By Jasper Jumbo

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Also, the success of the Amnesty package depends on the collaboration of the state governments, local governments, the oil / gas / major Nigeria Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA) and other interventionist agencies. Each of these levels of government, corporations and agencies must strive to contribute their own quota to the success of the programme, practically in the area of training and skills acquisition. The recession in the economy is hostile and the people are not getting much expected democracy dividends. This could provide fertile ground for germination and exacerbation of criminalities and conflicts. Democracy means nothing, if people do not have access to nourishing food, good health care, good education, access to resources for a good life, and socio, political development.
Federal Government should create more policy enablement and encourage State Governments to initiate, adopt or implement the Amnesty Programme through Local Government Areas.  Areas of co-operation may include process monitoring, implementational supervision, part-publicity on state news organs and sensitization  as well as empowerment of the youths of each community to a certain level with small ticket projects within their states.
Moreover, the empowerment policy of the government through the training programme as well as job opportunities must not be limited to the repentant militants. It must be extended to all the local inhabitants in the region. Otherwise, it could send a wrong signal to others who have been excluded from the exercise, convincing them that crime pays. This in turn, may serve as a driving force for others to want to take to arms, for recognition. The Amnesty package should not be implemented as a stand-alone act. It must, henceforth, be carried out within a comprehensive peace process, as recommended by the Technical Committee (International Crime Group 2009). Thus, government must not only publish the White Paper on the Recommendation of the Niger Delta Technical committee, but also embark on a holistic rather than the current fractured approach to the implementation of the Report. This report is believed, “Offers an opportunity to reduce the violent conflict significantly and begin long term regional development in the oil – rich region and could help to ‘save the region from further violence and organised criminality. (International Crisis Group, 2009). Addressing the militants alone while neglecting the deplorable situation, the underdevelopment and poverty, governmental and corporate misgovernance,  and negligence all of which led to the militancy and later criminality in the region will, no doubt, spell doom for the Amnesty programme.
This is because the number of militants presently being reintegrated under the programme constitute only a small percentage of the Niger Delta population, which under the 2006 population figure is 31,224,577 million people (Nigerian News Census, 2006) Efforts must be taken to remove the Niger Delta people from what Sacs (2005 refers to as, “ poverty trap” – a situation in which degraded environment, poor health, poor education, poor infrastructure and poor standard of living reinforce one another (Ogege, 2011).
Also in compliance with the UN code on DDR, it is expected that in the implementation of the DDR programmes, the ex-militants must be taken away from their natural habitats for transformation and reintegration purposes.  The Kofi Anan Centre for Peace and Conflicts Resolution in Accra, Ghana, offered to take in as many as 2000 militants per batch, when I led some experts to Ghana as we were scoping how best to implement the programme but the opportunity was never used.
Just as a day is set aside in a month for the environmental clean-up exercise, so may a day be set aside for the purpose of teaching moral values to the youths throughout the Federation. This may be called the Youth Re-orientation Day. The President may list some moral goals to be attained by the youths of the various Local Government Areas in the Niger Delta region. The project may take the pattern of the do this and receive this as a reward – BEATITUDE. This could lead to national re-birth.
Also using the pattern of “Carrot and stick” approach appears to be the very best strategy under the present challenging circumstances. The programme could no doubt, help the Amnesty Office, the NDDC, the MOD and the Niger Delta Ministry gather useful security information from friendly local and engaged facilitators, thereby making it easy for other government agencies to gain reliable information capable of helping curb threat incidences in those sensitive localities.
The otherwise unemployed or negatively-employed local youth would,  from there, have a major re-think, as no one else, had thought of bringing so much dividend of democracy closer to them.
The government may wish in upcoming budgets of the Amnesty Office, the NDDC, the FMNDA, the Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, and Youth, to deliberately introduce a youth policy to enable the youths gain guaranteed soft loans for youth technical cooperatives, for agricultural and small-scale industrial development purposes. They must however, plough back their gains and rewards into meaningful investments, such as in the oil and gas sectors, agriculture and other industrial and productive ventures. As their profits increase, they may individually deploy them further into   other businesses of their choice. The effect may lead to small-scale industries and profit-yielding ventures.
There is the need to make the local and Overseas training programmes   relevant so that with proper hands-on training, they could be absorbed immediately by the peripheral oil/gas and other companies in the region or be equipped with starter packs to set up, manage and own businesses or technical cooperatives and possibly, employ others.
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) could be a veritable means for curbing the overbearing youth restiveness in the Niger Delta Region. The following may be considered by the Federal Government through the in-coming NDDC Board and all the missing gaps corrected.
There are about 85 LGAs within the Niger Delta. The NDDC Regional Masterplan for the Niger Delta has no specific Needs Assessment projects per LGA / communities or delineations based on locational peculiarities and community yearnings. Neither does the package effectively outline appropriate Indices of Mineral Production (IMP) and corresponding financial expectations / accruals per State / LGA over a given period of time. This is a big problem, as most of the demands for funds for the development of the Region are neither empirically justifiable nor visibly- phased and defensible.
There is need to convene a meeting of the Ijaws, including the repentant militants and ask each LGA / Community, (under the guidance of an informed camelot of developers), to evolve Perspective Plans on 5-25 years basis, for the Ijaw Nation. That, to me could be termed the “BIBLE ACCORDING TO IJAW NATION”.
Prof. Jumbo, a pioneer Niger Delta Development campaigner, presented this paper at a Public Forum at the Senate Assembly Complex on October 6