Recently, Chief Kingsley Kuku, (now a doctorate degree holder), former Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and former Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Implementation Committee, paid a courtesy visit to Major-General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd), the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP). It was a meeting between the past and the present.

Created in 2009 by the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua, PAP has evolved, passing through several leaderships until 2022 when the then President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Ndiomu as Interim Administrator. Ndiomu’s arrival at the Programme triggered a rash of reforms to reposition PAP and put to an end spates of agitations from some quarters. Ndiomu showed very clearly that he understood the critical role of the Amnesty Programme in the socio-economic existence of Nigeria.

The three elements of the programme, namely: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, needed to be effectively connected. Ndiomu knew there were disjointed dots in the vision and mission matrix. Indeed, he should know. Between 2010 and 2015, Ndiomu then as a Commandant with the Nigerian Army was an arrowhead in the provision of security for the programme and helping it to achieve stability. And that was a critical period in the life of the programme when some elements within and outside the region plotted to derail the well-thought out scheme. By hindsight, Ndiomu should be proud of the sacrifices he and his officers made to guard and protect the programme in its formative and fragile years. Nobody has said it but this might be one of the criteria in a bouquet of considerations that got him to lead the Programme post retirement from the military.

Credit must go to the late Yar’Adua for his foresight, empathy and nationalistic questing that made him to birth this special agency. Considering the relative peace that has pervaded the once-upon-a-time febrile and flammable region, it’s safe to say that Yar’Adua saw the big picture and went ahead to implement what was once an idea on paper. Within the last 14 years of its existence, except for reported cases of fraud, PAP has more than surpassed expectations of naysayers whose skepticism at the beginning and vicious campaigns to impugn the leaderships and the Programme itself in the latter years amounted to zilch.

What critics of the Programme cannot deny is that it has achieved the primary objective of birthing peace and sustaining same in the Niger Delta region. But there is yet another undeniable hallmark of PAP: the fact that there has been incremental momentum in areas of capacity building, upskilling of ex-agitators in contemporary vocational and cognitive learning including ICT, empowerment of the participants such that many have transitioned from job-seekers to wealth creators and employers of labour.

One of the highlights of the recent convocation of Western Delta University (WDU), in Oghara, Delta State was the emergence of an ex-agitator, Mr. Ebiwari Shadrach, a student under the Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Programme, as the overall Best Graduating Student in the university. He bagged a First Class in Computer Science. Many people in the WDU main Auditorium shed tears of joy when Shadrach, in his speech, thanked the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and his successors, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for birthing and continuing with the Amnesty programme.

While thanking God for the Amnesty scholarship, Shadrach said his sojourn in the University has opened many doors which could enable him achieve his academic and career goals. The story of Shadrach is just one in a series of such tales of men found hope in their moments of hopelessness.

This story indexes the testimony of Ndiomu. He has within one year turned around the fortunes of the Programme, clearing the cobweb of corruption, ensuring that more people are captured in the programme, and evidently making the concept of Reintegration of ex-agitators a reality. Kuku could not but notice this transformational shift when he met with Ndiomu. He lauded the retired General for not jettisoning key legacy projects that were initiated in the early days of the Programme.

The Kuku years saw the initiation of pilots training programme, maritime sea farers programme and sundry scholarship programmes, among others. In a country where successive leaderships are notorious for abandoning projects of their predecessors, Ndiomu bulked the trend, electing not only to sustain existing initiatives but also introduced new ones to fully realize the idea of Reintegration of ex-agitators into the mainstream society. Kuku testified to this when he openly applauded Ndiomu for forging a stronger and administratively robust PAP.

Since his appointment as the top cat of the PAP by Buhari, Ndiomu has become a rallying hub for the ex-agitators, someone they respect his words and someone they believe in. He promised change in the system, he pledged probity and inclusivity. He minced no words when he promised to cleanse the Programme of rot and miasma. He has achieved all and much more.

He came at a time the Programme was drifting to nowhere with tell-tale signs of an imminent, almost inevitable, rupture in the relative peace in the region. And in barely 12 months, Ndiomu has demonstrated that the confidence President Buhari and the Niger Delta people reposed in him was not misplaced.

He has since brought his influence to bear on the people and the region for the general good of the country. Some statistics to illustrate the story. By September 2022 when he assumed office, crude oil production was at a lowly 1.015 million barrels per day. Cases of force majeure by oil majors on account of violence in the creeks were reported. This was the time the oil and gas sector in Nigeria was faced with huge divestments by the International Oil Companies (IOCs). By January and February 2023, production had climbed to 1.308 million barrels per day. Peace in the region was firming up and the IOCs grew in confidence to produce more. By October this year, production had climbed to 1.416 million barrels/day. Though, this is still below the OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels per day, but experts have attributed the jump to increased investments in oil and gas propelled by peace in the region.

Between September 2022 and now, one of the major cankerworms eating up crude oil production in Nigeria, oil theft, was dealt the deadliest blow. Oil theft was not only exposed, it was reduced drastically. This was made possible, according to Intelligence authorities, by the cooperation of ex-agitators and indigenes of the oil-rich communities who willingly supplied actionable intelligence to the relevant authorities. Such gesture from host communities has been attributed to the aggressive and progressive reintegration of ex-agitators into the system.

The inability of the country to meet her allotted OPEC quota is no longer for reasons of volatility and upheaval in the Niger Delta. Aside the fact that there has been a global decline in oil production which has impacted oil earnings across nations including Nigeria, stakeholders insist that more investments in oil and gas sector will help shore up production.

Overall, Kuku’s visit and endorsement of the strides of Ndiomu should be seen in the context of what it really is: A clear affirmation of the competence and capacity of Ndiomu on the job.

First published in Sunday Sun