Oscarline Onwuemenyi
10 May 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Professor Charles Dokubo, has urged leaders and elders of the Niger Delta not to pursue individual interests, but offer advice and guidance to benefit the people of the region.
The newly-appointed amnesty boss also expressed determination to chart a new direction for the amnesty programme, as he harped on the need for qualitative training that would give jobs to beneficiaries, declaring that this was the panacea to sustainable peace in the Niger Delta.
He spoke in Abuja when members of the national executive committee of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
In a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Murphy Ganagana, in Abuja, Prof. Dokubo noted that issues of the Niger Delta were being addressed, describing the amnesty programme as work in progress, saying it was time for Niger Deltans to put things in order and do the needful.
According to him, “We have questioned authority, we have questioned governance; and now, we also have the time to set our house in order; to do the things that we are supposed to do.
“I believe that with the powerful organization that has come to my office and the guidance you are going to give me; guidance that will only benefit our Niger Delta people, guidance that is not supposed to benefit individuals, but our people, I believe we shall be on course.”
Prof. Dokubo said he would focus more on the reintegration aspect of the programme, adding that he would not accommodate new entrants into the programme, which should be winding down in due course.
“My focus is on reintegration. How do we get jobs for those who have been trained here such that they would no longer live on stipends? I wish to use to underscore the compelling need to recalibrate and reboot the Amnesty Programme to meet current realities in the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large”, he said.
