As the sack of erstwhile Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Professor Charles Dokubo, continues to generate controversy, a chieftain of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, Princewill Oko-Jumbo has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a woman from the Ijaw stock to manage the programme.

Prof Dokubo was sacked over alleged corrupt practices and an interim management committee was reportedly constituted by the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd.), to oversee the affairs of the programme

Oko-Jumbo, who is the Chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Ibani (Bonny) Clan in Rivers State, Nigeria, asked the President to make a shift and appoint a woman to head the programme.

According to him, it appears the men have not lived to the expectations of the people of the Niger Delta region for whom the programme was created to douse tension in the region and coordinate the reintegratioin of former agitators from the region, consequently, a woman should be appointed t head the programme.

In his view, there are several Ijaw women who fit the bill of what is required to manage the programme, one of whom, according to him, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Care Management Consulting and a former Woman Leader of the IYC, Lolo Hailsham.

The IYC Leader said Hailsham has the qualities needed to drive the vision of the President on the programme, stressing that having made verifiable impact in the previous roles in diverse sectors across the Niger Delta, she was best suited to head the programme and bring value to the region through the amnesty programme.  

The Presidential Amnesty Progamme was established by former President, Late Umaru Yar’Adua and alter sustained by his erstwhile Vice and later successor, Goodluck Jonathan as vehicle for assuaging the angst in the Niger Delta region that had been in flames over years of neglect, marginalization, environmental degradation, poverty and violence.

The programme had the mandate of coordinating the disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration of militants from the Niger Delta region, who had been up in arms against the Nigerian State for wilfully and remorselessly appropriating oil and gas resources from the region without any commensurate compensation, development or social impact initiatives for the people of the region who are the direct victims of the consequences of environmental despoliation and social neglect.

Though the programme had made a lot of impact in achieving its mandate but it has alos been bedevilled by allegations of corruption with different coordinators of the programme either sacked or on the run for alleged malfeasance.

Recently, another dimension to the controversy arose when it was mooted that the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) had allegedly constituted an interim management committee to be headed by a northerner to oversee the affairs of the programme.

Stakeholders called out the NSA for attempting to undermine the purpose and vision of the programme which was to pacify the Niger Delta region and deal with issues related to the cessation of hostilities in the region and as such was supposed to be head at all times by somebody from the region, who, ordinarily, would have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the issues affecting the region.