Since its establishment in 2009, the Presidential Amnesty Office has benefitted from appropriation running into billions of Naira in its drive to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate thousands of ex-agitators who voluntarily surrendered their arms. In this interview with the Managing Editor, Northern Operations, YUSUF ALLI and Deputy Editor (Nation’s Capital), YOMI ODUNUGA, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig. Gen Paul Boroh (rtd), said such an expensive programme cannot be sustained in perpetuity by any country. He also spoke on his plan to exit the programme in the next two years and the best way to achieve sustainable peace in the Niger Delta region. Excerpts:
Since your appointment as the Presidential Adviser on the Amnesty Programme, it seems not much has taken place. Why is that?
A lot has been happening. Maybe much of these are not out there because of the nature of what we are doing here. We want to focus on the work and shred the programme of all the politics. When I came here, I discovered that things were left in disarray because there was no exit strategy. There is a need for an exit strategy in any planned mission. This particular operation was planned in 2009 between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the ex-agitators. There was a Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) work to be carried out. But to my knowledge of the United Nations DDR programme, I was Chief of Staff of UN Mission in Liberia from the first day of 2009 to 15th March, 2010 when I came back to Nigeria, I believe I understand the details of the DDR programme. The Rs are more- Disarmament, Demobilisation, Remobilisation, Reconstruction, Reinsertion, Reconciliation (you reconcile those aggrieved persons, otherwise it’s not over yet.) and Reintegration. After all these have been done, when you finish with the first D, you have five parts. It is thereafter you will know if it is succeeding or not. By then, all those bad habits the agitators have been enjoying would have to be cleansed.
How soon do you think it will take for this particular one to be rounded off and do you have any security challenges in dealing with these ex-agitators?
It is a very expensive programme. Not every country can undertake this kind of programme. It is only the UN that can successfully achieve that because it is expensive. Nigeria is a wealthy country to have even thought of embarking on the programme because running a DDR programme alone as a country without the support of the UN is one in a million. So, we are in the phase of reintegration and this is the most critical of the phases. What I want to achieve is sustainable reintegration. I have achieved that because since I resumed office on the last day of July, 2015, there are have not been skirmishes that would cause economic disturbances in the country. There has been peace; I want to continue to achieve and sustain the peace we have been enjoying. It is more so because of the way the Federal Government encourages me to continue relating with the ex-agitators until we achieve sustainable re-integration. It is also important to note that the Amnesty Programme is a delicate one because it is a programme that is security in nature. The staff of this programme have been threatened. They have attacked our headquarters severally. The Chief Security Officer, Legal Adviser have been threatened severally; so it is a security programme. Every person that works here has been attacked in one way or the other but we are focused on achieving peace.
Since the ex-agitators live in different parts of the country with some of them studying abroad, how do you handle the issue of logistics especially with regards to meeting the needs of these persons?
The Presidential Amnesty Programme now has offices in Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Edo. We are yet to open office in Bayelsa, Imo. In the next two weeks, we will open offices in Bayelsa, Ondo, Imo and Abia States. The aim of establishing these offices is to bring the offices closer to the locations of ex-agitators in order to achieve perfect coordination of the activities. We also opened mission offices in the United Kingdom. Just before I took over, there were protests all over the world where we have our students. We felt it is proper to open offices where they are so they can lodge complaints rather than protesting and embarrassing our country. About 4, 000 of them school in 71 institutions in the UK. They go to London, Nigerian High Commission, for assistance. The same thing I want to do for those in US, South Africa, Russia, Malaysia and other parts of the world. I met this programme on ground; I was not the one who established it in all these places. I met it and I will continue with it but I feel it is better managed if we have offices where our embassies are, so they can go and lay their complaints if they have any.
How critical is this exit plan to the national economy?
A lot has happened particularly to the fact that the programme now has an exit strategy. We cannot be paying so much without knowing when we will stop paying. We have planned it in such a manner that, everything being equal, the programme ought to end in two years with a case load of 30, 000. About 17, 000 have been trained with about 13, 000 remaining. So between October and December, 2015, we felt the need to focus on this exit strategy. I am happy to say that by the end of this month, about 3, 232 beneficiaries of the programme will exit because they are due for the entrepreneurship programme. They have received business setup and starter packs from this office. Also affected are beneficiaries of oil and gas international foundation programmes and about 400 beneficiaries, who the office has secured employment for.
So, exiting 3, 232 beneficiaries will save the Federal Government of Nigeria the sum of N2, 520, 960 billion in stipends payment for 2016. It is also important to know that the second batch of 1042 are currently being given starter packs to establish their individual businesses and soon to exit the programme. This will further save the Federal Government the total sum of N812, 760 million. We are all aware of the budget defence last week, so it depends on the outcome. The Amnesty Office planned to exit another 2958 beneficiaries by the end of this year, amounting to an estimated sum of N2, 307, 240 billion to be realised as savings that would have been spent on stipends. So, this exercise is a significant step in the five-year programme of the amnesty, which has never existed anywhere for beneficiaries to take over.
So far, the Presidential Amnesty Programme has trained total number of 17, 332 beneficiaries, leaving a balance of 12,678. Additionally, it has embarked on the domestication of programmes where we have over 5,000 students schooling offshore. We are looking at the bills, particularly due to the paucity of funds; the economy is not as buoyant as it used to be. We don’t need to deceive ourselves; so we should sustain those 5, 000 persons. We still have very good institutions in this country. The ones that have graduated will come back and the ones yet to graduate will finish their programmes and reduce sending others. Currently, five of its 49 training centres are offshore while it has students in 131 tertiary institutions abroad.
I tried to relate what I met here with what happened when I was commanding the ECOMOG Battalion 36 in Sierra Leone; I was the last commanding officer of ECOMOG. They did not have an exiting strategy. ECOMOG left Sierra Leone in disarray. Nigerian soldiers were running for their lives. There was no exit strategy. That was what informed me that I must come up with an exit strategy for this programme. Otherwise, we will have more persons wanting to join the programme and we would not have enough money to cater for them. So you must come up with an exit strategy.
Do we really have facilities here that can accommodate the huge number of beneficiaries and train them locally?
With effect from 2016 session, it is projected that 95 percent of the amnesty programme students deployment will be within local institutions. I just want to avoid a situation where we send our children out of this country and we cannot sustain their stay there. The case at hand is that in which one of the students has to pay $53, 000. To me, it is on the high side. We have asked them to look for schools that are cheaper or bring them back home because,candidly speaking, this year’s budget would not be like last year’s. We just have to manage what we have, especially when the amnesty programme has, in the past five years, secured admission and given scholarships to about 5,234 beneficiaries in tertiary institutions. From this number, 3,082 gained admission into the country and 2,150 gained admission abroad, while 272 have graduated. Some will graduate this year, and the remaining will graduate next year.
With a two-year exit strategy, does it mean the Amnesty Office would no longer accommodate those in the creeks who are willing to surrender their arms and benefit from the DDR programme?
The last visit I made to Gbaramatu Kingdom, within South-South Delta State, I spoke to the youths there. I did not even get to Warri town when over 70 of them left the creeks to say they wanted to come out and follow me. Those that have weapons are responding and those who are living in the creeks have also been responding. We know how we can easily trace them. I have persons I can talk to and they get them out. It is not that we are going to stop them; no, because they now see the programme as beneficial. If we announce a new programme and they want to get captured, we will not prevent them. We will invite them, get their statistics. The important thing is get the weapons they used for criminal acts. Even though I like to relate with them and ensure they leave the bushes, it requires planning. If I take them out, how will I manage them? I don’t have already made employment for them here as well.
Some are armed. I asked them to disarm and they should not engage in militancy. The same thing happened in Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and Edo because they want to leave the creeks but it requires budgeting. Because the progamme is succeeding, some of them want to get captured. I said I am happy that you are willing to surrender and submit your arms. You want to give up the struggle to come out but I need to plan it for the government. It needs good planned operation because they are very many. So, that is in the pipeline. So far, it is a successful programme. It is on course. I am very happy about it and we are going to plan together and add value to the programme. I will like to appeal to you to see this programme as your programme because it is a national programme. It is a programme that has to do with rehabilitating persons that have held arms.
It is not a political programme. If you try to politicise the programme, you create more problem. That is my experience. It is unlike what is happening in other parts of the country, no. It is open for value to be added. If you have any advice you think will enhance this programme, it is most welcome. We drive the process using the principle of collective responsibility. We all have a stake in it. I took over this office first week in August, 2015. It was an ongoing programme. I had to streamline it and continue. It was the 30, 000 persons captured in the data that I met; 17, 000 have been trained and empowered, remaining 13, 000. It is from this group that 3, 235 will exit because they have been collecting stipends all these years. From the onset, they would have come up with an exit strategy and by now, that five years would have been achieved. By 31st December, 2015, all of them would have been rehabilitated and reintegrated but because there was no exit strategy, I had to plan one. It is not a thing you stop promptly, you will cause more problems. All we want to prevent is a relapse of the programme. We want to achieve sustainable peace until it is finally achieved. Getting jobs is a peculiar task generally, not only in the Niger Delta. There should be thematic plans with timelines. To my thinking, I think two years is short enough to achieve that.
If you insist on rounding off the programme in two years, what happens to those beneficiaries who would be running a four-year programme in tertiary institutions both here and abroad?
There are two groups we are talking about. The ex-agitators who are captured in the amnesty programme, 30, 000 of them, and other persons within the general area. So they are different from the ex-agitators. That plan could be continuous such that we may hand them over to the Ministry of Education for continuity. The aim is, this programme should not be endless. There should be a point it should stop in order to prevent other regions from doing the same. It is an extremely expensive programme. I was with the UN as commanding officer, Sierra Leone, Chief of Staff of the Mission in Liberia and I know how much the UN spent for DDR programmes, not every country can engage in it. No amount of time, efforts, resources you spend to achieve peace that are too much but peace must be attained. Until that is done, we cannot be proud we are here.
Are you not concerned about the current state of vandalism in the Niger Delta? Is there a resurgence of militancy post- Jonathan era?
The pipeline vandalisation that happened was when we started hearing of Tompolo by the EFCC, it is not an issue that has to do with amnesty, it is a different issue. It is kidnap, sabotage and it is not part of the amnesty programme and when I visited, I also passed through the JTF headquarters and mentioned that the amnesty headquarters dissociates itself from such acts and that we will work with security agencies and the masses to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. That’s exactly what we are doing. We are working with security agencies to ensure that those involved are identified.
What would you describe as tangible achievements of an expensive programme like this? Is it worth it?
Is there any tangible achievement from this programme? I will say yes because when this programme started in 2009, I was in the UN. I never wanted to come back to this country because I was enjoying my work in that place but when I now came, I saw this was happening and I was happy about it. In terms of finances, it is a very expensive programme, even the UN has spent a lot of money on its programme for peace. It is a security programme and the amount of time, efforts, resources to achieve peace are huge. We have a lot of expensive equipment and assets in the Niger Delta that need to be secured and the Amnesty Programme has engendered a relative atmosphere of peace.
The clean-up exercise will soon start from Ogoniland, and we are doing it with the Ministry of Environment. It should be starting in a month ‘s time. Once that starts, that is the beginning of development for the Niger Delta because a lot of these boys will now be engaged in helping and it is going to push our programme. A lot of them will be engaged and we will take it up from there. To some persons, it is when there is conflict that they are happy. For most of us that have seen it all, we don’t like conflict; we will do everything to achieve peace in order to allow development. The Amnesty Programme is to sustain the peace in Niger Delta to allow the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Environment, even Works and Housing to carry out their duties. I am to prepare the ground for development.
