You need Java to see this applet.
Copyrights © 2007  All Rights Reserved African Examiner Online is owned by RD Frontline LLC, a state of Maryland registered company
P. O. Box 11582 Baltimore, MD, 21229, USA Tel: 443-904-1239. Editor-In-Chief: Oludare Sunday Fase
News, Politics, Sports
about Nigeria and all Africa
Custom Search
Get our News Update
fast, download  AE
Toolbar!
Click here to
download Now!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
News
Online media
Newspapers
Evil Genius!
ADVERTISEMENT
____________________________________
‘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

A Political system may achieve stability via policies put forward by the various
regimes in power. Policies are organised in such a way as to achieve socio-
economic stability. Stability comes about when policies exist to benefit the
three major classes of society. While the upper class is concerned with
economic growth, the middle classes crave for service delivery and better
wages, the lower classes are concerned with welfare. A good government does
not neglect welfare while pushing for growth because its absence may create
instability capable of derailing the other two. Today Nigeria is talking about
becoming one of the top 20 industrialised nations of the world by year 2020.  
Great plans have woven made to achieve requisite economic growth to take us
there. There is the power reforms much talked about as well as many others.
Meanwhile Statistics show that the youths constitute 70% of the populace and
at least 70% of the youths are unemployed. It means that the best avenue to
achieve stability while awaiting 2020 is to put forward a comprehensive
interventionist welfare policy for youths to help create more time for the
government to achieve its lofty goals. Unfortunately, this process did not come
about. Happily, the only programme on stream that satisfies this requirement
today is the Amnesty programme for Niger Delta militants.

The programme conceived by Late President Yar Adua came on stream two
years ago. This writer was one of those who supported the Amnesty
Programme in 2009 at its inception. My article on the issue: “Amnesty for all
Nigerians” posited that the programme should be a national intervention to
mitigate rising youth unemployment in Nigeria. The reason being that we
operate in an organic polity whereby a problem spreads its effects when not
tackled holistically. Today, almost every word of this article has come true. We
have many other youths asking to be included in the Amnesty programme and
some innocent youths may have submitted guns just to be included in the
Niger Delta programme. The success of the Kinsley Kuku led Amnesty
programme is just a pointer that this is actually the direction government should
be going if she is serious about ending youth unemployment and its inherent
instability in the polity.

There is no way a government can avoid a massive welfare programme for all
Nigerian youths whether militant or not. After all 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 goes about
talking about anything else. If only for selfish reasons those who sit in big
offices should recognise 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 government 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 jeopardise 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 immediate
expansion of the scheme to include all the unemployed in Nigeria . Every
Nigerian whether corrupt or a lier; whether a deceiver,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 to be 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.

To position the present Amnesty Programme to engender a nationwide welfare
system for youths should be the focus now. If you look at what the Kingsley
Kuku led Programme is doing you may delineate three trusts. The first one is to
retrain the youths recognising the deficiency in our present educational system
vis a vis the potential employment opportunities in the Niger Delta Region.  
Secondly, the programme design acknowledges that jobs and the education
plus requisite training are missing. It means that some of these youths would
receive training abroad. The sacrifice of proper training should be borne by the
country because these youths are not to blame for the brain drain that has left
our institutions second rate. The Amnesty programme recognises that you do
not punish these youths for a crime society failed to insulate from them. In
essence, what government is doing is share the blame by footing the bill for a
better education. Of course, there is the sense in negotiating with these groups
but it comes only as a way of taking control and reorganising the justice
apparatus more equitably.  In essence, the Amnesty programme would grow
from phase to phase. Stay too long in a particular phase and the effect elapses.

Finally, there is the reintegration of these trainees into society, hopefully a
society that has changed in the meantime while the youths trained or schooled
aright. It means that you are also embarking structural changes to make sure
we do not end up having another batch of troube makers to retrain in future. You
ensure that structural defects in the constitution are fixed. The last exercise of
job-hunting for these youths completes the responsibility and brings on the
stability needed. It is no longer going to be enough for government to hide under
the excuse that youths should seek self-employment for look at what it has
brought us. Bunkering, Armed Robbers, Ritual Killers, human trafficking,
Kidnapping. I am not sure any of these courses are taken inn any formal
educational institution I know in Nigeria . There is an age you cannot force a
man or woman into self-employment. Even then, it should have been after a
successful career in a formal sector son that the self-employed could be
attuned to formal institutional requirements as well as obey the laws of
decency. The whole essence of welfare is for government to maintain control n
only over the youths at their most vulnerable period of growth and maturity. You
can only exercise power over someone that owes you something. So
competent governments make the youths owe them some gratitude for their
education, for good jobs and social justice. That is why you will never see any
government preaching self-employment just as we do with relish here. All said it
needs a committed manager,a selfless person to manage a welfare programme
to train youths and give them hope because your gain is only in the success of
the people concerned. A trader and political contractor may be unable to
superintend the growth of human beings. Welfare is a strange area in Nigeria
where the political system throws up the most selfish public officers ever
created,those who look up to themselves for strength and build up their families
to periodically access them and congratulate them. Such people could not have
been able to run the Amnesty programme to the point of bringing about the
relative peace in the Niger Delta today.

However, the Kingsley Kuku led Amnesty programme has many huddles to
cross if he must maintain the present momentum. It is not yet Uhuru. Infact the
only reason people are cheering is that it is a novel idea in Nigeria to see an
agency of government delivering welfare in tangible forms not on pages of the
newspapers alone. The biggest huddle comes when the government fails to
expand the programme to include other unemployed in the country whereby the
phasing of the programme stagnates. Then other criminal groups may struggle
to undo each other to claim attention and in the process, the economic growth
that would guarantee a sustainable job creation may turn to a mirage because
of increasing instability in the country. To avoid reaching this point it is
important we expand the scheme to become the national vehicle to engage the
youths and thereby extend welfare to the deserving while gaining valuable time
to allow the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan fulfil his mandate.

Mr Nworisara a Policy and media consultant is based in Port Harcourt Nigeria.
By Nwokedi Nworisara
African Examiner, Sunday, August 28, 2011
Amnesty for Every Nigerian
| More
________________________________________________________________________
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: Comments posted on this site do not reflect the views of African
Examiner.com.  Please avoid abusive, vulgar, racist or rude words. Our
editors regulate these comments. Any comment that violates this term
of use will be deleted and may be banned. Send report of any misuse to
editor@africanexaminer.com. Thanks
We Will Change Nigeria’s
Investment Environment
– Jonathan
By African Examiner, Baltimore
Friday, August 26, 2011
Salami vs NJC: Jonathan
acted to prevent a
vacuum –Presidency
By African Examiner, Baltimore
Friday, August 26, 2011
INEC Records 24 Convictions
of Electoral Offenders
By African Examiner, Baltimore
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Eid-el-Fitri: Jonathan assures
Nigerians on security and
national transformation
By African Examiner, Baltimore
Tuesday, August 30, 2011