₦airaland Forum

She was married to a Dr Matthew Paul Stroud. Lucky guy. He ran when he could.

Looks like this Cynthia Munachimso had been married before and had two children from that marriage. She carefully withholds any information about her previous marriage in all her curated stories.

Poor VC probably got married to her just two years ago (in 2022) without conducting appropriate background checks. He went to carry what Nigerian men in Britain have been carefully avoiding.

Now see. Serves him right.

Time will tell. THis might also be her undoing.

Sent overseas on Medical Scholarship by the Government of Rotimi Amaechi. Abandoned by the Government of Governor Nyesom Wike.
Helpless Rivers State students cry out for help!!!!!
------

We, the sixteen final year medical students and 7 recent medical graduates of the University of Debrecen Medical School, Hungary, under the sponsorship of the Rivers State Government (RSG), were awarded scholarships via the now defunct platform, Rivers State Sustainable Developm

.....Development Agency (RSSDA), to study Medicine in 2012 during the Governor Rotimi Amaechi-led administration.
Contrary to claims by the current Rivers State administration, we have no political affliations. We are just young people trying to better our

......lives and become productive members of the society.
This scholarship was awarded to us based on merit after series of rigorous examinations and personal interviews. A contract was signed by both parties, thereby binding the government to provide our tuition fee, living expenses

......and book allowances for the full extent of our studies, spanning a minimum of 6 years.
In 2015, the Governor of Rivers State, Barr. Nyesom Wike, asked for students under the aforementioned scholarship to be sent back home to Nigeria due to insufficiency of funds to continue the

......sponsorship. We were offered to be placed in Nigerian universities but these promises were never actualised as plans were never made by the government to book flights and obtain admission into these schools.
We have spent 49 months (4 years and 1 month) fending for ourselves.


.......We have undergone untold hardships, been sent out of our apartments and have run into huge debts in our bid to survive. Our University has been gracious enough to allow us continue our studies despite our enormous debts, with the condition that our certificates will be withheld
......until our debts have been paid in full.
We currently owe our university 4 academic years worth of tuition and are owed 48 months worth of stipends. This is a lot of money. It is practically impossible for any of us to raise such huge sums on our own.
Being in a foreign country
.......
far away from home, and having no funds being sent to us for the past 4 years has come with a lot of challenges including: studying for difficult medical exams – of which we were not even sure we would be allowed to take, while being hungry, depressed, starved for many days; some
........
sleeping outside in the cold in winter; others with the fear of being evicted by landlords, just to mention a few.
We've made several efforts to communicate with the governor directly and indirectly, through several media outlets, our parents back at home have held meetings with
........several relevant personnel. Television and radio interviews have been granted at various media houses, all to no avail. The governor has made several promises to complete the payment for all medical students on the scholarship and has even gone as far as making claims to lure
.......people into believing that these debts have been cleared off, however, this is false.
Our University and the Rivers State Government are currently in court over the non-settlement of these debts and this case has dragged on extensively. This is why we believe it is a ploy by the

........Government to maintain our silence throughout the period of the forthcoming elections.
It is important to note that without our certificates, we would not be allowed to practice medicine anywhere in the world, not even in Nigeria, therefore, we are using this medium to call
.......
on well meaning individuals, organisations, the Rivers State Government and the President of Nigeria to come to our aid, as it is pertinent that our tuition and stipends are fully paid.
We would be very grateful for any assistance rendered by anyone regarding this issue and we
........are more than happy to provide any further information needed.
You can reach us via 23strandedrssdadoctors@gmail.com.

Thank you. #strandedrssdadoctorsindebrecen


https://twitter.com/jimhalls247/status/1073188481139122176

Neglect of the Presidential Amnesty Program - Group calls for Mass Action

We wish to call the attention of all people of the Niger Delta, the international community and all men of goodwill, to the increasingly poor treatment that the Niger Delta and its people has been receiving from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari since his inauguration as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2015.



The past three years has been an intensely terrifying experience for the Niger Delta and its people.



For three whole years and counting, the government of General Muhammadu Buhari, a former dictator and now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has deliberately launched a campaign to subdue, neglect and abandon the Niger Delta.



For three years and counting, there has been no new project and no new vision for the Niger Delta.



In fact, old projects such as the East West Road that was reaching completion stage has been recklessly abandoned.



Old ongoing programmes such as the Presidential Amnesty Programme has been largely neglected and abandoned.



In stead, resources from the Niger Delta are being channeled to fund interventionist programmes in North East Nigeria much to the chagrin to former militants and combatant elements in the Niger Delta.



More than $6.4 billion has been spent on intervention programmes in the North Eastern region of Nigeria.



A $2 billion Refinery project is being planned for the border town of Mashi in President Buhari’s home state of Katsina.



The refinery project will also include a multi billion dollar pipeline that will run from Katsina state to Niger Republic.



It does not matter that the old Kaduna refinery, which was built for billions of naira sourced from the Niger Delta has today failed.

Also a multi-billion dollar railway line is also being planned to run from Daura, President Buhari’s home town to Maradi in Niger State through the Nigerian – Nigerien border town of Jibia.



In 2016, $3.3bn was spent on intervention programmes in the North East.



In 2017, another $3.1bn was also spent on intervention.



In 2018, a similar amount has been quietly provided for in the 2018 budget. This does not include the recent declaration of a provision of $1bn for security purposes in the North East.



Yet, the same Federal Government continues to complain of lack of funds to prosecute the Clean Up of Ogoni land and complete the East West Road.



Should we therefore assume that because the people of the Niger Delta have chosen the path of dialogue and peace, the Buhari regime has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the development of the Niger Delta region?



The Presidential Amnesty Programme, which was designed to cater for former agitating elements in the Niger Delta, has been completely abandoned with funding almost completely stopped.



Should our people therefore reject the Amnesty Programme and declare an end to the truce with the Nigerian state?



Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group that has killed more than 1000 Nigerian soldiers, razed down more than 40 communities in the North East region of Nigeria, abducted thousand of innocent women and children, yet they have become the new bride of the Buhari administration.



In spite of all the death, havoc and pain that Boko Haram have continued to unleash on Northern Nigeria, no member or leader of Boko Haram has been arrested, jailed or punished.



The continued neglect of the Niger Delta has resulted in increased insecurity in the Niger Delta and a rise in the establishment illegal oil refineries in the Niger Delta with an attendant increase in environmental pollution. There is continued increased in poverty, pain, hardship and squalor. Communities who produce oil and gas are even worse hit.



The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which is supposed to be an interventionist agency of the Federal Government in the Niger Delta, has become an avenue for slush funds to cater to the political needs of partisan politics rather than the needs of the people of the Niger Delta. Even the President's wife is a recipient of NDDC contracts.



This explains why the Chairman of the Commission, a former Senator is currently an APC Senatorial Candidate in Cross Rivers State WHILE the Managing Director of the Commission, is an APC Gubernatorial Candidate in Akwa Ibom State!



The same Federal Government, which has abandoned the Amnesty Programme, recently awarded a multi billion-naira surveillance and protection contract (of Trans Forcados Pipeline TFP) to a company called Ocean Marine Solutions, owned by a friend of the Buhari Government, for the princely sum of (USD) $18.5 million (N6.66bn).



What if this pipeline is completely attacked and destroyed again?



We therefore call on all groups in the Niger Delta to rise up to the new challenge.



If the Presidential Amnesty Programme cannot be properly funded and catered for, then our people will reject it and all former combatants will renege on all existing agreements.



If the resources of the Niger Delta cannot be used to improve the quality of life of our people, then there will be no need for fight for peace in the Niger Delta.



It will amount to full blown debauchery if we sit back and allow the exploitation of the Niger Delta to continue while our people are given a cold shoulder by the Buhari government.



The time has come for all men of goodwill to return to the drawing board. It is time to redeem, rescue and salvage the Niger Delta.



We call on all former agitating groups in the Niger Delta to come together and chart a new way forward. Our silence must never be mistaken for cowardice. If we do not come together and act, we will all be consumed by the ignominy of the Buhari junta.



Godswill Tamuno



Spokesman,

Council for Mass Action in the Niger Delta

December 7, 2018

‘Buhari appointed me to bring peace, development to Niger Delta’

Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo was born in Abonnema, Akuku Toru Council of Rivers State, where he had his primary and secondary school education before proceeding to the University of Teesside, Middleborough, in the United Kingdom (UK) and a course in Modern History and Politics at the University of Bradford. He later obtained a Master’s degree in Peace Studies and doctorate in the same university. He was later appointed a temporary lecturer in the department before returning to Nigeria in 1993.

Dokubo was a Research Professor at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos and has published extensively in his area of interest, authoring and editing various scholarly books and journal articles, including Nigeria’s Security Interest in Africa, Nuclear Proliferation and the Probability of Nuclear War: The Effectiveness of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime and recently, The Defence Policy of Nigeria: Capability and Contest.

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dokubo spoke to IGHO AKEREGHA, Head, Northern Region and SEGUN OLANIYI in Abuja on his task to reposition the Amnesty Office and bring succour to ex-militants and the oil-rich region, as well as on the controversies, challenges, beneficiaries as foreign students, insisting he wants to be remembered as a son of the Niger Delta who ran a transparent and accountable regime that brought development to the region.
...................
What do you want to be remembered for as head of the amnesty office?

I want people to remember that there was a man who tried to fix this programme, who tried to give it a new focus, to re-energise the people of the Niger Delta, make them realise that their benefits will be given to them and make them hopeful to attain the heights they have set for themselves, so that at the end, everybody will say there was a Charles Dokubo.

The Guardian, Saturday Magazine

https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/buhari-appointed-me-to-bring-peace-development-to-niger-delta/

Coalition of Niger Delta Groups commend Presidential Amnesty Programme, Extol Professor Charles Dokubo, Endorse President Buhari

A coalition of young groups in the Niger Delta, Forum for the Advancement and Upliftment of the Niger Delta (FAUND), comprising of former beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has commended the Presidential Amnesty Programme and endorsed President Muhammad Buhari for another four years in office.

In a press release made available to journalists yesterday, the group’s Director of Media, Degbani George said that the Presidential Amnesty Programme has provided succor to the people of the Niger Delta through its Vocational skills programme, Education & Scholarship Programmes, Agricultural training programmes, Entrepreneurial Development programmes, Empowerment Programme and Peace & Conflict Development Programmes.

The group commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the timely and well thought out appointment of Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo, a scholar, researcher and administrator as Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

They stated that Professor Dokubo’s scholarly and fatherly approach in the management of the Amnesty programme has not only ensured greater efficiency but smoother and more transparent delivery.

They also stated that at a time where other interventionist agencies in the Niger Delta has become tainted by politics and politicians, the Amnesty Programme is currently the most successful interventionist programme in the Niger Delta today creating opportunities and enabling the lives of tens of thousands of Niger Delta youths.

Professor Charles Dokubo was appointed Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme on March 13, 2018.

Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo obtained a Ph.D. in Nuclear Proliferation from the University of Bradford. He was a Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and Member of the Negotiation and Conflict Management Group.

Signed.

Degbani George
Director, Media Affairs
Foundation for the Advancement and Upliftment of the Niger Delta (FAUND)

October 26, 2018

Professor Charles Dokubo - In Pursuit of New Vision for Niger Delta

August 8, 2018 12:57 pm 82 0


Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Professor Charles Dokubo, is pursuing the federal government’s ‘New Vision for Niger Delta’ initiative with ambition and determination. Ndubuisi Francis writes

Besides the task of rebooting the amnesty programme, the recent appointment of Professor Charles Dokubo as Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was part of the overall effort by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to reassure the people of the oil-rich region of his commitment to the development of the area as encapsulated in the “New Vision for Niger Delta” initiative.

One hundred days after taking over the mantle of leadership, having been appointed on March 13, 2018, Dokubo has pursued with uncommon vigour the assignment entrusted to him by the president – to give a new lease of life to and totally recalibrate the programme for ex-agitators.

Unlike some newly-appointed chief executives assuming such key offices, Dokubo did not enjoy the usual backslapping and congratulatory messages that ought to come with his announcement as the PAP coordinator and special adviser to the president.

Past Grievances

It is an unassailable truism that the amnesty initiative designed for former armed agitators in the Niger Delta, who had been demanding more control over the oil and gas resources of the region, but decided to turn their backs on armed struggle, has since 2010 helped in the sustenance of peace and conducive environment for oil production, the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy. But the grumbles by the beneficiaries and other stakeholders about how the programme was managed in the three years preceding Dokubo’s appointment were causing apprehension. There were fears of a possible relapse into restiveness that might upset the relative the peace and security in the region.

Some of the grievances range from lateness to outright failure to pay stipends to the enrolled ex-agitators, mismanagement of mobilisation of beneficiaries for training, mismanagement of funds, and inefficiency in the running of the operations of the Amnesty Office itself. The laxity and sometimes tardiness in the management of the programme also gave vent to speculations that the federal government might be planning to stop the programme.

Reassurance

Beyond the task of rebooting the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration and (DDR) programme, the appointment of Dokubo was also part of steps by the Buhari government to reassure the people of the oil-producing region of its commitment to the programme in particular, and the development of the region in general as encapsulated in the administration’s “New Vision for Niger Delta.” With the huge burden of expectations from stakeholders and the government at the back of his mind, the consummate researcher and university teacher had to roll up his sleeves and go to work from the word go. Although it is still early days, there is no doubt that Dokubo has succeeded in reigniting confidence in the programme among all stakeholders in his first 100 days in office. He has also succeeded in laying and streamlining structures and processes to address all the previous complaints and agitations about the management of the programme, especially from beneficiaries.

Working with the recommendations of a committee he set up on assumption of office to help sieve through the haystack of problems militating against the programme, Dokubo has since activated sweeping reviews of all contracts awarded by his predecessor to enable him have a grasp of the financial assets and liabilities.

Similarly, a thorough audit of all departments and personnel in the office carried out by the committee led to Dokubo’s engagement of a new lead reintegration consultant who subsequently superintended a reappraisal of the personnel and their deployment to relevant departments at the Amnesty Office.

Rejig

Based on the recommendations of the Programme Review Committee, he carried out the rejigging of all on-going vocational, educational and post-training empowerment programmes of the Amnesty Office in the country and offshore in the past 100 days. A verification exercise of delegates for educational programmes ordered by Dokubo has helped uncover hundreds of students enrolled in universities across the country on the ticket of the Amnesty Programme, but who are not known to the office, as they were not captured in the data base of beneficiaries of the initiative. It was also discovered that some universities, apparently colluding with some corrupt personnel in the Education Unit, were engaged in rampant, unpatriotic act of inflation of fees to be paid for students by the Amnesty Office.

While investigation into how the fraud was perpetrated under the previous managers of the programme is on-going, Dokubo had promised that rather than wholesale disowning of the students, he would work out ways to tackle the problems with the management of the institutions involved.

Interface with Beneficiaries

About two weeks ago, Dokubo was in London to meet with the amnesty programme’s education delegates studying at universities across the United Kingdom. The presidential adviser used the opportunity of the meeting, which was attended by 47 delegates from 25 institutions across the United Kingdom, to assure the students that they had not been abandoned. It was also an opportunity for the students to meet a coordinator of the programme for the first time in over three years.

At the interface, he encouraged and reassured the students of his commitment to their welfare and well-being. The students also took advantage of the forum to pour out their complaints, most of which centred around payment of their school fees, living expenses, opportunities for post graduate studies, employment after graduation and the possibility of getting back on the programme for those expelled for one reason or the other.

While Dokubo gave detailed answers to the questions, the most significant outcome of the meeting was no doubt, the unveiling of a new set of guidelines for the offshore education programme. The special adviser had set up a committee to draft new policies to guide and address some of the regular concerns of delegates for offshore education some weeks before the London event.

This was with the understanding that such set policies and procedures will help to streamline responses to such concerns and prevent abuses which have resulted in so much confusion and allegations of favouritism in the past.

The new policy guiding the offshore education programme which has already been adopted clearly stipulates conditions for the continuation or discontinuation of sponsorship of beneficiaries, conditions for sponsorship of students for second degree and guidelines for new offshore deployment of students, among others.

In his response to the various concerns of the students at the London Forum, the presidential adviser relied on and quoted copiously from the new policy, thus ensuring that the delegates went away from the interaction with clear answers to many of the issues that have been of concern to them.

For stakeholders, the interface with the students as well as the new draft policy was a fresh start for the offshore education component of the Amnesty Programme. But such redefinition and engendering of a more robust relationship between the amnesty office and the programme’s critical stakeholders can also be said to be one of the key achievements of the coordinator in the past 100 days.

Parley

On assumption of office, Dokubo had stated that engagement with stakeholders would be key to his efforts in rebooting and regaining the confidence of critical stakeholders in the amnesty programme. In actualisation of this promise, the coordinator, even as he battled with finding solutions to the many challenges he inherited on assumption of office, had held fruitful engagements with all the critical stakeholders across the programme’s spectrum in the past three months.

The first of such meeting was in Lagos where he met with the key leaders of ex-agitators enlisted in the first phase of the PAP. The very crucial meeting was for the “Big Five,” leaders of the ex-agitators who led thousands of Niger Delta ex-agitators to disarm and accept the offer of amnesty from the federal government in 2009.

The leaders included Chief Government Ekpomupolo (popularly known as Tompolo), King Michael Ateke Tom, Dr. Ebikabowei Victor-Ben (also known as Boyloaf), Hon. Farah Dagogo, and Chief Bibopre Ajube (Shoot-at-Sight). Tompolo and Tom were represented at the meeting. The Lagos meeting with the ‘Big Five’ was the first of its kind in about five years and was therefore seen as an indication of their confidence in the new leadership at the amnesty office.

Dokubo followed up with meetings with leaders of phase two and three of the ex-agitators in Abuja as well as an enlarged meeting of larger stakeholders in the Niger Delta in Lagos attended by key political actors, traditional rulers, civil society groups, and academicians, among others from the oil producing region.

The meetings were essentially interactive forums where the leaders of the ex- agitators tabled their various complaints against the way the amnesty programme was managed under the previous administration, especially on issues relating to payment of stipends, training and empowerment opportunities for ex-agitators and their leaders. While Dokubo did his best to answer the questions and allay their various concerns concerning the amnesty programme, he was also explicit in his explanations to the former agitators on the new direction he will pursuing in the spheres of education, vocational, post training engagement and job placement as the coordinator.

The presidential aide also repeatedly assured the ex-agitators that he would do everything necessary to ensure that all aspects of the programme deliver the expected benefits for them and the Niger Delta in general.

The ex-agitators departed from the sessions confident that their concerns would be taken care of given that the amnesty programme is now being driven by a steady hand. The leaders of the ex-agitators who attended the stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja and Lagos as well as other stakeholders of the programme had in similar vein, been expressing their support for Dokubo’s efforts to turn around the amnesty programme.

The coordinator has also in the past 100 days, initiated concrete steps to actualise the promises of change he has been dishing out to the ex-agitators. To tackle the problem of delay in payment of students’ allowances, for instance, the presidential adviser had on assumption of office asked the onshore education unit to develop a sustainable payment plan for the next two years.

He has also worked hard to ensure that stipends and other allowances are paid to ex-agitators, though such efforts have sometimes been hampered by the delay in the release of funds to the amnesty office by the Budget Office of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance, which is clearly beyond Dokubo’s power.

The PAP coordinator has also been pursuing aggressively, the completion of the Amnesty Office’s vocational training centres spread across five states in the Niger Delta. This is critical with the realisation that out of 30,000 agitators who dropped their guns and ammunition to embrace the amnesty programme, 11,297 are still waiting to either undergo vocational training that will enable them to be self-employed or be deployed for formal education.

Already, 200 ex-agitators have been sent for training as automobile technicians at a facility owned by foremost indigenous vehicle manufacturing company, Innoson in Anambra State, while over 500 others have been deployed for training in other vocations during Dokubo’s first 100 days in office.

To facilitate the re-integration of ex-agitators who have successfully gone through the proper demobilisation, Dokubo had on assumption of office created a Job Placement and International Development Partners Engagement Unit (JPIDPEU) in the Amnesty Office.

The unit has already profiled delegates for various vocational, civil service, catering services, hotel and fast food jobs among others. Truly, for Dukubo, it has been 100 days of hard work.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/08/08/in-pursuit-of-new-vision-for-niger-delta/

In Pursuit of New Vision for Niger Delta

August 8, 2018 12:57 pm 82

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Professor Charles Dokubo, is pursuing the federal government’s ‘New Vision for Niger Delta’ initiative with ambition and determination. Ndubuisi Francis writes

Besides the task of rebooting the amnesty programme, the recent appointment of Professor Charles Dokubo as Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) was part of the overall effort by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to reassure the people of the oil-rich region of his commitment to the development of the area as encapsulated in the “New Vision for Niger Delta” initiative.

One hundred days after taking over the mantle of leadership, having been appointed on March 13, 2018, Dokubo has pursued with uncommon vigour the assignment entrusted to him by the president – to give a new lease of life to and totally recalibrate the programme for ex-agitators.

Unlike some newly-appointed chief executives assuming such key offices, Dokubo did not enjoy the usual backslapping and congratulatory messages that ought to come with his announcement as the PAP coordinator and special adviser to the president.

Past Grievances

It is an unassailable truism that the amnesty initiative designed for former armed agitators in the Niger Delta, who had been demanding more control over the oil and gas resources of the region, but decided to turn their backs on armed struggle, has since 2010 helped in the sustenance of peace and conducive environment for oil production, the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy. But the grumbles by the beneficiaries and other stakeholders about how the programme was managed in the three years preceding Dokubo’s appointment were causing apprehension. There were fears of a possible relapse into restiveness that might upset the relative the peace and security in the region.

Some of the grievances range from lateness to outright failure to pay stipends to the enrolled ex-agitators, mismanagement of mobilisation of beneficiaries for training, mismanagement of funds, and inefficiency in the running of the operations of the Amnesty Office itself. The laxity and sometimes tardiness in the management of the programme also gave vent to speculations that the federal government might be planning to stop the programme.

Reassurance

Beyond the task of rebooting the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration and (DDR) programme, the appointment of Dokubo was also part of steps by the Buhari government to reassure the people of the oil-producing region of its commitment to the programme in particular, and the development of the region in general as encapsulated in the administration’s “New Vision for Niger Delta.” With the huge burden of expectations from stakeholders and the government at the back of his mind, the consummate researcher and university teacher had to roll up his sleeves and go to work from the word go. Although it is still early days, there is no doubt that Dokubo has succeeded in reigniting confidence in the programme among all stakeholders in his first 100 days in office. He has also succeeded in laying and streamlining structures and processes to address all the previous complaints and agitations about the management of the programme, especially from beneficiaries.

Working with the recommendations of a committee he set up on assumption of office to help sieve through the haystack of problems militating against the programme, Dokubo has since activated sweeping reviews of all contracts awarded by his predecessor to enable him have a grasp of the financial assets and liabilities.

Similarly, a thorough audit of all departments and personnel in the office carried out by the committee led to Dokubo’s engagement of a new lead reintegration consultant who subsequently superintended a reappraisal of the personnel and their deployment to relevant departments at the Amnesty Office.

Rejig

Based on the recommendations of the Programme Review Committee, he carried out the rejigging of all on-going vocational, educational and post-training empowerment programmes of the Amnesty Office in the country and offshore in the past 100 days. A verification exercise of delegates for educational programmes ordered by Dokubo has helped uncover hundreds of students enrolled in universities across the country on the ticket of the Amnesty Programme, but who are not known to the office, as they were not captured in the data base of beneficiaries of the initiative. It was also discovered that some universities, apparently colluding with some corrupt personnel in the Education Unit, were engaged in rampant, unpatriotic act of inflation of fees to be paid for students by the Amnesty Office.

While investigation into how the fraud was perpetrated under the previous managers of the programme is on-going, Dokubo had promised that rather than wholesale disowning of the students, he would work out ways to tackle the problems with the management of the institutions involved.

Interface with Beneficiaries

About two weeks ago, Dokubo was in London to meet with the amnesty programme’s education delegates studying at universities across the United Kingdom. The presidential adviser used the opportunity of the meeting, which was attended by 47 delegates from 25 institutions across the United Kingdom, to assure the students that they had not been abandoned. It was also an opportunity for the students to meet a coordinator of the programme for the first time in over three years.

At the interface, he encouraged and reassured the students of his commitment to their welfare and well-being. The students also took advantage of the forum to pour out their complaints, most of which centred around payment of their school fees, living expenses, opportunities for post graduate studies, employment after graduation and the possibility of getting back on the programme for those expelled for one reason or the other.

While Dokubo gave detailed answers to the questions, the most significant outcome of the meeting was no doubt, the unveiling of a new set of guidelines for the offshore education programme. The special adviser had set up a committee to draft new policies to guide and address some of the regular concerns of delegates for offshore education some weeks before the London event.

This was with the understanding that such set policies and procedures will help to streamline responses to such concerns and prevent abuses which have resulted in so much confusion and allegations of favouritism in the past.

The new policy guiding the offshore education programme which has already been adopted clearly stipulates conditions for the continuation or discontinuation of sponsorship of beneficiaries, conditions for sponsorship of students for second degree and guidelines for new offshore deployment of students, among others.

In his response to the various concerns of the students at the London Forum, the presidential adviser relied on and quoted copiously from the new policy, thus ensuring that the delegates went away from the interaction with clear answers to many of the issues that have been of concern to them.

For stakeholders, the interface with the students as well as the new draft policy was a fresh start for the offshore education component of the Amnesty Programme. But such redefinition and engendering of a more robust relationship between the amnesty office and the programme’s critical stakeholders can also be said to be one of the key achievements of the coordinator in the past 100 days.

Parley

On assumption of office, Dokubo had stated that engagement with stakeholders would be key to his efforts in rebooting and regaining the confidence of critical stakeholders in the amnesty programme. In actualisation of this promise, the coordinator, even as he battled with finding solutions to the many challenges he inherited on assumption of office, had held fruitful engagements with all the critical stakeholders across the programme’s spectrum in the past three months.

The first of such meeting was in Lagos where he met with the key leaders of ex-agitators enlisted in the first phase of the PAP. The very crucial meeting was for the “Big Five,” leaders of the ex-agitators who led thousands of Niger Delta ex-agitators to disarm and accept the offer of amnesty from the federal government in 2009.

The leaders included Chief Government Ekpomupolo (popularly known as Tompolo), King Michael Ateke Tom, Dr. Ebikabowei Victor-Ben (also known as Boyloaf), Hon. Farah Dagogo, and Chief Bibopre Ajube (Shoot-at-Sight). Tompolo and Tom were represented at the meeting. The Lagos meeting with the ‘Big Five’ was the first of its kind in about five years and was therefore seen as an indication of their confidence in the new leadership at the amnesty office.

Dokubo followed up with meetings with leaders of phase two and three of the ex-agitators in Abuja as well as an enlarged meeting of larger stakeholders in the Niger Delta in Lagos attended by key political actors, traditional rulers, civil society groups, and academicians, among others from the oil producing region.

The meetings were essentially interactive forums where the leaders of the ex- agitators tabled their various complaints against the way the amnesty programme was managed under the previous administration, especially on issues relating to payment of stipends, training and empowerment opportunities for ex-agitators and their leaders. While Dokubo did his best to answer the questions and allay their various concerns concerning the amnesty programme, he was also explicit in his explanations to the former agitators on the new direction he will pursuing in the spheres of education, vocational, post training engagement and job placement as the coordinator.

The presidential aide also repeatedly assured the ex-agitators that he would do everything necessary to ensure that all aspects of the programme deliver the expected benefits for them and the Niger Delta in general.

The ex-agitators departed from the sessions confident that their concerns would be taken care of given that the amnesty programme is now being driven by a steady hand. The leaders of the ex-agitators who attended the stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja and Lagos as well as other stakeholders of the programme had in similar vein, been expressing their support for Dokubo’s efforts to turn around the amnesty programme.

The coordinator has also in the past 100 days, initiated concrete steps to actualise the promises of change he has been dishing out to the ex-agitators. To tackle the problem of delay in payment of students’ allowances, for instance, the presidential adviser had on assumption of office asked the onshore education unit to develop a sustainable payment plan for the next two years.

He has also worked hard to ensure that stipends and other allowances are paid to ex-agitators, though such efforts have sometimes been hampered by the delay in the release of funds to the amnesty office by the Budget Office of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance, which is clearly beyond Dokubo’s power.

The PAP coordinator has also been pursuing aggressively, the completion of the Amnesty Office’s vocational training centres spread across five states in the Niger Delta. This is critical with the realisation that out of 30,000 agitators who dropped their guns and ammunition to embrace the amnesty programme, 11,297 are still waiting to either undergo vocational training that will enable them to be self-employed or be deployed for formal education.

Already, 200 ex-agitators have been sent for training as automobile technicians at a facility owned by foremost indigenous vehicle manufacturing company, Innoson in Anambra State, while over 500 others have been deployed for training in other vocations during Dokubo’s first 100 days in office.

To facilitate the re-integration of ex-agitators who have successfully gone through the proper demobilisation, Dokubo had on assumption of office created a Job Placement and International Development Partners Engagement Unit (JPIDPEU) in the Amnesty Office.

The unit has already profiled delegates for various vocational, civil service, catering services, hotel and fast food jobs among others. Truly, for Dukubo, it has been 100 days of hard work.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/08/08/in-pursuit-of-new-vision-for-niger-delta/

Forum for the Advancement & Upliftment of the Niger Delta
[FAUND]

Appointment of Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo, best thing to have happened to the Niger Delta in a very long time

The Forum for the Advancement and Upliftment of the Niger Delta (FAUND) wish to commend the Federal Government and the President Muhammadu Buhari for the appointment of Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo as Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

We cannot fail to also commend the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno (RTD.) for recommending Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo to the President for this appointment.

At a time when political players and stakeholders in the Niger Delta have become so divisive and offensive, we commend the foresight of the Buhari government in the appointment of a leading technocrat, academic and progressive to the very sensitive role and position.

Professor Dokubo’s humaneness, humility, sense of purpose and commitment to the advancement of the Niger Delta has in so small way, helped to mold the conscience and consciousness of hundreds of thousands of Niger Deltans scattered across the 9 states of the Niger Delta.

Since his appointment as Coordinator of PAP, Professor Dokubo, a professor of International Diplomacy, War, Defence and Peace Studies, has won new friends and followers for President Buhari in the Niger Delta than all other political leaders in the Niger Delta.

As a Kalabari man, Professor Charles Dokubo has improved the image of President Buhari in Kalabari land.
As an Ijaw man, Professor Dokubo has become the driver of the new wave of Buhari-appreciation in Ijaw land.

As a leading Niger Delta stakeholder and renowned academic, Professor Dokubo has provided a new vehicle for the people of the Niger Delta to feel first hand, the gains of the Buhari presidency with respect to plans and programmes designed for the advancement of the lives of the people of the Niger Delta.

Less than 6 months into his tenure as Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, the programme has been returned to its cardinal mandate of catering to the needs and aspirations of former militants and agitators in the Niger Delta who have chosen the path of peace, stability and progress.

The Reintegration of the thousands of young men who laid down their arms in the Niger Delta has been moved into new gear with new enthusiasm and commitment.

Entitlements to these young lads are now being paid on time and empowerment programmes have been greatly reconfigured to ensure that the beneficiaries are equipped with the knowledge, skillset and tools they require to live productive lives.

We call on all people of the Niger Delta to support the efforts of Professor Dokubo in fixing the Presidential Amnesty Programme in order that it can be returned to the mandate for which it was set up for.

The era of reckless petition writing aided and abetted by disgruntled contractors and stakeholders should come to an end.

The advancement and upliftment of the Niger Delta must be the concern of everyone.

God Bless Nigeria
God bless the Niger Delta

Nimitein Oyibo – President
Edgar Oyinkoro – Secretary
Degbani George – Director, Media

It is unfortunate that people could decide to be mischievous and seek to denigrate and malign Professor Dokubo, a renowned Professor of International Dilpomacy, War, Peace & Defence Studies. So unfortunate.

Degbani George
Forum for the Advancement & Upliftment of the Niger Delta
FAUND


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NDeltaSolidarit:
This is a malicious, wicked and spurious report made by unscrupulous and corrupt elements who are only after their own selfish interests. We condemn this publication in its entirety. It is clearly an unguarded and pernicious narrative published to derail our Niger Delta youths.
We want to make it very clear that the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme Prof Charles Dokubo is a very morally upright man and cannot involve himself in fraudulent acts that can cause embarrassment to him and the office, as he is determined to leave his footprints as the man who moved the Niger Delta to greater heights, which he is currently doing.
If only these mischief makers, greedy, money and rumour-mongering detractors and unsolicited critics will allow him to perform the job which he was appointed to do…
We believe that any petitions or publications made against his administration is clearly an act of greed, outright bitterness and joblessness, as anybody who has his hands full with productive work will not have the time to write a post this brutally uninformed, mischievous and slanderous.
We hereby advise the perpetrators of this act to desist from such publications as they will only end up looking very foolish, because none of these allegations is true. If such is true, they should have provided evidence of all these accusations and proven them beyond every reasonable doubt. But since no evidence has been provided alongside this report, we can only conclude that these ungrateful and evil people are just trying to bite the hands that feed them.
We are solidly behind Prof Charles Dokubo and we will make sure that every barking dog is silenced and subdued! The Professor has proved himself capable of carrying out his duties since the inception of his tenure. Simple!