By FIDELIS SORIWEI

At the twilight of the Buhari Administration, the Niger Delta was grappling with flashes of the subdued problem of yet another wave of unrest. The tell-tale signs were as ominous as they were grave. Two years towards the end of the administration, the Buhari Administration appointed an interim administrator with specific instructions to terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme. The last of the interim administrators, Gen Barry Ndiomu (Retd) made it clear that his mission was to bring the programme to an end to the shock of a bewildered region.

This curious position triggered concern and consternation in the region as top stakeholders, traditional rulers, opinion leaders expressed deep worry over the possible threat to peace in the region. The stakeholders pointed out that the issues contained in the Presidential Amnesty document, especially the reintegration of the ex-agitators, new town development and others, had not been dealt with.

This debate was raging and dominating discussions in critical circles in the Niger Delta when President Tinubu took over as President in 2023. Buhari had stalled in the plan to bring the PAP to a sudden end which many believed could have put the peace in the region on the stretcher.

However, the story of the clouds of uncertainty over the Amnesty Programme and the worries over peace in the region changed with one masterstroke of a well-thought out appointment by the President.

In March 2024, the President appointed Dr Dennis Otuaro, a prominent grassroots personality reputed for his passion for peacebuilding and development in the Niger Delta. In making this appointment, the President dismissed the aura of uncertainty over the continuity of the programme. While the Tinubu?s predecessors appointed interim administrators to run the office, he removed the toga of instability from the office by appointing an administrator in person of Otuaro.

With the appointment and challenge to Otuaro, the President and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Rebadu, whose office supervises PAP effectively laid the groundwork for the sustenance of peace and security in the Niger Delta. The appointment was viewed by many as the right solution to a seemingly intractable problem with the deployment of the simplicity of ingenuity.

In March, Otuaro prepared a groundwork for the successful implementation of the President?s mandate for the first 12 months. His vast knowledge of the Niger Delta put him on the pedestal of a leader who did not need any schooling about the events leading to the declaration of Presidential Amnesty by the late President Yar?Adua Administration, and the intricate operations of the sensitive agency.

Not long after resuming duties as the Administrator of the PAP, Dr Otuaro pursued his passion to bridge the gaping gap of human capital development in the Niger Delta which he had emphasized in his speeches. As a firm believer of the lasting transformative impact of education, he embarked on fact finding and consultative visits to six partnering universities of the PAP ? in Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa States from May 7 to 11, 2024.

These universities are the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State; Benson Idahosa University, Edwin Clark University, Western Delta University, Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, and Bayelsa Medical University.

Expectedly, these visits culminated in the bold deliberate steps to expand the frontiers of the PAP?s intervention in formal education at the tertiary level in the Niger Delta. Otuaro would not allow the paucity of funds at the Amnesty office to come between him and the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President. He made the most of available resources to maximum impact.

First, Otuaro identified those who made first-class degrees in the various courses and offered them scholarships to pursue master?s degrees abroad. This was done alongside the deployment of over 2000 students within and outside the country for graduate and post graduate studies.

Leaning on his background, he took deliberate steps to resist blackmail and the diversion of the limited funds in the PAP by a shadowy cabal of highly placed individuals in the region. This singular act drew the ire of his incensed detractors who funded wild acts of cyberstalking and sponsored media attacks against him.

However, he has refused to speak the language of his detractors who are enraged by the new grounds he is breaking at the PAP. It is his contention that while it is right to respond to the deliberate false being orchestrated by powerful detractors against him, to straighten the records, the focus on the job must not be allowed to falter.

From June 2024, the PAP under his leadership besieged the cities of the Niger Delta for consultative meetings with critical stakeholders. As expected the mission was to ensure sustenance of peace and security for uninterrupted productive economic activities in the Niger Delta.

He has always been a force of stability in the region, appealing at strategic moments to the conscience of the ex-agitators and the teeming youths of the Niger Delta during testy political conflicts.

After one year of intentionality in the drive for peace, key stakeholders in the Niger Delta and supervisory authorities of the Amnesty office are convinced that Dr Otuaro has done exceptionally well in repositioning the PAP for greater productivity.

This explains the why the President has sustained his fatherly commitment to regular funding for the operations of the Presidential Amnesty Office. The prevailing peace in the region and Otuaro?s exploits in peace building and sustenance show in clear terms that President Tinubu?s visionary leadership did not make the wrong decision in putting him at the helm of affairs in the Presidential Amnesty Office.

?Fidelis Soriwei, Media Consultant, publishes the Network.ng

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