been “demobilized”, out of which 5,000 have been placed in various institutions to either acquire formal education or skills.

Some of the ex-militants have variously testified to the benefit of the amnesty programme, saying that their lives have been turned around for good.
For instance, Chidi Wokem, who hails from Rivers State, said that he had been truly transformed and that he was now an apostle of peace.
``As it is, I have been transformed and as I leave this camp, I will go and tell the larger society how I have changed.
``I will talk about peace and tranquility and about what we can achieve by abiding by them.
``We have been taught much about the popular African-American civil rights crusader, Martin Luther King Jnr., and how much he achieved through non-violence,`` he said.

Another beneficiary, Ogede Parkins, said that he had now turned his back on violence, adding that he was now a changed man, courtesy of the programme.
``All of us have changed and we will not go back to our old ways of life. God bless the Federal Government for teaching us non-violence,” he said.
On his own part, Zachariah Pabo, who hails from Bayelsa State, lauded the programme, saying that it had made them to understand that they could fight for their rights without necessarily resorting to violence.

Undoubtedly, the amnesty programmme has recorded a tremendous achievement in restoring peace to the Niger Delta and Mr Kingsley Kuku, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, was so emphatic about this.
According to Kuku, the return of peace to the regions has boosted the nation's daily oil production from 700,000 barrels per day during the crisis to the current level of 2.3 million barrels per day.

Beside the increase in oil production, observers point out that there has been appreciable increase in the tempo of other economic activities, while the movement of goods and persons within the region has become freer.
Optimists hope that with the new found peace, courtesy of the amnesty programme, foreign investors' confidence in the nation will be restored, while provoking increased economic activities to benefit the people.