Some ex-Niger Delta agitators on Tuesday in Abuja warned presidential aides and top government officials to desist from making provocative statements that could derail the Presidential Amnesty Programme and truncate the fragile peace in the region.
The group, in a statement issued under the aegis of Niger Delta Progressive Front and signed by its leader, Angus Galabagalaba, particularly condemned a statement credited to the Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs to the Minister on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Charles Achodo, for describing the Presidential Amnesty Programme as unsustainable.
Achodo was quoted as saying at the 7th Sustainability in the Extractive Industry (SITEI) conference organized by CSR-in-Action in Abuja, that “a situation where you are paying people N65, 000 every month to keep quiet does not solve the problem. If you multiply N65, 000 by the number of militants and by the number of years the programme had been running, you are looking at close to N50 billion. That is a huge amount of money. It is not sustainable and it is not guaranteeing you what you expect in the place”.
He also reportedly said the current Presidential Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government “with fat budgetary provision” remains unsustainable, as it does not totally address the challenges of the region to guarantee lasting peace.”
Galabagalaba, while noting that Achodo’s statement was vexatious, provocative, irrational and capable of heating up the relative stable environment of the Niger Delta, warned that any attempt by the Federal Government or its appointees to play politics with the Amnesty Programme would be met with dire consequences.
” We want to believe that he didn’t make the statement as credited to him, or he was quoted out of context, particularly on his claim of fat budgetary provision for the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which is grossly underfunded, considering the fact that sustaining peace is a serious and expensive venture. Government should not dream of tinkering with the Amnesty Programme, as such would trigger another round of hostilities in the Niger Delta, capable of bringing the country to its knees”
Galabagalaba added that “the Federal Government’s purported plan, according to Achodo, to invest about N1.7 trillion in the Niger Delta region before 2021 to address developmental challenges and create employment for the teeming population has no bearing, but just a political gimmick to sustain a seamless flow of petro-dollars accruing from crude oil into its coffers.”
“In proclaiming the presidential pardon and unconditional amnesty for agitators in the Niger Delta on June 25, 2009, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had aimed at stabilizing, consolidating and sustaining the security situation in the region as a pre-requisite for promoting economic development.
“Official records indicated that Nigeria lost over one million barrels of crude oil per day [bpd] estimated to be about N8.7billion [$58m] as at May 2009. This followed a drastic reduction of the daily crude oil production figure from 2.2million bpd to an abysmal 700,000 bpd when the Niger Delta insurgency reached a boiling point in January 2009.
“President Buhari should be reminded that the cut in oil production had robbed the country of over $20billion in 2008, just as the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas [NLNG] lost over $2billion in 2009. The toll was not limited to the economy as over 1000 lives were reportedly lost in 2008 alone, while 128 persons were said to have been kidnapped within one year [January 2008 to January 2009].
“At the peak of the crises, production and construction firms which were working in the area including Wilbros, Michelin, Julius Berger, as well as small and medium scale enterprises [SMEs] laid off their workers in the Niger Delta and pulled out of the region, a situation that led to the stalling of the East-West Road project for years. These had disastrous consequences on the nation and its citizens as several other multinational companies relocated not only from the area but also from Nigeria. The country lost billions of naira that would have accrued from oil revenue to the Federation Account, even as Oil and Gas companies which remained in the region with a resolve to weather the storm were compelled to cough out a whopping $3billion annually to secure their facilities and installations, as critical infrastructure, especially pipelines became targets for serial attacks. Again, this propelled the slamming of an outrageous $90million p.a. premium Marine War Risk Insurance for cargo into Nigeria.
“Thus, the circumstances leading to the proclamation and implementation of the amnesty programme is a story of corporate, communal and individual losses, pain, agony and eventual reprieve. It is a tale of lost billions of US Dollars in oil revenue, spilled blood, kidnappings, lost opportunities, and the battle to restore hope, peace and security in the Niger Delta. All that is, now history with the smooth implementation of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. And the resultant effect of Nigeria’s success in the implementation of the amnesty programme is that besides the massive mop-up of weapons from over 20,192 ex-agitators, crime and criminality, especially kidnapping and oil bunkering drastically reduced in the Niger Delta, which has witnessed enhanced peace.
“In the same vein, the youths are being empowered through techno-vocational training, employment, and offered higher education scholarship. Also, there is an impressive reduction in oil pipeline vandalism, entrenchment of dialogue as a means of conflict resolution in oil producing communities; increased foreign direct investment (FDI) in Niger Delta, and a steady leap in Nigeria’s foreign reserves as a result of increased oil and gas production quota.
“It’s been a thorny voyage from uncertainty to victory; therefore, Achodo and other veiled enemies of President Buhari’s administration should not reverse the hands of the cloak by fueling another crises in the Niger Delta through unguarded pronouncements,” Galabagalaba said.