Mkpoikana Udoma
14 October 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, has rolled out a fresh initiative to seamlessly engage beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme from training to job placement.
Dokubo said the new vision aimed at fostering peace and development in the Niger Delta region, will be through the deployment of beneficiaries on training programmes geared towards employment.
A statement by the Media Assistant to the Presidential Amnesty Coordinator, Murphy Ganagana, said Dokubo who spoke when the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, paid him a courtesy visit, promised a remarkable transformation of the Amnesty Programme in the next few months which will trigger a new song and new dance for the Niger Delta people.
He said the Niger Delta region and the nation will gain from creating a synergy between training and job placement for beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme, saying “As you are trained and given a job, the benefit to society is that you also pay tax, and as you pay tax, it is also coming back to the community.
“Those of you who have been close to this programme, one thing that is different from my own is about training, I don’t just send people to train and all that. Training and vocations are linked to universities and institutions. Like the one we want to open at Ondo in the next few weeks, the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurrun, is going to be in charge of that training, because at the end of the training, they will have certificates.
“Also, we are also doing job placements. We don’t just train and keep; we train and put them in work places. Trained to work, not trained to go back and take N65,000 stipends. I don’t want to impress on the pages of newspapers; I want facts on the ground, and once we can create that synergy between training and work placement, I think we are going to sing a new song and a new dance, and that is what I am going to do,” Dokubo noted.
Dokubo also disclosed a new approach for scholarship awards to beneficiaries of the Programme. He urged Niger Delta youths to close ranks and work towards actualizing a common vision, stressing that without unity there cannot be development in the region.
“I am also looking at things that have not been looked at before, where our people have good first degrees, I can send them to wherever, to go and do a Masters programme. It is what I have mandated my office to do. If we don’t use this office well, who will do it? That is why I say the success of this programme is in our hands; if we cannot do all these things I have mentioned, then, we are in trouble.”
Responding, the President of IYC, Mr. Oweilaemi Pereotubo, commended Dokubo for attaining giant strides at the Amnesty Programme within a period of six months. He said there was a need for collaboration between the youth organisation and the Amnesty Office to move the Niger Delta forward.
“The IYC can be useful to you in many ways, you are doing a good job and that wonderful job you are doing needs to be complemented by the IYC. The beautiful thing about it is that IYC is structured to the clan levels in the communities, so the IYC arguably is the most potent information coordinator you need for feedback in respect to the various training that are going on in the various training centres.
“Like you already talked about jobs placements for our people, but still do more and be assured IYC will work with you. As people are complaining that there are no jobs, people are still being employed, and we know with your support, we can ensure that there are jobs for the people who have been trained. There are a lot of our members who have been groomed and trained by this programme.”