…Amidst revolt from disgruntled elements
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
When he was named the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in September this year by President Muhammadu Buhari, he did not have any idea about the level of rot that had set into the establishment.
Beyond the decay that had eaten deep into the fabric of the agency, Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd) did not also know the high level of intrigues and opposition that those who have been using the PAP as their private property to smile to the bank on a monthly basis would unleash against him.
But barely three months into office, all the forces arrayed against him from within and without the agency have begun to stare at him like a monster. Ndiomu has now begun to feel the full weight of the office, which was conceived as a springboard by late President Umaru Yar’Adua on June 25, 2009 for the rehabilitation, training, empowerment and mentoring of ex-Niger Delta agitators and reintegrate them into the society.
Ndiomu has also come face to face with those who have all along been eating from the PAP and have come to the erroneous notion that there can be no Niger Delta and PAP without them. Regrettably, these are well-placed Niger Delta individuals who wield enormous power and influence in the region and can easily mobilize actions for or against anyone, government or its officials, who try to defy them in the discharge of their duties.
These people have been playing one role or the other during the formative years of the Amnesty programme. Thus, any attempt by any PAP leadership to placate them, would undoubtedly trigger some backlash, blackmail and anger from these ‘power block’.
Aware of the overwhelming influence of this power block in the Niger Delta, every successive administrator of the PAP and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, has always deferred to these individuals, and they usually dictate to them which job they want and the price at which such contract would be executed and when it should be paid for whether the job ever gets done or not. In other words, any PAP administrator, who succumbs to the pervasive influence of these elements becomes a ‘good administrator’ and does not face unceasing protests and blockade of the uncompleted East-West Road, while anyone who dares to do what is right by ensuring that PAP jobs are competitively priced and given to the most competent contractor to do, is bound to face a litany of blackmail, protests and anger of the self acclaimed ‘godfathers’ of the Niger Delta. They have always been the ‘real managers’ of the PAP while whoever is picked as the administrator must take instructions from them or risked being labeled as an ‘enemy of the Niger Delta people’ and forced out of office, as a consequence.
But Ndiomu, who has been appointed at a very delicate and trying moment to preside over PAP, appears to have a different opinion and disposition to the way things should be done given the fact that the federal government is not too pleased with the way the agency has been running in the past 13 years without turning in the desired results from the 30,000 ex-agitators, who were captured from the outset of the programme. The IA, who was actually appointed by the government to oversee the winding up of PAP, is under pressure to prove to the government that the programme is still useful and should not be shut but be run as a social investment project to continue to give succour to Niger Delta youths and mentor them to become more useful citizens to themselves and the nation. And, the federal government appears to have seen reasons with Ndiomu and has decided to give him a chance to prove that the PAP will no longer be run on a ‘business-as-usual basis’ and has therefore decided to deviate significantly from the despicable ways of the past, which gave room for massive fleecing of public funds by a few powerful and influential people in the Niger Delta while the majority got nothing in the end.
That is why Ndiomu appears to be under pressure to change the status-quo at the PAP and entrench a new culture of operation in terms of contract awards, scholarship award to qualified Niger Delta children and the method of payment of stipends to ex-agitators, which has left much to be desired and drawn scathing flaks against the programme. Without doubt, many have come to see the PAP as a place where contracts and money are shared to powerful elements while the same persons control the accounts meant for the payment of the stagnant 30,000 beneficiaries of the programme, even though thousands have been trained and empowered to exit the scheme in the last 13 years.
It is understandable why Ndiomu has taken the bull by the horn by trying to be different from the way PAP was and putting a few things in place so that the agency is not dismantled as hitherto contemplated by the government. Among the issues, which Ndiomu is trying to change is the authentication of the list of the beneficiaries of the monthly payment of N65,000 to ex-agitators. The IA has already conducted a forensic analysis, which confirms that only a handful of powerful elements receive the huge cash that is supposed to go to 30,000 persons, who reportedly surrendered their arms and accepted amnesty in 2009. The analysis shows that some fraudulent persons use several names but linked to one Biometric Verification Number, BVN, to collect the cash meant for hundreds of beneficiaries, thereby collecting government cash under false pretence.
After the analysis, Ndiomu went ahead to publish the duplicity of names linked to BVNs which have been collecting fat cash on behalf of non-existent beneficiaries and went ahead to block further payment to such fictitious entities. The number of the fake claimants so far discovered and blocked is close to 2000 and the verification may produce more evidence that the real number that should be on the payroll of the PAP should be far less than the 30,000 persons who now collect cash monthly from the federal government of Nigeria as PAP beneficiaries. While the action of Ndiomu has not gone down well with the perpetrators of the scam, who have been feeding fat from the scheme since 2009, it has at least exposed the nefarious and untoward activities of some persons who appear to be drawing back the hands of the PAP and giving it a bad name while it has indeed, very good intentions for the people of the Niger Delta in particular and Nigeria in general.
Gen. Ndiomu is aware of the war being waged against him by those who do not like the fact that he is changing the dynamics at PAP but he is not looking back in order to achieve the mandate set for him by the government. He is to prove that the amnesty programme is still relevant and deserves further federal government support and he is working out several strategies to make it work and meet the expectations of both the Niger Delta youths and the federal government of Nigeria. He has taken the PAP to the doorsteps of every government agency that can buy into it and make it to work better and serve the interest of the ex-agitators and the people of Niger Delta. Apart from meeting with the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, to solicit for slots for ex-agitators, Ndiomu has also met with the commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and civil Defence corps, Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, and the Head of Service of the civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan,to press for the beneficiaries of the PAP, who have been trained to be absorbed into the core civil service to give them a sense of belonging and also carve a career path for them. Indeed, when Ndiomu met with the Head of Service of the Federation in her office in Abuja, he was armed with an approved letter by the Presidency that no fewer than 350 graduates from Amnesty Programme, who bagged first class degrees in their respective universities, be absorbed into the public service of Nigeria. All of these things were already in place but Ndiomu’s predecessors did not press for them to be done and they ended up as conceptual variables until he arrived the scene in September this year. It is interesting and reassuring that the HoS, the IGP and the Commandant-General of Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps have all assured that they will recruit PAP beneficiaries into the services and this is a welcome development that deserves the applause of the people, not hatred and blackmail on the person of the IA, who is merely exercising the mandate given to him by the Presidency.
It is not unexpected that the attacks, blackmail and anger against Ndiomu will continue for a long time given the fact that some persons who have been undeservingly drawing huge sums of money from PAP have over the years for doing nothing other than peddling influence, been somewhat shoved aside from their comfort zone by the IA. That is why more and more protests against Ndiomu and the mobilization of thousands of foot soldiers to protest against Ndiomu and block the East-West Road by those aggrieved over his widespread changes meant to strengthen and add value to PAP, may not end in a short time to come. Luckily for Ndiomu, many key stakeholders in the Niger Delta have seen the strategies adopted by him to change the dynamics of the PAP and make it more useful to the generality of the youths and ensure its sustenance by the Federal government. He received strong words of encouragement and support from traditional rulers of the Niger Delta led by King Alfred Diete-Spiff, the Amanyanabo of Brass, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Sen. Douye Diri, the former governor of Bayelsa, Sen. Seriake Dickson and the pioneer Coordinator of PAP, Mr. Timi Alaibe, when he met with them recently to brief them on what he was doing to tweak the programme following his appointment by Mr. President.
The message to take home therefore, is the clear and unambiguous fact that Ndiomu has actively and consciously breathed fresh air into the PAP and earned the applause of well-meaning Nigerians and the angst a few displeased persons in the process.
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