Niger Delta Amnesty: Good Idea, Flawed Strategy

Nigerian Observer

21 Feb 2011

Opinion

Niger Delta Amnesty: Good Idea, Flawed Strategy
RECENT news reports indicate that twenty-seven ex-militants from the Niger Delta were detained and questioned by the Ghanaian police for “unruly conduct”. The ex-militants, who are participants in the ongoing Amnesty Programme, are members of the group currently undergoing skills training at Ghana’s National Vocational Training Institute. They allegedly staged a threatening protest action over claims that they were being cheated out of their daily allowances of $100. Since the Amnesty programme officially took off, ex-militants have staged different forms of protest to press their claim of entitlement to monthly allowances.

Mr. Timi Alaibe, the former Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on the Niger Delta and immediate past Chief Executive Officer of the Amnesty Programme, has recently called the amnesty exercise “a resounding success” and “the sincerest effort by the Federal Government to address the Niger Delta question”.