Ex-militants training: 6 to be repatriated from Sri Lanka

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Niger Delta Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Six ex-Niger Delta militants who had accompanied some of their colleagues on
a special skills acquisition programme in Sri Lanka are billed for repatriation to
Nigeria for engaging in violence, Special Adviser to President Goodluck
Jonathan, Mr Kingsley Kuku has disclosed.

According to Kuku, five of the affected ex-militants had attempted to extort
money from their trainers in a manner that suggested that there were not
interested in the programme, while the sixth used a bottle to break the head of
one of his colleagues during a scuffle and was promptly arrested by security
operatives.

Kuku who spoke through his aide Mr Lawrence Pepple at the graduation of a
batch of the ex-militants warned that the era they were pampered was gone
insisting that whoever among that refuses to take advantage of the federal
government skill acquisition programme would have himself to blame ultimately.
He lamented that despite pleas by the traditional chief in one of the
communities where the militants hail, to them to be of good conduct six of the
boys still went ahead to misbehave.

“The Chief begged and showed his works as a Ph.D holder and told them such
feat was as a result of his intellectual militancy. By day two after these boys
arrived, we received a complaint that one of them has used a bottle to break the
head of another.

”The Sri Lanka government is very strict about such cases. They said the man
is a mad man and as we speak, that young man is in a psychiatric home now
in Sri Lanka. From psychiatric home, he would be escorted through a VIP
treatment back to Nigeria into the waiting hands of law enforcement officers.
The phase of spoon-feeding you is over. Anybody who does anything contrary
to what is expected of him must face the full wrath of the law.

“As if that was not enough, in the same Sri Lanka, five young men for this
programme, went and held the trainer and demanded that he should secretly be
given them SI500, so that they would allow the programme to run smoothly.
This is very shocking. Meanwhile, all that are due them, including clothing
allowance, have been handed over to them before they left for Sri Lanka. How
can somebody do this despite all that Mr President is doing for us?

“Kingsley Kuku jumps from plane to plane without sleeping just to ensure that
this thing works, but people are going out there to disgrace themselves. Those
five men have been handed over to the law enforcement. Our security team is
preparing to go to Sri Lanka and escort these men back to where they belong,
and they will never be the same again. My plea to you is please, please, take
this program seriously. Falling is not a crime. It is a crime when you fall and
refuse to stand up. Opportunity has been given you to, not only stand but to run
with speed”, he bemoaned.

However it was not a sad story all through as one of the medical students also
on training in Russia has emerged the best in his class.

Kuku stated that owing to the feat, the student is now the toast of the
facilitators of the training programme, urging the other ex-militants to emulate
him.

His words: “To those passing through this programme, I always advise that you
inculcate in you the principle of non-violence any time any day. You do not
attack person but you attack the source of the problem. You must always
communicate your grievances formally amongst others. Gladly, we normally
take our now transformed brothers through one full day of orientation before we
dispatch you to training centres. Unfortunately, the people who went to Sri
Lanka did not live up to expectation. Before they left, the Traditional Ruler who
spoke before their departure knelt down and begged these boys and advised
them ‘as you go, transform your energy into the training. Your so-called
militancy should be transformed into intellectual militancy. Convert it to skills
because militancy in the Niger Delta has left the use of guns to the application
of intellectualism. It has come to the level where you should use your
intellectual prowess to fight with skills you have acquired’.

In her reaction to the news of the misbehaviour of the former militants, a
representative of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN), Joy
Imeli said, “Well it is the general problem everywhere. We can’t say we must all
behave alike. Even amongst your own children, you may have some who would
fall off the line. To have 100 percent compliance from all of them may not be
feasible but still, we try to bring them back to the fold”.

On the batch 15 that just graduated from the camp, 1,500 of them were trained
by FEHN.

According to Imeli: “This group is very exceptional. We started it well and we
ended it well. They did not give us problems in any way. We did not even feel
that they are more than the usual number we used to handle. This group is
exceptional –their performance in class, their comportment and behaviour
generally is commendable. This group, factually speaking did not misbehave at
all. There was no form of rowdiness in this batch, as in jumping around, making
noise etc. Even the camp management also commended them. For instance,
something that was supposed to be given to them did not round the first day.
You know, usually people would protest, but this group when the reason for that
was explained to them, they did not complain, they said no problem, anytime
the thing is available we’ll have it”.

Meanwhile the Special Adviser has approved the payment of Transitional Safety
Allowance (TSA) to the over twenty thousand Niger Delta militants who
embraced the Federal Government amnesty programme in October 2009 for
militants from the region who surrendered their arms in response to the peace
initiative from the Presidency.

In the parlance of the Nigeria Delta militants, the Transitional Safety Allowance
is known as Housing Allowance, and the agitation for its payment led to some
form of violent agitation by some of the former Niger Delta militants who were in
the first batch that were deployed to the transformational camp in Obubra,
Cross River State to undergo reorientation towards nonviolence.
Kuku who made the announcement while addressing members of the Batch 15
at their passing out ceremony in Obubra on Thursday said the Allowance will
be paid directly into the bank account of each of the former Niger Delta militant
that has passed through the nonviolence and other stages of the demobilisation
programme.

“I am happy to see what you people have transformed my brothers to within this
short and challenging period. Congrats participants and everybody who have
contributed to this project. I bring you good tidings from my boss, Hon Kingsley
Kuku, who through no fault of his is unavoidably absent in today’s very
wonderful occasion, and of course every one of you knows the passion he
attaches to this programme. He said I should bring his felicitation to you. He is
in far away United States as we speak, helping to make sure that our boys
posted outside our shores are doing wonderfully very well.

“Amnesty, as you all know, is derived from the word ‘amnesia,’-forgiveness.
This is our own version of what the world usually refers to demobilization,
disarmament and reintegration. This forgiveness has moved from forgiveness to
total transformation. It has transformed you from what you used to be to brand
new persons. In that same order, that is why Kinsley Kuku is not here today.
As we speak, he is helping to collect data from countries abroad about the next
phase of this programme which some of you refer to Housing Allowance while
some people call it Transitional Safety Allowance.

“Mr President (Goodluck Jonathan), if I must tell you, has magnanimously
approved that that package should be paid to everybody who has passed
through this process. In that regards he ties it to something. You know to
whom much is given, much is expected. He says that this money must be paid
directly to you account. It will be paid only to those people who qualify in
learning and in character”, Kuku stated.

Kuku however said for the former militants to benefit from the Allowance
approved by the President they must be of proven character and diligent in
learning.

“You must qualify to earn what you are earning now both in learning and in
character. For some of us who have passed through this process, when you
finish from here, you get to the next phase where we would deploy you to skill
centre, both locally and offshore. Me I came from PH where 14 days now we
have been working tirelessly meeting every ex-militants in person to ask them
three vital questions. To the trainer, we ask, is the trainee cooperating and
giving you his best in learning and character?, he added.

Though he did not state how much each former militant will receive, Kuku said
the idea which is recognised by the United Nations (UN) is like a shock
absorber for the former agitators so they could be reintegrated into the society.
“What we call Transitional Safety Allowance is supposed to cushion the shock
these men suffered when you removed them from their comfort zone. That
shock, Mr President, at the implementation stage of this programme, agreed
and approved that they will be paid some stipends. It is approved for by the UN.
In the UN it is called Reinsertion.

“Reinsertion can be broken down to building material. But in Nigeria it has
transformed into cash and we have received 50 per cent of it which mr president
empowered us to move from zone to zone, training centre to training centre. I
am here (Obubra), the Special Adviser (Kingsley Kuku is in the offshore training
centres extracting individually from the participants their names, Account
Number so that their monies will be paid to directly to them and not through
any third party.

“So once we finish this process as soon as possible it will be a media issue it
will start reflecting in their account and their account alert will practically tell
them that.

“For now I am competent enough to make such disclosure. at the appropriate
time it will be made public. It is different from the monthly stipend (N65, 000).
This one is called TSA”, he explained.

-African Examinerwp_posts

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