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Tag: Chief Timi Alaibe

  • Alaibe returns to PDP with supporters 

    A former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe, on Friday returned to his former party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with his supporters.

    Other APC chieftains, who defected alongside the former NDDC boss, are former Secretary to Bayelsa State Government (SSG), Gideon Ekeowei, onetime Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Chief Keme Prefa, ex-Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Council, Barnabas Edure, former Executive Secretary, SUBEB, Rhodesia Whyte and former state lawmakers including Nelson Belief.

    Read Also:Dickson is committed to Ijaw cause, says Alaibe

    Receiving Chief Alaibe in Government House Yenagoa, Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson noted that the defection of Alaibe and his teeming followers signified the end of the APC in the state.

    He further said the defection justified his earlier claim that the APC lacked capacity to win any election in the state as its leadership brazenly demonstrated lack of interest in the welfare and development of the state.

    According to the governor, Bayelsa remains the only PDP state that has re-elected its governor defeating federal might since 2015 when it became an opposition party in the country.

    While reiterating the need for people of the state and Ijaw nation to embrace the PDP, Dickson stressed that no well-meaning and decent person would identify with the other party because of the high level of criminality and falsehood associated with it.

    He said: “The APC in Bayelsa is a party of criminals, cultists and terrorists. PDP has the majority of the good and decent patriotic people. I used to say there are few APC members in Bayelsa that are good and patriotic. Now, you can imagine the few good ones have now left. So, the APC in Bayelsa is completely a party of criminals, cultists and terrorists.

    “When we come to campaign we will wait for them to tell us the roads and bridges from Abuja that they have brought to this state, to show us the major appointments, benefits and patronage that they deceived this good and decent people to go to their dry party that doesn’t mean well for our people. The APC clearly is being folded up in Bayelsa with all of you leaving.”

    Dickson who congratulated Chief Alaibe and other defectors for their decision to dump the APC assured them of their full integration to the PDP.

    He said that a rally would soon be organized to formally receive them into the PDP.

    “We are here to formally receive and welcome you back home to your party and I have told the chairman and the political desk working with your team that we will organise a formal reception to receive you because you are a big fish. You cannot come into the PDP and people will not know you have come. So what is happening today is a prelude to your formal reception.

    “We were pained when you left at a time we needed you most but all of that is history. What is important is what is ahead of us and I want to assure you that you are all valued leaders in the party once again,” he added.

    In his remarks, Alaibe, described PDP as the party of the Ijaw people.

    Alaibe said that all the political positions he held were facilitated by the PDP which informed his decision to leave the “wilderness” to return to the PDP to support Governor Dickson in the interest of the state.

    He saluted the efforts of Dickson for his administration’s dogged commitment not only to the cause of the Ijaw nation but also to the development of the state and maintaining a disciplined PDP.

    “PDP for me as an individual is home. My political life was defined by the PDP. My political public service, work and all the political positions that I have held were facilitated by the PDP and for a lot of us here, it was the PDP. So for us, PDP is home. It is a good-come-back home.”

    “I want to thank you for some of the fantastic projects and programmes you have implemented in Bayelsa including this state of the art office for the people of Bayelsa State. I want to thank you for the continuous commitment to the Ijaw Nation. The commitment that has inspired some of us to continue to remain as a people in the space called Nigeria.

    “We want to assure you that at some point in the course of our political life, just like a child will not know the richness of his mother’s soup until he tastes his neighbour’s soup, we have gone out there and we have tasted our neighbour’s soup, and we have made comparison and our own soup, the soup you pilot is sweeter. And that’s why we are here.”

    Also speaking, Chairman of the State PDP, Mr. Moses Cleopas, described Chief Alaibe’s return as a show of patriotism and love for Bayelsa state.

    He assured Alaibe and others who defected that they would be given a sense of belonging to enable them to contribute effectively to the success of the PDP.

    “We are receiving you with our spirit, soul and body. It is our belief that you are coming to add value to this party and not with any fear that you shall by any way make the party less of what it is today.

    “You are coming into a reformed PDP where everyone is on the same side.”

  • Road to sustainable Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta

    Road to sustainable Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta

    The recent motion by the Senate calling on the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemp Adeosun, to release the sum of N15 billion being the backlog of allowances and payments for the training and education of former Niger Delta militants under the Amnesty Programme, which was provided for in the 2016 budget, is a welcome development. The House of Representatives had, a day earlier, passed a similar motion.

    The timely release of the outstanding funds without further delay would save the country an international embarrassment that may arise from protests by beneficiaries of the programme, especially those receiving training in various institutions in different parts of the world.

    While presenting the motion on the floor of the House, Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, had drawn attention to plans by some of the beneficiaries in the United Kingdom to stage demonstrations at the Nigerian High Commission in that country to protest the delay in releasing the funds to enable them to meet their financial obligations to the institutions where they are undergoing training.

    Reports from South Africa, United States, Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries where former militants are also undergoing trainings indicate a similar level of restiveness, with some facing the threat of expulsion from their institutions. Certainly, the country can do without any untoward development that could have negative impact on its image.

    It is gratifying to note that the Senate does not only want the money released as soon as possible, it has also set in motion a machinery to unravel the cause of the delay, with a view to guarding against a reoccurrence in the future.

    Without prejudice to the findings of the Senate committee, the cause of the delay in meeting government’s obligations to the amnesty beneficiaries may not be located too far away from the government’s commitment to ensuring accountability and transparency in the disbursement of funds under the programme.

    A similar delay occurred in the first few months of the current administration, and only a timely intervention by the government averted an ugly situation.

    Without doubt, the return of permanent peace to the troubled Niger Delta hinges partly on solutions to the unemployment problem that has fuelled militancy in the region for more than a decade.

    That was what the Amnesty Programme of the late president, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, unarguably the most ambitious programme by any administration before it to address the problem of unemployment in the region, set out to achieve.

    Timi Alaibe, the then presidential adviser and chief executive officer of the programme, is said to have achieved the feat of not only disarming and rehabilitating the militants, about 26, 000 in number, but also succeeded in reintegrating them into the society through a hitch-free implementation of the programme. Reports claim that under Alaibe, there was a measure of transparency and accountability in execution of the programme.

    That’s why we did not hear stories of delay in paying the militants – those that are placed on monthly allowance of N65, 000 – and those in various institutions around the world for different trainings. And, by extension, no stories of demonstrations by militants over unpaid allowances.

    The reason for the relative ease with which Alaibe and his team executed the programme may not be unconnected with the fact that it was the responsibility of one agency, the one he headed. This promoted transparency, accountability and easy management in the manner funds were disbursed.

    It is therefore possible that problems set in when other non-concerned agencies began to dabble into execution of amnesty programmes for the militants. For instance, the mandate of the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration (NIMASA) does not include execution of amnesty programmes for militants.

    But we saw during the tenure of the immediate past administration of the agency how it reportedly got involved in sponsoring repentant militants on training programmes in different parts of the world, apart from other amnesty programmes.

    It may not be farfetched to suggest that during the immediate past dispensation, the two agencies – Amnesty Programme Office and NIMASA – may have been working at cross purposes.

    While it is necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff through painstaking investigation into the management of resources meant for sustenance of the amnesty programme during the previous dispensation, care must be taken to ensure it does not in itself constitute a clog in the wheel of progress in current efforts to find long and lasting solutions to the problem of unemployment in the Niger Delta region – an important component of the whole package.

    If need be, the federal government may find it necessary to look into the handling of the amnesty programme by Alaibe. It may be safe to assume that he did not execute the programme in abstract terms. He must have designed a template for its execution. This is more so because he authored the Niger Delta Development Master Plan, of which the amnesty programme is a part. There must be something on paper others can learn from.

    It must not be forgotten that the amnesty programme is just an aspect of what should be a holistic approach to resolving the issues of the Niger Delta. The highly commendable dialogue approach of the federal government in solving the problem of the region once and for all is evident in the relative peace that has reigned in the region in the past few months. This is just the first step. Subsequent steps should involve a more streamlined and sustainable approach to executing the amnesty programme to ensure it achieves the objectives for which it was designed, in a hitch-free manner.

    Tijani, a social commentator, wrote in from Kaduna

  • 2017 budget funding: How to avoid borrowing – Timi Alaibe

    2017 budget funding: How to avoid borrowing – Timi Alaibe

    A former Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Chief Timi Alaibe was Monday confident that if efforts are stepped up to restore relative peace, safety and security in the Niger Delta, the nation may not resort to huge external borrowing to fund the 2017 budget.

    He spoke in Abuja as a guest on Thisday Live, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, Chief Alaibe who was also the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, blamed the continuing restiveness in the Niger Delta on the glaring failure of successive Federal Government’s of Nigeria to follow through with the Niger Delta Master Plan that was commissioned by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and executed by the NDDC while he served as the Commission’s Managing Director.

    His words: “There is really nothing new to be said about the situation in the Niger Delta. All that needs to be said and all that we need to do and where we need to do them are succinctly captured in the Niger Delta Master Plan. If you have massive infrastructure, if you have good roads and bridges to open up the Niger Delta you will not have the recurrence of incidences of militancy in the region.

    “After President Obasanjo left office, I had the opportunity of briefing President Yar’Adua severally on the Master Plan and parts of the briefing led to the Amnesty Proclamation and the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the Niger Delta under Yar’Adua but unfortunately Yar’Adua died and the processes were not followed through after his death.”

    The former NDDC boss said the Amnesty Programme derailed when the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan curiously stopped at the implementation of just one component of the Amnesty Programme.

    According to him, the amnesty Programme was modeled to focus on five main areas.

    Aliabe said that: What you refer to as the Amnesty Programme today was originally designed to have five broad areas of focus, namely the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-agitators who accepted the offer of Amnesty; there was the Infrastructure development component which was supposed to address the huge infrastructure deficit in the zone; there was the Environmental Remediation component, which was to address the much needed clean-up of communities that have for decades suffered pollution and other environmental challenges stemming from the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas; there was an aspect that was supposed to help work out ways communities can have stakes in oil and gas exploration and production and of course aspects of the original Amnesty Package offered communities the opportunity to gainfully participate in pipeline surveillance and protection. The opportunities were huge but the past administration implemented just the DDR component,” Alaibe posited.

    He however lauded the efforts of the current administration to prioritize the restoration of sustainable peace and development in the Niger Delta.

    Extolling the present administration on the choice to maintain peace in the Niger Delta, he described the Acting President, Yemi Osibanjo’s consistent visits to the region as a step in the right direction.

    Aliabe said that: “We really may not have to resort to heavy external borrowing to fund the 2017 budget once the right steps are taken by the administration in the Niger Delta. It is in this light that I commend the on-going peace and fact-finding shuttle of the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to States and communities in the Niger Delta. It is a very good thing and it is an indication that this administration is keen on working with leaders of the region to implement the 16-point agenda for the Niger Delta submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari late last year.

    “The N7.2 trillion 2017 Federal Budget is currently being considered by the National Assembly. The budget is largely predicated on earnings from crude oil that is benchmarked by an OPEC quota of 2.2 Million Barrels Per Day. Energy experts however worry that this projection may be a far cry given that for most of 2016, Nigeria did not produce up to 2 million barrels per day due largely to restiveness in the Niger Delta. Like most leaders of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Alaibe believes that the commencement of the implementation of the 16-point agenda submitted to President Buhari would mark a remarkable change of situation in the Niger Delta. “What is needed is sincerity of purpose and the peoples trust would be easily earned.”

  • Okowa, Clark, others to Avengers: Cease hostilities now

    Okowa, Clark, others to Avengers: Cease hostilities now

     

    ……Niger Delta Elders agree on raising unified regional negotiation platform

     

    Niger Delta leaders rose Friday against the current spate of sabotage of oil and gas facilities by militants in the region and threat by them to pull the region out of the rest of Nigeria.

    The leaders including Chief Edwin Clark, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, former Minister of Police Affairs, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe, Niger Delta activist, Tony Uranta, publisher of the Thisday newspaper, Chief Nduka Obaigbena,and  royal fathers, warned the militants to respect calls by traditional rulers, elders and leaders of the region for cessation of hostilities  forthwith.

    The leaders convened an emergency meeting in Warri, Delta State against the backdrop of the secession threat by the militants on Thursday.

    They asked agitators and aggrieved groups to “hearken to the appeal of the traditional rulers, elders and leaders of thought to stop further attack on oil and gas facilities and give room for dialogue.”

    But the meeting, hosted by Chief Clark, also urged the Federal Government to “stop further deployment of military hardware and resources in the region,” to ensure the confidence of the people and enhance opportunity for peace and order.

    In a communiqué at the end of the deliberation, the Niger Delta leaders charged the federal government to stop the deployment of the military to solve the crisis in the region, noting that it has so far inflicted untold hardship and dislocation on life and living of innocent people.

    Government, they added, should take calls for the restructuring of the nation as the first step in healing the country.

    They resolved to establish a pan-Niger Delta Platform to “speak for and negotiate on behalf of the region. The meeting further resolved to set up the said platform with effect from Friday 19th August, 2016.

    “Any platform for dialogue and negotiation should be all-embracing, involving all the ethnic nationalities and interest groups in the region to holistically address the problems.

    “The meeting also resolved to support the popular demand for the restructuring of the Nation’s political system as recommended by the 2014 National Conference. The practice of equitable fiscal federalism is a precondition for sustainable peace and development of our Country.

    “Without prejudice to efforts made so far, the Federal Government should demonstrate seriousness by reaching out to the authentic representatives of the region to discuss peace and the way forward.”

    Addressing participants earlier, Governor Okowa charged leaders of the Niger Delta to take up the challenge of stopping the degradation of the region’s environment by prevailing on their angry sons to desist from attacks on oil and gas facilities.

    Okowa, who was the only state governor to attend the meeting in person, noted that though expressing grievances over perceived injustice was not out of place, doing more damage than what causes the anger is absurd.

    The governor, who also charged the leaders of the region to ensure that the region has a credible face to represent it when approaching the federal government to register the discontent of their people, said violent protest, would only rob the people of the region the desired development.

    “Agitation is very important, yes you may be making a point, and we have been crying that the oil companies have been destroying our land over time.  They have harmed our land, harmed our water and things are getting very bad but unfortunately we are even taking actions that destroy the land and destroy our water far more than what the oil companies are doing. These are things that the people may not understand that in anger we have done more than what the oil companies have done.

    “Our traditional rulers and our leaders should let the youths know that they should stop violence, with a firm assurance that the elders will speak for us; we know that fiscal federalism, restructuring of the country are important but, we should look at what we can benefit from President Buhari’s administration as a people.

    “We should be peaceful, please let us give peace a chance, we need to create the enabling environment, we need to be ready to accommodate investors because, the gas revolution project will cost in excess of 15 billion dollars and the process of dredging the Escravos bar is part of the bargain”, he said.

    Also speaking, Chief Clark, said the answer to most of the crisis rocking the country from different parts of the country is in the report of the 2014 National Conference, adding that restructuring of the Nigerian system has become an issue in the face of all myriad of issues facing the country.

    “I posit that the answers to many if not all, of these issues are contained in the Report of the 2014 National Conference. I salute well-meaning persons who have supported the call for restructuring the country.

    “We must find a permanent solution to the various problems we are facing in this country including the youth revolt in the Niger Delta, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, Biafra agitation, kidnapping and recently, the inability of the various states to pay their workers’ salaries and pension.

    “My strong belief is that only a genuine restructuring of the political administration of the country will remove most of these problems in the country. With such, the issues that lead some of us to take up arms will be resolved,” he said.

    While commending the President Buhari for indicating the willingness to open line of dialogue with the aggrieved Niger Delta youths, Chief Clark stated such discussion should be channel through genuine leaders from the region.