An Appeal to Presidential Amnesty Administrator: Dr. Otuaro, to Save Our Youths by Building Rehabilitation Centres and Vocational Training Institutions in the Niger Delta Region, by Asiayei Enaibo

I am prompted to write this piece to you. The fulcrum of this open message is hinged on several factors. The first is the expanded Stakeholders’ Meeting you held with Niger Delta Critical Stakeholders ranging from Traditional Rulers of the region to the women empowerment meeting (the panacea for peace stabilisation) and the Amnesty beneficiaries from the camp leaders to the followers of the different phases for a round table discussion on peace, security and economic growth of the Niger Deltans and Nigeria at large. You have RENEWED HOPE on the mantra of the President’s vision for Nigerians. Dr. Otuaro’s Book of Amnesty I once wrote is a strategic blueprint to foster peace, unity, and development.

Consequently, my first logical deduction from the series of meetings convened as a post-Amnesty Conference to find a lasting impact and sound ideas to consolidate the essence of PAP as one who was part of the struggle, but now empowered by the government to translate the blueprint in the era of the agitation into meaningful development of the people in the region, is that you are correcting the weaknesses of previous coordinators as well as building a sustainable legacy of Tompolo’s vision which hopes to retell practically the old story of the Amnesty Programme beyond the sixty-five thousand Naira stipends to key empowerment, infrastructural development, education, economic growth, human capital development, vocational training, and peace. Your aim of security and gender inclusiveness is also well felt, and it is the first in the history of the programme. Besides these highlights of your impeccable leadership, it is to appreciate your wider consultative initiative where the Ex-War Lords were brought together to give their support to your good governance. President Tinubu Bola Ahmed is lucky to have somebody like you at this critical time in the history of Nigeria, where every region is sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Dr. TOMPOLO, and you have iced all the hot fires and engendered through dialogue, the cross-fertilization of ideas capable of ushering in monumental development.

The 3-day event (23rd-26th September 2024) at KFT Place Warri, Delta State, has calmed the storms on the teacups and given birth to peace and collaboration in governance and impactful innovative ideas. Kudos to you! If leaders in governance had often had roundtable discussions with community leaders, the scale of priority needs assessment of projects suitable for community development being discussed, our regions would have been transformed long ago. This is a sign of the people-at-heart leadership upon which I make the two basic pleas below

First, the Plea to Build a Rehabilitation Centre in the Region

This call is a means of intervention to save the lives of young people in the Niger Delta region that had passed through tough times from a crisis-ridden region to oil theft, sea pirates to robbing and kidnapping to Internet fraud, cultism and drug abuse. I know the Amnesty Programme has a lot of sensitive initiatives for the region to be reformed.

Yes, these suggestions are on the premises of my research works with Stakeholders Democracy Network SDN, and as a Journalist in GbaramatuVoice International, where we visited several communities, Kingdoms and states and saw the lifestyle of young boys and girls in the region. Soon, the streets will not be enough to accommodate mad people who will need rehabilitation within the Niger Delta region.

During my research visit to Bomadi, an urban-rural community, more than 80 boys and girls were seen smoking weed in a popular hotel. In that place, I could only see the preponderance of anticipated psychological head off people in our region through hard drug consumption in the name of getting “high.” The peer-drug influence is alarming that the Amnesty Programme should make a fast approach to build rehabilitation centres in the Niger Delta because after being “high”, the next thing is to take arms for sea piracy, kidnapping and robbery. The potential victims are our brothers and sisters in the same villages as those boys come after our mothers in their petty trades in their communities and their children. Bomadi and other riverine communities are striking evidence. Take a follow-up on this. You will see the reality of drug and substance abuse in the riverine communities.

However, thank God for Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, which has rehabilitated more than a hundred youths in Lagos and restored a reformed mindset. Also curb the pandemic of sea piracy, yes, Some do not even drink beer any more courtesy of Tantita Reformation Crusade in the person of High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, Chairman, and the MD Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, High Chief Kestin Pondi. Instead of going to a faraway place for the rehabilitation centres in Lagos, these facilities can be built by the Amnesty office within the Niger Delta region to change the narrative. Another key issue to look into is that some of our boys who have been receiving the Amnesty stipend are going straight to drugs to the extent that their ATMs are in the hands of drug dealers. They buy into debt.

As the salary comes, it goes in its entirety to payment of drugs. Therefore, always demanding more money, such youths should be moved to rehabilitation centres for reorientation to change their character and lifestyles. Takes a perception survey, the gains of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, you understand the drive of my appeal. This can work in line with the blueprint of the Amnesty Programme.

Second, the Plea to Build a Vocational Training Institute

This institute should be built side by side with the rehabilitation centres with part for Amnesty Programme people and part for impacted community training depending on the fields of endeavours.

Those young boys who have nothing to do and have immersed themselves in constant drugs can be directly taken to the vocational training centres for rehabilitation to give them a new lease of life. This will not only save them from their peer groups but also save them from the dangers of health challenges as most youths are in the hospital for major organ and system failures. This is the aspect Niger Delta media practitioners like us can learn new skills in journalism. I am hopeful that your constant engagement with critical stakeholders for the transformation of the Amnesty office can look into these areas deeply and birth a transformation of the Niger Delta region where the youths and women are empowered

This open letter is my humble suggestion to your already mapped-out vision to make great success in your reign as the PAP Captain. May the wisdom of Dr. TOMPOLO guard you on the true purpose as a vast strategic planner with a vast knowledge of the Niger Delta region. Your initiatives have a great impact on the development and economic growth of our people.

Thanks, in anticipation of your corresponding action to the above issues stated for reformation.

Asiayei Enaibo

The Talking Drum
Writes from GbaramatuVoice Media organization