It is general knowledge that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the suspension of the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof Charles Dokubo, with a promise to set up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the agency.
As expected, this development has elicited reactions from stakeholders and the general public. While some people have hailed the action of the president, others view it with scepticism. The boundaries between both spheres have shifted back and forth for some days. In some cases, they have ended up igniting a lot of tension.
Although I sympathise with Prof Dokubo on whose shoulder rests the burden of supervising the amnesty programme since March 13, 2018, when he was appointed by the President. However, there is reason to believe that the present administration may have a sincere desire to move not only the amnesty programme, but also the Niger Delta region forward in such a way that both will protect the rights of future generations of citizens.
More than anything else, the suspension of Dokubo is proof that the Federal Government needs a change in strategy with regard to such appointments. There are historical examples with vivid images to support this fact.
First, the appointments of Timi Alaibe, Kingsly Kuku and Boroh share similar characteristics. They were all Niger Deltans, but none of them was connected to the grassroots, especially the people living in the coastal areas. Like other Nigerians with critical interest, I believed and still believe that the viability of such office depends on the appointment of a development-minded fellow who is respected by the people and lives around the creeks.
While working as the foot soldiers of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, a non- governmental organisation in 2002, some youth leaders in the Niger Delta who made sincere effort to promote Martin Lurther Kings Jr’s non-violence philosophy, among other things, laid a solid foundation for what is now celebrated as the presidential amnesty programme. The initiative precisely caught the attention of a multinational oil company in the region, the Shell Petroleum Development Company, who as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility supported the initiative with the training of youths from the region locally and overseas. Like wild fire, the support base increased with the additional intervention of Chevron Nigeria, a Federal Government parastatal and other multinational oil companies operating in the region.
Some of these youths that benefitted from the programmes included Pullah Ekpetuayerin, now a member of the Delta State House of Assembly representing Burutu constituency; Comrade Shedrack Adediga, currently an Executive Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission; Comrade Mulade Sheriff, who is the Executive Secretary, Egbema/Gbaramatu Communities Development Foundation, Chevron Nigeria Limited Regional Host Communities Development initiative; Sixtus Nwoke, Global President, African Youth Parliament, Gen Abiye Harry, Mr Jonathan Akatakpo, Sir Jonathan Lokpobori, Mr Presley Igalagha, Mike Odili, and Mr Victor Ikoma from Rivers State, among others.
Mr President and his aides must, as they have demonstrated in past, understand that the old concept of an amnesty programme, with focus almost solely on ex-militants and geopolitics, has to be enlarged to accommodate more of the professionally-trained ex-militants who are unemployed at present, as well as youths who were not of age as of the time the programme was introduced.
More important, there is a need for the Federal Government to appreciate the appointment of a new helmsman for the programme from a rights-based perspective.
Government must desist from the current non-participatory approach to such appointments and embrace a broad-based consultative approach that will give civil society organisations operating in the region and the people a sense of ownership over their own issues. This suggestion is based on a very simple reason. Aside from the age-long belief that if one wants to know about the road ahead, he or she must ask those returning, non-profit organisations working in the region have been able to establish beyond reasonable doubts that NGOs provide platforms for pursuing the truth, peace, creation and distribution of ideas in the same way that government does for the people.
All things being equal, there is a need to step beyond party affiliations and take a look at the region’s fundamental underdevelopment. As clarified by the United Nations Independent Expert on the Right to Development, a development programme directly or indirectly requires a particular process that allows the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights and all fundamental freedoms, by expanding the capabilities and choices of the individual.
Regardless of what others may say, it will be rewarding in economic and socio-political terms if organisations, such as The Foundation for Ethnic Harmony; The Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta, Centre for Peace And Environmental Justice and AA Peace Works, among others, are consulted for recommendations and inputs, as well as to identify persons living in the region, who have stood with the people, participated in their struggles and are accepted by all. Most importantly, such persons should be able to do the job.
Accordingly, success will depend on the extent of the Federal Government’s holistic approach in appointing a new person to this position.
Finally, the destiny of the people of the Niger Delta is not in the hands of the ‘city boys,’ but on the government’s ability to summon the political will to appoint somebody who is from the region and accepted by the people.
Utomi, a Lagos-based media consultant, wrote in via jeromeutomi@yahoo.com
