GOVERNANCE is not fun. It’s not a prize to be won. It’s a duty to perform. But things go wrong when government fails in its duty to prevent certain crimes from becoming a present danger to lives and property. For instance, late President Umaru Yar ‘Adua on assumption of office, became acutely aware that militancy in the Niger Delta posed a serious national security problem.
He didn’t keep quiet.  In 2009, he decided to do something concrete. He unveiled the Presidential Amnesty programme. It was a deliberate effort to address the restive nature of youths in that region and  empower them through training in different skills at home and abroad.
Today, many of the recipients are masters of their own destinies .They laid down their arms and embraced peace.
Few people gave the Yar’Adua’s initiative a realistic chance to succeed. Reason being that the militants had grown from a “jayvee squad” (apologies to President Obama) to become monsters. Their leaders fed fat on ransoms. Our economy suffered heavily in revenue losses as a result of their attacks on oil pipelines and abductions of oil workers and prominent people .
However, seven years on, the Presidential Amnesty programme remains undeniably the late President’s rock star performance.  Back to Rivers state. Unarguably, the politics of the state like many other states in the country, is filled with disturbing questions, large and small. Rivers’ case is unique. Incidents of cultism, militancy and spate of killings gave the state a bad image. Early this year, ahead of the rerun elections in March, President Buhari slammed Rivers as “the deadliest  state in the country “. The truth is that it was an exaggeration to make the state look ungovernable. It was all about partisan politics.  Cultism and militancy in Rivers state predate the present administration.
The good news is that the government of Nyesom Wilke has taken the bull by the horn. Just recently, the governor inaugurated the state Amnesty programme. It is a well thought out programme to rein in cultists, militants and their sponsors.
But the thrust is  change the narrative about Rivers and empower repentant cultists and militants and make them useful citizens. And if they become responsible citizens, that in turn will boost the economy of the state and by extension, that of the country since Rivers is one of geese that lay the golden eggs.
Members of the amnesty committee include representatives of the Armed Forces, the Police, the Department of Security Service(DSS). It is headed by  Mr. Ken Chinda, a Special Adviser to the governor on security matters. The members have their duty well spelt out : to interface with different cult groups in the state for the purpose of retrieving arms from them. The committee is also charged with working out modalities to ensure proper integration of the cultists and militants, who of their own volition, have subscribed to the lofty goals of the programme.
But  Wike has made it crystal clear that on no account will the state government pay for arms surrendered in the course of the programme. Those who have surrendered their arms and have  followed the provisions of the amnesty will not be prosecuted. The committee which has already started work has been given two months to complete its assignment.
At a recent workshop on Leadership Entrepreneurship and Development (LEAD) organised by the State’s Sustainable Development Agency, the Deputy governor  Dr. Ipalibo  Banigo reiterated government’s position that the programme was not designed to enrich repentant cultists and militants ,but to motivate them as well as integrate them into the larger society. The state government has already begun the disbursement of N2 billion loan from the Central Bank  of Nigeria to over 35,000 to establish micro business owners.
What Wike has done is exemplary. He needs to be commended. The result is already showing. Few weeks after the inauguration of the Amnesty programme over 2000 cultists,among them 200 youths from Rundele  community in Emohua council area  surrendered their arms and publicly renounced their membership of different cult groups  and promised to turn a new leaf.
It takes political will and clarity of purpose to take on cultists,kidnappers and militants.
It’s therefore mischievous to hear some members of the opposition All Progressives Congress in the state claiming that governor  Wike has no constitutional power to set up Amnesty programme. That such power rests with the President alone. That’s not correct. It’s also not  sensible to argue as the APC members have erroneously said, that the Amnesty programme was designed to shield supporters of the government. No concrete evidence to support such allegation.
The exercise is only the first in the disarmament phase of the state government.  Under the new Rivers state kidnapping Law passed by the State House of Assembly known as the Rivers state kidnap (prohibition) amendment Law 2015, kidnappers are to forfeit proceeds of their crime, whether in assets or cash. Since charity begins at home, the governor has demonstrated his sincerity to flush out cultists and other undesirable elements when he led the security agents in the demolition of some kidnappers’ hideouts in his own local government of Obio Akpor. A hideout reportedly owned by a notorious cultist, Munachim Ihunwo was destroyed in the operation.
The decision by the State government to build police barracks and health centres on the reclaimed lands is a step in the right direction. Altogether, if Wike’s amnesty programme will have the expected impact ,that is, restoration of peace, law and order across all communities of the state, the repentant cultists and militants should resist being  used by politicians.
This has become even more important  now as the countdown to the rescheduled rerun state and national legislative elections this month begins.

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