Why Amnesty programme may remain a burden

The recent outburst of Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for Petroleum Resources, over the unsustainability of the Amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is coming rather too late in the day as the beneficiaries are already getting too used to the freebies.

Any attempt to jettison the programme now would be resisted by the people with everything they have, including attacks on oil and gas facilities. Such attacks can easily bring the Federal Government to its knees because the facilities are the major source of government revenues, besides the environmental problems that would accompany such action.

The minister had, few months after he came on board in 2016, said the government needed to improve its Amnesty programme for militants in the Niger Delta to address neglect by the government and international oil companies.

“The Niger Delta has become a cacophony of voices, but without a purpose. It has also become a region with a cacophony of all kinds of projects,” Kachikwu had said.

“If you look closely from the past 10 years, up to $40 billion has been made available for that region and you can never tour the Niger Delta and see a N1 billion or a N500 million investment, but I am telling you, collectively, for the past 10 years, that was what has gone into that region,” he had said.

The statement came after the militants attacked oil facilities of Chevron’s onshore operations and a warning from local leaders in the Niger Delta that military intervention would not stem the violence.

Kachikwu had sounded then like someone that meant real business for the development of the region in terms of infrastructure development and job creation. Unfortunately, his suggestion then ended where it was made.

The non-action by both the federal and state governments in terms of creating sustainable infrastructural development has made the minister’s recent warning or observation at the Seventh Sustainability in the Extractive Industry (SITEI) conference in Abuja a mere echoing of the fear that oil and gas industry operators have often expressed about the Amnesty programme.

He also disclosed that N1.7 trillion would be invested in the region between now and 2021 to pursue the development of the region. But he did not state what form the investment would take. Whether the bulk of it would go for paying stipends or not, it is yet to be cleared.

The alarm Kachikwu raised in 2016 should have been followed with concrete plans that would ensure that there were companies or industries at home where some of the beneficiaries of the programme who were sent abroad to study or acquire one skill or the other, and even those trained at home, could be employed to display the skills they have learnt. But in the absence of these companies, whether large or small, that can absorb the beneficiaries for gainful employment, the government would have to continue to pay the N65,000 per head until it is able to restructure the programme in such a way that would take the eyes of the beneficiaries off the monthly stipends.

The continuation of the programme for this long without feasible and viable industries that can employ these youths makes the Nigerian economy vulnerable to attacks by the youths of the region, who are capable of holding the country into ransom if their demands are not met.

Kachikwu said over $40 billion has been invested in 11,000 projects in the Niger Delta in the last 10 years without anything to show for it.

Rather, abject poverty, environmental degradation and a huge army of unemployable youths have been the hallmarks of the region. Most of the tangible things that are seen in the region were put there by oil companies that are already overburdened by taking up government responsibilities in terms of provision of social amenities through their social investment programmes.

Godwin Izomor, managing director, Vowgas Limited, queried the impact of the amount spent so far both on the people and the environment.

He said doling out money to people was not what the Niger Delta region needed but creating enabling environment through infrastructural development that would allow for growth and development of businesses in the region that can the region’s teeming youths.

According to him, if the $40 billion claimed to have been spent was used to create industrial parks in five states of the Niger Delta, it would have created many jobs for the people and grown the economy of the region.

“The government and the international oil companies should sit down and draw a plan of how they can raise $40 billion in the next five years. They should put the money in an escrow account and invite international companies to build the industrial parks. The multiplier effect of such parks would raise both the economy of the people and revenues of both those states and the federal government,” Izomor said.

He said people that would be employed at such industrial parks would be trained and retrained through such industries that are attracted to relocate to the parks and which would always want to retain their services.

Izomor also took a swipe at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), saying the commission has no justifiable impact on the people of the region.

“The contracts the agency awards are on paper most times. People who reside in Abuja give directives on how the money for those contracts should be shared without the contract physically executed,” he claimed.

Also commenting on the issue, Eddy Wikina, former external relations manager for Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), said the whole Amnesty thing was not sustainable from the outset.

“It has been a big scam enriching a few warlords and people in government. That money should have been applied to create jobs in the region. You encourage people to work and not stay home lazy with dependency mentality,” Wikina said.

Arguing that the programme had been flawed from day one, Wikina said much of the much-touted N65,000 stipend did not get to the militants but was diverted to pay the militant leaders and top government officials.

“They would now threaten destruction of the region if the government stopped the payment,” he said.

As expected, some of the militants that are direct beneficiaries of this anomaly have already reacted to Kachikwu’s statement by threatening “No Amnesty programme, no peace in Niger Delta”.

The group under the aegis of Niger Delta Progressive Front (NDPF) described the minister’s statement as vexatious, provocative, irrational and capable of heating up the relative stable environment in the Niger Delta.

In a statement after an emergency meeting in Abuja, the group warned that the government should call its officials to order.

No doubt, the militants have become so used to the free money and would rather not want any development in the region that would deprive them of their “meal ticket”.

In all of this, however, some observers say while the government may have its blame in the region’s underdevelopment, the people of the Niger Delta region, especially the militants, cannot be exonerated as militancy, kidnapping and all other negative activities in the region have compelled companies to relocate to other parts of the country. There cannot be development in an atmosphere of tension. True economic growth and development can only thrive in an atmosphere of peace.

Olusola Bello

The post Why Amnesty programme may remain a burden appeared first on BusinessDay : News you can trust.