Militants in the Niger Delta

Financial Times
27 December 2010

Militants in the Niger Delta

I am spending a day on a residential “non-violence course” for former militants from the Niger Delta, the creeks of which contain the bulk of Nigeria’s vast oil and gas reserves. Thousands of these fighters have signed up to an amnesty that began 18 months ago, whereby they agreed to hand over their weapons, attend this course, and do vocational training. The amnesty is billed as a “disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation” scheme—known as DDR—of the kind that has been tried across Africa, to varying degrees of success.

Today is exam day for this week’s batch of over 1,300 students. Youths in white uniforms hang around in the dusty compound in the stifling afternoon heat. When it is their turn, they list mantras on topics such as “the steps to non-violence” in rote fashion. Unable to do the simple written test, the majority sit oral exams.