Amnesty for Every Nigerian

Modern Ghana

27 August 2011

Amnesty for Every Nigerian

By Nwokedi Nworisara

'Amnesty is not about the Niger Delta region alone but about Nigeria as a whole. It should be about correctng all injustice wherever found in Nigeria; it is about doing those things that would build a Nation out of the separatist factions and disparate interests juggling for attention and resources. This is the only way the program can be sustainable'.-Nwokedi Nworisara, 2009

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There is no way a government can avoid a massive welfare programme for all Nigerian youths whether militant or not. Afterall when has it become a blessing to be an offender? No country in the world can survive for long faced with the same statistics of unemployed and unemployable youths and goeas about talking about anything else. If only for selfish reasons those who sit in big offices should recorgnise that it is people like Kingsley Kuku that is keeping them earning another months salary by merely training and being seen to train youths to acquire requisite skills to earn a living. It is the duty of gocvernment to find jobs for the young after their education. What Nigerian youths need is unemployment benefits paid across board like in many countries that would not want to geopardise everything. Let me tell you that all deviant behaviour we have seen whether Boko Haram,kidnapping kingdoms,militancy,bunkering,and armed robbery are given fuel by rising youth unemployment as well as inability of government to show real concern through such tangible programmes as the Amnesty programme. If I were the President, I would use the Amnesty programme as entry point to mobilise all other youths. I would order inmmediate expansion of the scheme to include all the unemployed in Nigeria. Every Nigerian whether corrupt or a lier; whether a deciever,419 or human trafficker or even the innocent hardworker deserves Amnesty. Considering they did not bring about the years when the locust had its fill in Nigeria;considering they had no hand in educational decline they deserves an agency like the Kuku led Amnesty Programme tob retrain them and offer them new hope for life. There would be a Ministry of youth to supervise these programmes and it should get all youths to register for a minimum monthly stipend of at least N15,000. In return, the youths give up their particulars and you can then create jobs for them realistically.