Opinion

Should Amnesty Programme End In 2015?

Published

13 years ago

February 4, 2013

The Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, a few days ago disclosed that the Presidential Amnesty Programme started in 2008 to empower ex-militants from the Niger Delta region will end in 2015. Is it right or wrong for the programme to end at the stated period? Our correspondent, Calista Ezeaku and photographer, Dele Obinna went to town to seek answers to the question from the public.

Excerpts:

Mr Zephaniah Egbufor-Businessman

I feel the programme should even end earlier than 2015. My reason is that by now the people in charge of this programme and the government should be able to assess how far they have gone over the years. All the money they have spent on these boys, are they getting the desired result? They should be able to assess the impact of this programme and know whether they should be spending that money or not. I heard that some people including women were protesting their exclusion from the programme. There is no way everybody in the Niger Delta would be part of the programme. I think what government should do is to provide social amenities for the Niger Delta region. They should provide things that will have positive impact on the daily life of everybody. They should go to some key underdeveloped areas and improve the standard of living of those people.

Apart from that, they should look for a way of making sure that the boys that have taken part in this programme are ready to start making a living for themselves. It’s not just about spending the money, some of them when you give them that money they don’t do anything with it. They first take it like salary. It shouldn’t be that way. If you place them on monthly salary it means you are encouraging other people to want to be militants.

So they should be able to see how they cannot encourage people to be jobless. They should encourage people to make use of the brains and achieve something. They should help these boys to be self sufficient. Fine, the trainings have been okay but this time, they should be able to assess what positive impact the programme has made on the people. There should be a way of ensuring that these boys give back to the communities in the Niger Delta where they come from.

Mrs Perpetua Muruako – Applicant

I’m fully in support of the programme ending in 2015. Many of them were sent to different countries overseas to learn one thing or the other and when they came back they had nothing to offer. They just depend on the monthly allowance given them by the government. So they are supposed to use the knowledge they acquired over there, to help the society instead being liabilities to government. I agree, some of them that were sent abroad for studies or whatever are serious but some are not serious at all. They came back with nothing. So let’s see the result of the money spent so far before we start talking of adding more years.

However, I am of the opinion that in order to prevent the occurrence of agitation when this programme ends in 2015, government should really consider how to help the people of the Niger Delta. They should empower their youth, provide them with free education, good roads, good water and what have you.

Hon Chike Chinwo – Politician

Personally, I will say if government says they will end the programme in 2015, there should have been an adequate arrangement to that effect. Whether the programme should end in 2015 or not is not the issue. The question is, is the amnesty actually affecting the people for whom the amnesty is declared or are there people using it to sap the government? This is because often a time we have read through the media that some persons are either involving those people who are not militants or the freedom fighters as the case may be. Therefore we are calling on government to actually investigate properly if those people who are concerned are actually the people benefiting from the programme. If they are not, then there is need for the extension of the time. And if actually they are trying to stop it by 2015, they should make adequate preparations for them so that those insurgences would not rise up again. I heard some of the people who were sent out for training, on coming back were left alone. I heard some of them are crying. So I think if you actually trained persons, at the end of the training you have to equip them. You have to mobilise them or look out for jobs for them to do to sustain themselves. If you just abandon them without nothing, they will go back to the creeks .

If these boys are not empowered, they might start the agitation again in 2015. Government should also look into the reasons for the agitation in the first place and if they find out the problem, then the problem should be solved, the people should be compensated. Just like what is happening in Ogoni land now, the UNEP report recommended that the place should be cleaned up. But up till now, nothing has been done. And if the people come up again to demand for their rights, we will start talking.

So, government is not helping us. if they say they want to do something for the people, they should implement it to the letter so that at the end of the day we’ll have a relaxed mind. So the amnesty programme should be extended to a reasonable time when people must have been acquinted with it and gained from the programme.

Engr. Edward Worgu- Off shore Engineer

For me, if federal government said they had a package for the ex-militants and they want to end it all of a sudden, for me it is not carried. They should ensure that everything they have promised these guys is in place, because if you suddenly stop the amnesty programme, it will generate another problem.

Come to think of it, you are giving amnesty to most of these people that are not even graduates, and you see them being paid and given contracts, good! May be that is done to make peace and all that but what about the graduates? What about the graduate that finished school and he is not doing anything?.

He will also want to carry gun to enable him benefit from the monthly allowance. So things have to be generally spelt out for people to know or do the right thing. You cannot just say amnesty programme will end in 2015 when most of them have not been settled. Some of them are still roaming the streets. And if you must know, some of the things that had piped low for sometime, are now coming up again, so much incidents now happening here and there.

So, for me, amnesty programme should not end in 2015. The programme should carry on and then they should get a proper medium of managing these militants and the graduates. Another thing, I will tell you is that most people that wrote their names for the amnesty programme are not really the ex-militants. This needs to be checkmated. There is also need to deal with the root causes of all these problems. How did amnesty programme come about? Have the problems that led to agitation been tackled? Niger Delta needs to be overhauled. Amenities should be put in communities, people should be given jobs. If you come to Rivers State, most people are not working, jobless graduates everywhere. So things should be put in place. They (government) should go to all these companies in the state, know how many of the people working there, are Niger Delta people and follow it up. If you go to some companies they will say, “we need graduates”. It’s a lie. They train people on the job. It’s not always about the certificate thing. They should employ the people and train them on the job and all these crimes will be reduced.

So, for me, I know the amnesty programme will come to an end one day but before then, things have to be put in place. These boys need to be engaged. They say that an idle man is the devil’s workshop. When you are idle mind will want to acquaint yourself with something that will fetch you good money. So, they should be involved in one thing or the other.

You know, honestly this amnesty programme has been a success, though not hundred per cent. Some of the ex-militants have truly repented. It was like a crusade that helped people repent to become better citizens

Ikenna Obineche – Journalist

I don’t know if these boys have actually gotten what they need from the federal government vis-à-vis empowering them, providing jobs for them. So for me, the amesty programme should be extended beyond 2015. If they end the programme in 2015, most of these boys will be idle and they might be tempoted to take up arms. So, I’m not in support of the programme ending in 2015. I’m not saying the programme should last forever. But let it be a gradual process. Let it be extended till the next 10years. These boys, have been hurt. You know what they were fighting for. Their lands were taken, their farm lands were destroyed, their rivers were polluted and all that. So the boys really need to be balanced financially. There should be a psychological healing too.

Apart from empowering the boys, government also has to provide the rural communities in the Niger Delta with infrastructures that will make their lives more meaningful. They should actually develop these oil bearing communities. If you go to some of these places like Oloibiri, it is a mess. I mean, check out other oil producing countries, check out a place like Texas, USA which is like the heart of the oil producing industry. Check out how developed Texas is. there is no way you can compare other oil producing countries with the oil communities in the Niger Delta. So, serious attention should be paid to these communities and the people there-the youth, women, graduates and all that.

Opinion

Agony In Ivory Tower

Published

3 days ago

March 9, 2026

The Tide

Quote: A university that tolerates missing scripts, result manipulation and ‘sorting’ is not merely failing students—it is quietly destroying the moral foundation of education itself.”

The sad cases of missing scripts, compulsory Sorting, inputting of wrong results and other obnoxious practices in some public universities, leave much to be desired. One cannot imagine how a student will be compelled to suffer consequences of the flagrant negligence of a Head of Department, a lecturer, Department staff or an ICT staff.Many academic and non academic staff in several public universities seem to be performing far below standard, thus unproductive to the university system. The unacceptable cases of sorting, missing scripts, missing results, inputting of wrong grades to students, should not be mentioned in a university, not even in any academic community. This is because people who are employed to work in various positions should have cognate work experience and unquestionable competence. They should not be seen as certificate welding illiterates but people who have been proven to be worthy in learning and character, diligent and competent to carry out assigned responsibilities with minimal or no supervision.

The university as a citadel of learning should boast of men of integrity, people who are repositories of applied knowledge and competence to drive the much desired holistic development in a nation that functions on quality teaching and learning. A situation where a student having gone through the crucibles of learning and written a prescribed semester examination or class-based evaluation test, is told that his or her script is missing or that he or she did not participate in that academic exercise, or must sort to pass, is an unpardonable error and a height of callousness. In fact some lecturers and staff of Departments are using the seeming systemic defect (which is their architecture) as an opportunity to extort students. Sometimes it is discovered much to students chagrin that the supposed missing script was later discovered when a ransom was paid.

Since a lecturer, or Head of Department has in their disposal both Yam and the knife and determines who takes what (if they wish to give without strings), students have no alternative but to submit to their importunate demands in order to graduate at record time.Such practices should be unheard of in an institution that should be a vanguard of moral and ethical values and conduct. What people learn in school constitute their behavioural patterns in the society. Where the school as an agency of socialisation cannot drive positive change first in its immediate environment, then the objective of education as a bedrock for the development of society, is inevitably compromised and counter-productive. The German Reformer, Dr. Martins Luther was quoted as saying, “I advise parents not to put their wards or children in any school where the Bible is not being used as a rule of life because such institutions will unnecessarily be corrupt”.

Gleaning from Luther’s sentiment one can deduce that the lack of respect and regard for values as well as the absence of the fear of God is the greatest undoing of most public schools. Another major challenge is that lack of Information, Communication and Technology literacy or compliance on the part of some lecturers and heads of department, may have informed the decision to give students’ scripts to secretaries to compile and input students results thereby making the secretaries the determinants of students’ fate. It is not saying a new thing that some of the secretaries in the process of compiling results have inputted wrong results, omitted names or down graded some students or given unmerited grades to others.Society today is ICT-driven and ICT-literacy enhances efficiency, speed and a reasonable degree of accuracy if the person behind the computer is level headed, articulate, competent, alive to responsibilities and is aware that negligence on his or her part is not only tantamount to a disservice to the university but to the students who may not graduate at record time because of his or her (computer operator’s) gross ineptitude or carelessness.

The ICT era makes the carrying of hard copy of results obsolete as lecturers through the Heads of Department can log on to the central server of the Exams and Records (if any) or ICT unit and input students’ results directly. By so doing the incessant cases where result on spread sheet is different from the one published online, more often than not, caused by abject negligence, will be avoided. The process will also end the intermediary services of some staff in the universities’ Information, Communication and Technology Department which has become a money spinner-a lucrative source of income to many of them. In fact some ICT staff reserved the power to award grades to students depending on students’ degree of compliance to terms and conditions. They can dubiously make or unmake a student. The university community should be considered too lofty to have careless, negligent, immoral and academic or professionally deficient people as academic or non-academic staff.

The Governing Councils and Senates of universities should be proactive in addressing the menace of missing Script, inputting of wrong results and sorting. This is necessary to end the slogan “Education is scam” so the system can produce quality students who are truly found worthy in learning and in character by operators who exemplify diligence, moral and ethical values. The much-needed reform must begin within the institutions themselves, because the future of any society is shaped in its classrooms.

By: Igbiki Benibo

Opinion

Strength of Emotional Equality

Published

3 days ago

March 9, 2026

The Tide

Quote: “Love thrives not when one gives more, but when both give fully — not in competition, not in performance, but in partnership.”

In every healthy relationship, there exists an invisible balance. It is not measured in grand gestures, expensive gifts, or public displays of affection. It is measured in something quieter and far more significant: emotional equality. When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, love becomes less of a negotiation and more of a partnership. Emotional equality does not mean both individuals express love in identical ways. It does not require matching personalities or mirroring temperaments. Rather, it speaks to balance — a shared willingness to invest, to communicate, to be vulnerable, and to grow. It is the difference between two people walking side by side and one person constantly trying to catch up.

In many relationships, imbalance begins subtly. One partner initiates most conversations. One apologizes more frequently. One carries the emotional labor — remembering important dates, managing conflicts, sensing tension, and attempting reconciliation. Over time, this uneven distribution of emotional effort breeds exhaustion. The partner who gives more begins to feel unseen. The one who gives less may grow comfortable in emotional passivity. Love, in such a space, starts to tilt — slowly at first, then significantly. Resentment can creep in quietly, disguising itself as patience. Silence may replace honest dialogue. What once felt effortless begins to feel heavy.

When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, responsibility is shared. Both people are accountable for the health of the relationship. If conflict arises, neither hides behind silence nor dominates through control. Instead, they engage. They listen. They speak honestly without weaponizing words. Equality creates safety — and safety strengthens intimacy. It allows both individuals to express needs without fear of ridicule or rejection. One of the most overlooked aspects of emotional equality is vulnerability. True connection requires courage. It demands that both partners risk being misunderstood. But when vulnerability is one-sided, it becomes exposure rather than intimacy. If one person consistently opens up while the other remains guarded, trust cannot fully deepen.

Equality ensures that emotional risks are mutual. Where one shares fears, the other shares too. Where one admits weakness, the other responds with openness rather than judgment. In such a space, authenticity flourishes. Another crucial element is validation. In emotionally balanced relationships, both partners feel heard. Their concerns are not dismissed as “overreactions.” Their feelings are not minimized or compared. When couples operate on equal emotional ground, they acknowledge each other’s experiences as legitimate. They may not always agree, but they always respect. Validation does not mean surrendering one’s viewpoint; it means recognizing that another’s emotional reality matters.

Equality also protects individuality. Contrary to popular belief, healthy love does not erase personal identity — it enhances it. When both partners are emotionally secure, they do not feel threatened by each other’s independence. Personal ambitions are encouraged, not resented. Friendships are respected, not restricted. Growth is celebrated, not feared. Standing on equal emotional grounds means neither person shrinks to accommodate the other. Instead, both expand, knowing the relationship is strong enough to hold their evolution. Power dynamics often expose emotional inequality. When one partner controls communication — appearing and disappearing unpredictably, withholding affection, or using silence as leverage — imbalance emerges.

Emotional dominance weakens intimacy. It creates anxiety instead of assurance. But when couples share emotional power, there is consistency. There is clarity. There is no need to decode affection because it is offered freely and intentionally. It is important to understand that equality does not imply perfection. Couples will still disagree. They will face stress, miscommunication, and moments of frustration. However, when emotional footing is equal, conflict does not threaten the foundation. Instead, it becomes an opportunity for understanding. Both partners approach challenges as teammates rather than opponents. They choose resolution over ego and repair over pride.

Time often reveals whether emotional equality truly exists. In the early stages of love, intensity can disguise imbalance. Enthusiasm feels mutual. Effort appears equal. But as routine settles in and novelty fades, the structure of the relationship becomes clearer. Who still initiates? Who still invests? Who still shows up consistently? Sustainable love requires sustained balance. It is built not merely on attraction, but on deliberate reciprocity. Standing on equal emotional grounds requires intentionality. It demands honest conversations about needs and expectations. It requires both partners to examine their habits — whether they withdraw during tension, avoid accountability, or rely on the other to carry the emotional weight. Emotional maturity is not about avoiding conflict; it is about handling it responsibly and returning, again and again, to shared ground.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of emotional equality is peace. There is no constant anxiety about where one stands. No guessing games about commitment. No fear that affection may suddenly disappear. Instead, there is stability. There is reassurance. There is mutual effort. In a world where relationships often blur the lines between attention and commitment, equality offers clarity. It reminds us that love should not feel like competition or performance. It should feel like partnership. When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, they build something resilient. They build trust that does not fracture easily. They build respect that does not depend on mood. They build a connection rooted not only in passion but in balance. And in that balance, love finds its strength — not in who gives more, but in how both give fully.

By: Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi

Opinion

NDDC: Time To Illuminate Homes

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

The Tide

Quote:“Twenty-five years on, the Niger Delta cannot celebrate illuminated streets while families sit in darkness. Development must begin inside the home — where children study, businesses grow, and lives are built — before it glows on the roadside.”

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in 2000 with a clear and urgent mandate: to facilitate the rapid, even, and sustainable development of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region. The creation of the Commission followed decades of agitation over environmental degradation, infrastructural neglect, and socio-economic marginalization in the region. Its core mandate included the development of roads, bridges, electricity, water supply, health facilities, education, housing, environmental remediation, and economic empowerment initiatives. At inception, expectations were high that the Commission would transform the Niger Delta into a model of regional development. Over the years, the NDDC has indeed implemented numerous projects across the nine Niger Delta states. Roads have been constructed and rehabilitated in several communities, easing transportation challenges.

Schools have been renovated, and new classroom blocks have been provided in underserved areas. Health centres have been built or upgraded, improving access to primary healthcare services. The Commission has also awarded scholarships to students, including foreign postgraduate scholarships, empowering thousands of youths academically.Skills acquisition and youth empowerment programmes have helped many young people gain vocational competencies.Through various interventions, the NDDC has contributed to job creation and local economic stimulation.Solar-powered street lighting projects have been widely implemented in urban and semi-urban communities. These streetlights have improved visibility at night and contributed to enhanced security in some areas. Markets, highways, and public spaces illuminated by solar lights have experienced extended business hours.

For these efforts, the Commission deserves acknowledgment and commendation. However, development must always align with foundational mandates and pressing grassroots realities. A growing concern among residents is that while streets are illuminated, many homes remain in darkness. Rural electrification and household power access remain inconsistent and inadequate across large parts of the region. In riverine and remote communities, families still rely on generators, kerosene lamps, or complete darkness after sunset. The irony of brightly lit streets juxtaposed with powerless homes cannot be ignored. Electricity at the household level directly impacts education, health, and small-scale enterprise. Students cannot effectively study at night without reliable indoor lighting.Families cannot preserve food or power essential appliances without stable electricity.

Micro and small businesses struggle to grow without dependable energy access. While street lighting enhances public aesthetics and security, it does not substitute for domestic electrification. The proverb “charity begins at home” is especially relevant in this context. True community development must first empower households before beautifying public spaces. The Commission’s original mandate emphasizes integrated and sustainable development, not isolated infrastructural gestures. Balanced development requires that energy interventions prioritize homes alongside streets. Solar technology presents a unique opportunity for decentralized household electrification in off-grid communities. Extending solar solutions to individual homes would have a transformative social impact. Home-based solar systems could power lights, fans, small appliances, and communication devices.

Such interventions would reduce poverty, improve living standards, and stimulate grassroots productivity. By broadening its energy focus, the Commission would better reflect the spirit of its founding legislation. This is not a call to abandon street lighting projects, which have their merits. Rather, it is an appeal for balance, inclusivity, and alignment with core developmental objectives. Strategic planning should ensure that rural electrification and household access form a central pillar of ongoing interventions. Community engagement and needs assessments can help determine priority areas for household solar deployment. Twenty-five years after its establishment, the NDDC stands at a reflective moment in its institutional journey. The people of the Niger Delta say: thank you for the efforts so far—but not very much—because true appreciation will come when development begins at home and radiates outward, not merely when streets shine while houses remain in darkness.

By: King Onunwor