• Pledge to work with the leadership of Presidential Amnesty Programme
  The ex-militants’ leaders have challenged each other to end sea piracy and kidnapping in the region in abid to foster the development of the Niger Deltacommunities. They also pledged to work with the Amnesty Programme to see to the achievement of its objectives.

This was part of the resolutions from a peace building meeting with the leadership of the ex-agitators, now referred to as delegates drawn from the nine states of the Niger Delta, which culminated in an interactive session with the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd) in Agadagba -Obon,Ondo State on December 18, 2020.

One of the prominent ex-agitator leaders in Ondo State, High Chief Bibopiri Ajube, also known as General Shoot-at-Sight who made this call in the meeting urged his colleagues to work with the Presidential Amnesty Programme to foster security and development in the Niger Delta. They all assured the PAP Administrator of their solidarity.

“We’re ready to work with you sir. My brothers here are telling you that there will be no road blocking henceforth. This leadership is with you, anytime you need us, call Boyloaf, call us. We will call each other and work with you.”

Chief Ajube, while appealing for a restructuring of the Amnesty office, admonished his colleagues to go back and end sea piracy and kidnapping in their various territories, stressing that no government will send contractors to develop the youth and community where there are high levels of insecurity. He also vowed to work with the security agencies to curb sea piracy and kidnapping.

“Why are our people still involved in sea piracy and kidnapping? We are missing something. If you are supporting this evil, which government will come and develop your land? Our agreement henceforth from this meeting; no more sea piracy, no more kidnapping.”

Spokesperson for the delegates, former IYC President, Dr Chris Ekiyor, while thanking theInterim Administrator for taking the initiative to meet the leaders, urged him to collaborate with other Niger Delta related agencies and institutions set up by the Federal Government so that the Programme will not be overburdened with issues that these agenciesshould oversee, such as infrastructure and gainful employment of youth in the region.

He also promised that the delegates will work hand in glove with the Interim Administrator and pledged their absolute support for him even as they anticipatereforms in the Amnesty Programme that will bring the needed momentum towards development.

Col. Dikio thanked the delegates for theircommitment to continue to work with the Programme and assured them that their genuinedemands would be looked into.

He also reiterated his vision to refocus the Presidential Amnesty Programme to its original mandate of development, security and peace of the Niger Delta region while working with the various governments in the region to make the Niger Delta the most secure place to live and do business in Nigeria.

According to Colonel Dikio, the Programme will work to transform the ex-agitators into entrepreneurs and employable citizens who will become net contributors to the economy of the region through effective collaborations.

It may be recalled that the Presidential Amnesty Programme was in 2009 designed for 30,000 ex-agitators and the Niger Delta impacted communities. The current management of the Programme seeks to ensure that its mandate is followed and effectively executed.

The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami presided over the high-level meeting of the National Task Force on National Identification Number (NIN) and SIM Registration which seeks to ensure all active SIM cards in Nigeria are linked to individuals National Identity Number (NIN).

The virtual meeting had in attendance, the Chairman, Governing Board of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of NCC, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as well as ECTS/ECSM-NCC, President of ALTON, CEOs of MTN, Airtel, Ntel, Glo, Smile, and 9Mobile.

When Ọfọefuo, the first son of a popular family in my village was making an arrangement to migrate to Canada with his new wife, I knew that he was not taking th7e right decision. With a good job in Nigeria and a promise of rising to the top of his career, giving up all for a life abroad was difficult for me to comprehend. For him, it was like going to heaven.

All my entreties to dissuade my friend from settling down in Canada was like preaching to a cock which had already mounted a hen. Ọfọefuo had made up his mind; hence, any contrary advice was like Peter’s persuasion to Jesus not to go Jerusalem.

Ironically, Ọfọefuo’s parents were in support of their son’s migration to Canada. They saw it as status symbol. Ichie Ụkwachinaka and his wife hoped to be visiting Ọfọefuo their son in Canada once he settled down. They tagged me an “enemy of progress” when their son told them about my discouraging advice.

Ọfọefuo’s parents believed that I was envious of their son. They belabouredly accepted my greetings for many years until the goods they had ordered in their son’s relocation abroad started arriving.

Mr. Ọfọefuo was neither going to Canada to further his education nor for economic hibernation. He was not also migrating to improve his parents’ or siblings’ lots but to become a citizen. His parents were wealthy and never made any monetary demands on him.

Ọfọefuo wanted to correct the divine mistake of placing him in Africa. Right in our university days, he had started speaking English with American accent. “What a fuck!” or “damn it!” were his favourite expressions.

My friend was not planning to come back to Nigeria. That much he confided in me. He found an ally in his completely bleached wife who was “already warming herself by the fire before the harmattan broke out” meaning that “she too was in hurry to dump all that is African and become a white”. Within a year of arrival in Toronto Canada, Mr. Ọfọefuo changed his name to Mr. Forte for ease of pronunciation by his hosts. Twenty-five years down the line, my friend, Ọfọefuo together with his children, is still in Canada. All his children were born and raised in Canada and they have never visited Nigeria.

Like a bottled madness, Canada has brought out the latent individualist tendency in Ọfọefuo now known as Mr. Forte. He minds his business and never allows his extended family issues bother him. His parents could no longer visit him after the first visit as Mr. Forte’s wife would not approve another “fucking” visit. Ọfọefuo’s parents were lucky that they had other children who took care of them at old age and also buried them when they died few years ago. Mr. Forte did not attend their funeral. He claimed that the dates were not convenient. That was a first son of a notable family.

This is not the case for many Nigerian families abroad but there are so many families who shouldn’t have been allowed to travel abroad at the first instance. This malady is predominant amongst many African rich and middle class families. They do it as status symbol with no knowledge of the remote and proximate impact of their decisions. Our people now export their children to the western world for better education and what they deem better opportunities but end up depleting the very human resources that could transform their communities.

That process that makes a family lose its identity, especially the language and basic culture, is anihilistic. It makes a people strangers to their own people. It is no joking matter.

If Azikiwe, Awolowo, Akanu Ibiam and Herbert Macaulay stayed back abroad with their families after their education, perhaps Nigeria would not have become an independent country. I think the better approach is to go abroad, learn what makes the western world thick, return home to make our own world a better place. That has been the Nnewi man’s approach.

Any Nnewi family who is holed up abroad is viewed as “ndị na-ayị ara Obodo Oyibo” meaning “a family who is afflicted with a white man’s disease”. They are classified as “ndị nara ọfia” or “the lost people”.

If you are planning to migrate or settle abroad with your family, just know that your civilized or westernized children might not follow you back to the Nigeria, they are told in school is a jungle or a “shit hole”. You can only return with the children if you do proper planning and debriefing. You might be lucky if your children have missionary spirit. Abound all over the western world are many blacks of Nigerian descent who were told where their grandparents came from. Only few have been bold enough to trace their roots back in Nigeria.

If you are caught in this web and you have started feeling remorseful of your porting action, you could start with sending your kids to do secondary education here in Nigeria. A lot of missionary and private schools have identified this need and have expertise to handle and debrief such kids.

When they come back, they make lifelong friends besides the young in their immediate family who would be a very strong reason for them to come back to Nigeria. Many lost kids including those of my cousins have been redeemed through this method.

Always remember that Jim Ovia, the owner of Zenith Bank schooled in America and returned ; Aliko Dangote, the richest African schooled in Egypt and returned, Segun Agbaje, the MD of Guaranty Trust Bank, schooled in the UK and returned. These guys are far better than many of their contemporaries that opted for better life abroad.

The real opportunity cost of better life abroad is very expensive. It is a choice with a lot of personal benefits that would start losing value or taste many years after.

By Anayo M. Nwosu