IT came first as a hint from the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Nsima Ekere. He had told the gathering at an event at the corporate headquarters of the commission on Aba Road in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that a self-styled General and former leader of one of the militant groups in the Niger Delta, Paul Eris a.k.a. Ogunboss had become a big time farmer and owner of a large rice farm in his Peremabiri community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.
And that much would later be confirmed by Ogunboss himself who disclosed in an interview that he had become the Chief Executive Officer of Tanko’s Farms, an initiative he said was meant to create employment for the teeming population of jobless youths in the region, reduce violent crimes on the waterways of Bayelsa State and boost commercial rice production with an eye to making the nation self-reliant in terms of food.
On account of this avowed mission, Ekere pledged the resolve of the NDDC to support Ognuboss and other people with similar initiatives in order to ensure the sustainable development of the oil-rich Niger Delta region and adequate empowerment of its people.
But Ogunboss is not alone in the decision of former Niger Delta militants to jettison militancy and toe the path of responsible leadership. The leader of the Niger Delta Vigilance Movement, ‘General’ Ateke Tom, popularly called Godfather, who was at the forefront of militancy in the Niger Delta with his daring freedom fighters, recently became the the Amayanabo (king) of his Okochiri-Okrika community in Okrika LGA, Rivers State. His choice as community leader, it was gathered, was largely informed by his philanthropic gestures, peace-building efforts and empowerment of the youths in the area.
Prior to his being declared wanted by the Federal Government for alleged fraud, another former militant leader in Delta State, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo a.k.a. Tompolo had also jettisoned militancy and was believed to be attracting development to his area and empowering many people, especially youths.
A few years ago, a former leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) and former President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, an indigene of Buguma in Asari-Toru LGA of Rivers State, was at the forefront of militant activities in the Niger Delta region. He had taken over the creeks with his “boys” and confronted the Federal Government for refusing to develop the Niger Delta while Chief Olusegun Obasanjo held sway as the President of Nigeria, thereby reducing crude oil production and greatly inhibiting revenue generation.
He was later arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and detained in Abuja for many months. His arrest heightened tension and led to vandalization of more oil pipelines, increase in illegal bunkering and formation of the dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which was coordinating the activities of the militants.
Asari was later released by the Federal Government, following which he decided to relocate to Benin Republic where he established a highbrow university.
Many other ‘Generals’ were also involved in militancy in the Niger Delta, mainly to bring the plight of their people and underdevelopment in the region to the fore and attract development to the hitherto neglected part of the country.
The Genesis
Militancy in the Niger Delta began with agitations by the youths for resource control and commensurate development of the region. But it was later hijacked by criminals for pecuniary benefits, especially kidnapping for ransom and stealing crude oil in exchange for arms and ammunition with international collaborators across the Atlantic Ocean.
The situation became so bad that five young boys with some locally-made guns would come together, establish a camp for militancy, appoint one of them as ‘General’ and start breaking pipelines and kidnapping expatriates for ransom. And when the militants could no longer see expatriates to kidnap, they started to seize Nigerians, demanding ridiculously high sums as ransom, thus making life unbearable for fellow citizens and causing them untold hardship.
Simultaneously as ragtag militants harassed innocent citizens, the more coordinated “generals” continued to cause unrest and uncertainty in the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria.
At the height of militancy about 10 years ago, the then militant leader, ‘General’ Ebikabowei Victor Ben a.k.a. Boyloaf, hosted some top Federal Government officials in his camp in the creek of Southern Ijaw LGA of Bayelsa State to discuss how peace could be restored in the Niger Delta. The reporter was part of the Federal Government’s entourage. But as they approached the militants’ camp in two speed boats, scores of gun-wielding warlords in army camouflage appeared in four speed boats with high-capacity engines and encircle the visitors, shooting sporadically in the air and into the river. It was only when one of Boyloaf’s commanders had identified the leaders of the team, a Bayelsan, that the shooting subsided.
But there was a mild drama when they sighted a woman among the visitors. The militants did not only deny her access to the camp, they returned her in one of their speedboats to a nearby riverine community, where she waited till the end of the visit.
The highly-fortified Boyloaf’s camp had many well-educated youths who went into militancy mainly because there were no employment opportunities even though some of them had master’s degrees.
Right inside the expansive camp of Boyloaf was a big television set with direct satellite television facility to monitor events around the world and listen to news and monitor Nigerians who abused or insulted them. Brand new speed boat engines each costing about N500,000 and many AK-47 rifles, sub-machine guns and other sophisticated weapons were also on display in the camp.
While waiting in Boyloaf’s living room in the camp as the Federal Government’s officials were having peace talks with the militant leader in another room, one of the hefty militants decided to point a sub-machine gun with a long chain of ammunition round his neck and body, to an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in uniform (name withheld), who had accompanied the team. The senior police officer almost melted on his seat for fear of being killed.
It took the intervention of one of Boyloaf’s senior commanders for the gun to be moved away from the head of the ACP, who was not comfortable throughout the visit to the camp while the few journalists who were part of the team and were accustomed to seeing the militants in action were in a relaxed mood.
Ugly experience
Visiting a militants’ camp is always a Herculean task. A trusted journalist on a visit to the creeks would have to receive instructions through his mobile phone on how to move or join various speedboats, before the “Generals” would eventually give directives to their commanders to grant access.
The militants had threatened to inhibit the production of crude oil and gas if there was no commensurate development in the Niger Delta by the Federal Government and the multinational oil companies; a feat they accomplished with the bombing of pipelines, illegal bunkering, illegal refining and other criminal activities. The situation became unbearable when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was at the helm of affairs, causing the administration to on June 25, 2009 proclaim a 60-day unconditional amnesty for militants in the Niger Delta.
On the strength of the amnesty, many of the militants surrendered large cache of arms and ammunition, gunboats, speed boats, dynamites and other dangerous weapons. They also surrendered military and police uniforms as well as other items that were later destroyed.
In return, the Federal Government pledged to institute programmes to help the ex-agitators’ disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation, and to provide reintegration assistance. It also said that the amnesty programme would contribute to security stabilisation in the Niger Delta.
Most of the repentant militants are being trained in various skills, while many of them are given opportunities to further their studies in Nigeria and overseas, some of them graduating with First Class. The 30,000 repentant militants are also receiving monthly stipends, although with complaint that some of their leaders were short-changing them.
A former Managing Director of NDDC, Chief Timi Alaibe, was appointed as the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), and he tried his best to return peace to the region, leading to sudden increase in crude oil and gas production.
Alaibe was succeeded by a former member of Ondo State House of Assembly, Kingsley Kuku, who is receiving medical attention overseas for an undisclosed ailment but has also been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged fraud.
The current Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd), recently revealed that more than 10,000 youths would be recruited to protect oil installations in the region.
Boroh, who said the decision was a fall-out of recent interaction between the then Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, and leaders of the Pan Niger-Delta Forum (PANDEF), also disclosed that the Federal Government had invested huge sums in the programme.
New peace efforts
Considering the need for sustained peace in the Niger Delta for steady crude oil production, the Federal Government decided to begin quick impact projects, particularly in the creeks of the region. Boroh, while recently making the disclosure, named the oil-bearing communities of Gelegele and Gbaramatu Kingdom in Edo and Delta states respectively, as some of the immediate beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s programme.
He also hinted that the presidential amnesty office had begun the training of no fewer than 200 youths at the Samson Siasia-run Sia One Academy, to extend the frontiers of peace in the region, through sporting activities like football, boxing, weightlifting and track events.
The amnesty coordinator is also advocating a shift from crude oil to agriculture.
He said: “As an officer in the army, I took to farming, believing that it is the future of the country and that on a personal level, I could better sustain my family. Our lands are so fertile that I did not need much fertiliser. The inputs were minimal and the yields were much. Our climate, by God’s grace, is predictable. It rains when it should rain and the sun shines when it should. So, why not take advantage of what nature has freely given us as Nigerians?
“When in July 2015, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, appointed me Special Adviser on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, I had the primary responsibility of streamlining the programme and transforming it back on track, working for peace in the Niger Delta and sustainably reintegrating some 30,000 amnesty beneficiaries back into society.
“Although, we have various integration programmes, which include education, vocational training, professional training in aviation and maritime, automobile engineering, entrepreneurial training and tourism and hospitality, I had no doubt that the best way to integrate such a huge number of beneficiaries quickly and sustainably, is through aquaculture and agriculture.”
Boroh also believes that investment in agriculture would require a lot of planning and painstaking implementation, stressing that like other programmes, he and members of his team had to conceptualise, plant, culture and water the ideas to the germination and harvest stages.
He said: “Agriculture creates mass sustainable jobs and empowerment. Advanced technology and high yield varieties ensure good harvest. Costs can be drastically reduced by building locally fabricated integrated feed mills, which rely entirely on local products. Our country of over 180 million people is a huge market in itself and additionally, the West African region provides a market that is more or less limitless.
“Taking to agriculture, Nigeria is moving towards food self- sufficiency and security. I am happy at the level of enthusiasm for agriculture among amnesty beneficiaries. The Presidential Amnesty Office has trained and begun to empower amnesty beneficiaries in crop farming, fishery and poultry.
“As at June, 2017, 1,000 amnesty beneficiaries across the nine oil producing states are being trained in agriculture and will be empowered to establish their own farms. The training in agriculture is designed as a full value chain, from farming, production, processing, packaging, marketing to agri-business management.
“Some leaders of the amnesty beneficiaries have bought our argument that building houses is not sustainable, as they have to be serviced and maintained. But in contrast, taking to agriculture is a money-yielding venture. Many of them have been brought into the agriculture revolution.”
The amnesty coordinator also described crude oil as a wasting asset, stressing that it might dry up in the foreseeable future. But he believes that agriculture would enrich all Nigerians, calling on the citizens to start with the basic policy of eating only what they grow and growing what they eat, and insisting that change should begin with each person.
He admonished amnesty beneficiaries to take advantage of the Federal Government’s focus on agriculture, including the liberal loans like the Central Bank’s Anchor Borrowers Programme and those of the Bank of Industry.
He said: “In spite of the financial challenges, the Amnesty Office in 2016 trained 208 beneficiaries in agriculture, 59 as pilots and aeronautical engineers, 120 in automobile, 70 in electronics and 80 in Plastic Technology, 146 beneficiaries were trained in Maritime, 36 in Scaffolding/Rigging, 25 in Transformer Repairs and Maintenance, 70 in ICT and 63 in Heavy Duty Equipment.
“In education, a total of 1,135 amnesty beneficiaries graduated from foreign and local universities, with 34 of them graduating with First Class and 105 in Second Class Upper Division.”
The special adviser on Niger Delta also lauded the people of the Niger Delta for keying into the peace and development programmes of President Buhari in the region.
Only last week, 200 ex-militants graduated from the Innoson-Kiara Academy, Nnewi in Anambra State, as part of the Batch-B graduation, and they underwent nine months intensive course in automobile manufacturing, engineering and maintenance. The ex-agitators presented three vehicles: 18-seater bus, 4 x 4 wheel truck and a 32-seater bus, which they assembled from the scratch to the finish.
Coordinator of the presidential amnesty programme, during the graduation of the former warlords, stated that they had made President Buhari and the Federal Government proud in their performance during the training.
In 2016, the same academy trained 120 ex-militants in automobile technology and 80 others in plastic manufacturing, while the first batch manufactured a 32-seater bus and various plastic products as part of their coursework.
In spite of the efforts of the Federal Government, through the Presidential Amnesty Office and other initiatives, however, some youths of the Niger Delta are still going into militancy, mostly for pecuniary benefits.
