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Apparently worried
by the lull that appears to have set in the post-amnesty programme
since last year, the Presidency said yesterday it has taken over all
activities pertaining to it. The move comes about a fortnight after
NEXT exclusively revealed that the amnesty programme was being poorly
managed.

At its inception,
the organization and supervision of the initiative, which was the
brain-child of the late President Umaru Yar’adua, as a solution to the
threat of armed militancy in the Niger Delta region, were in the hands
of a Presidential Committee headed by the Minister of Defence, Godwin
Abbe.

But, in recent
times allegations of high level embezzlement of the funds meant for
reorientation, rehabilitation and reintegration of militants who
accepted state pardon led to protests and threats to abort the
programme.

But Special Adviser
to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Timi Alaibe, said that in line
with the new post-amnesty blueprint, all matters concerning the
programme have now been transferred into his office for effective
coordination and supervision.

“Fresh impetus has
been brought into the programme, which is presently at the critical
stage of implementing of demobilisation, rehabilitation and
re-integration, with camping of the first batch of 2000 ex-militants
billed to commence in the first week of June, 2010,” he said.

According to Mr.
Alaibe, the roadmap for the implementation of the programme covers the
disarmament phase, which was completed in October last year, with
thousands of former members of various militant groups surrendering
their arms to embrace amnesty, while the demobilization phase covers
efforts in the next one year to control the proliferation of armed
groups.

The reintegration
phase billed to last till 2015 will involve social and economic
initiatives to encourage the former militant deploy their potentials
into more lucrative and sustainable economic ends.

The objective of
the DDR process, he explained, is to help create the secure and stable
atmosphere necessary for the take off of development in the Niger Delta
region.

Though he described
some of the previous documentations on the programme as spurious, as
there were no serious planning to reintegrate the affected persons, Mr.
Alaibe said it will adopt a biometric system that would authenticate
the population of the people that would be catered for under the
programme, with the target put at about 20,192.

Training by next month

He disclosed that
the integration process will see all the ex-militants distributed in
camps of about 2,000 each for a training programme scheduled to
commence with the first batch by the first week of next month.

To be sponsored
through the special purpose vehicle of collaboration with all
stakeholders, including governments, oil companies as well as local and
international non-governmental organizations, he said the camping would
provide opportunity for the erstwhile militants participate in
education and skill acquisition activities, financial
empowerment/micro-credit schemes as well as reconciliation efforts with
local communities.

“One of the major
initiatives is work with some specialized foreign conflict resolution
and peace training institutions to help in capacity building programmes
for 3,000 beneficiaries over a six to 48 months period for
re-orientation and leadership training; marine, welding,
entrepreneurial, employment/placement opportunities development
activities,” he said.

“Any development plan for the region that does not first address the
issue of transformation of the lives of those involved in the extreme
violent activities in the region, be they militants, commercial hostage
takers, armed robbers or warlords, will surely fail,” he said