FORMER Niger Delta militants undertaking studies abroad under the scholarship programme of the Federal Government Amnesty initiative have lamented their unpaid allowances.

They, therefore, called for urgent attention of the government to ameliorate their plights.

The ex-militants also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately appoint a Special Adviser and Chairman of the Amnesty Committee to ease their sufferings, noting that the absence of a head in the amnesty office had increased their sufferings.

The ex-militants’ complaints are contained in a communique issued at the end of their meeting at Birmingham City University, United Kingdom, and made available to journalists in Yenagoa on Saturday through electronic mail.
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The communiqué, signed by their Coordinator, Mr. Emomotimi Pius, regretted that similar programmes being funded by the Federal Government like the Petroleum Trust Development Fund were given special attention, while their allowances and stipends were paid promptly.

The communiqué, which was co-signed by Elliot Yibakeni on behalf of students in Wales, and Raphael Frank on behalf of the students in Scotland, added that the students wanted a review of the programme.

They said the review should take care of the lifespan of the running programmes, even as they rejected the collapsing of the programme with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

“The suggestion of collapsing the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and the Amnesty programme into the Niger Delta Ministry or any bureaucratic bottleneck, supposedly at the expiration of the present subsisting amnesty proclamation by the end of this year should be discarded as it does not acknowledge the unique nature of the scheme.

“But what is required is a fundamental restructuring of the Abuja and London offices and elsewhere. Idle minds and unproductive hands should be weeded away and students who know where it pinches most should have representatives in the offices, likewise for those that are engaged in other capacity building trainings and empowerment programmes,” they said.

They also decried the idea of training students both outside the country and in Nigeria without any arrangement to gainfully engage them to contribute meaningfully towards the growth of the country.

Urging the government at all levels to address the problems without delay, the students said the current government should creatively take steps that would pave the way for Nigeria to explore the bountiful human and natural resources that abound in the country.

They said the absolute reliance on oil should be de-emphasised and the revenues generated from oil should not be expended on experimental ideas but on creative, result-driven and implementable ideas.

The former fighters contended that such development would lift the country from its current state to an export driven and industrialised nation.

They, however, expressed concern over the declaration of December 2015 as the end date of the amnesty programme.

They should come and study in Nigeria. We can't afford that luxury for now. Even PMB/PYO have cut down their salaries. So people, be considerate for once or u contact Tompolo or Asari for scholarship.

Source?!?