Leaders of ex-militants in phases Two and Three of the Presidential Amnesty Programme have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for ordering the release of N30 billion for the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-agitators.
They urged the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig-Gen Paul Boro (retd), to commence payment of all allowances owed ex-militants particularly seven years housing allowance and outstanding stipends from January 2017 till date.
Speaking to Vanguard on behalf of his colleagues, one of the leaders, self styled ‘Gen’ Kingsley Egiriki, expressed satisfaction with the Federal Government’s decision to allocate N35 billion for the Amnesty programme.
He said: “For the President to release N30 billion out of the N35 billion to the Amnesty programmes goes to show that the Federal Government has the interest of the Niger Delta region at heart.
“With this, it is becoming glaring that our people will soon begin to see the fruits of the various dialogues between the federal government and leaders of the region”.
Vanguard, May 11, 2017
Opinion
Looking closely at the developments in Nigeria one can not but wonder what is behind it all.
There was a reason why the militant from the oil producing areas of the country started their uprising in the first place. The reasons of poverty and serious neglect in Niger Delta area, lack of motor-able roads, lack of school or education for the citizens, serious problem of unemployment and total disregard to the welfare of the people.
These whole and much more issues are still present in these areas. A walk through all places makes one wonder if they are actually part of the country.
Shell and Chevron Oil colluded with the government and have totally destroyed the farm land and the livelihood of the people.
Oil spillage makes it impossible to farm on the land, there are no classroom for the children in the community, the Oil company prefer to bribe government nonentities rather than putting a very small fraction of money back into the community, something Shell and Chevron Oil can never do in the western world.
See the attached video to be able to understand the plight of the people.
None of the issues raised on that video have been resolved, the community are suffering while Government is paying the ex-militant leaders to keep their followers quite
Compensation
So when you look at this then one can only conclude that the N30bn amnesty program money release to this ex-militant leaders is a big time BRIBRY from the federal Government to keep the leaders quite while the community suffers, no difference from what Shell and chevron Oil is doing to the same community.
The people deserves huge compensation as to be able to live their life like every other person in other part of the country.
No compensation for them and to add more insult to it the crude oil is taking from the land and sent to the Northern part of the country to be refined. What happen to building a refinery where the crude oil is been extracted to create jobs for the locals? Why is it that the Northern Nigeria politicians and ex-military men owns oil wells in the country? These group of NONENTITIES are super rich while the Niger Delta people are forever in poverty.
Shame on the Government, I can’t blame the Ex-militant leaders at all they just wanted to get paid and they have the right to but in an ideal society not through such an elaborate presidential Bribery program like Amnesty program.