President Bola Tinubu has been advised by the Ijaw Youths Network, or IYN, to disregard calls to end the Presidential Amnesty Programme, or PAP.

According to the Ijaw youth body, people advocating for the PAP’s dissolution are uneasy with the current state of peace and stability in the Niger Delta and are obviously not driven by patriotism or sincere care for the area and Nigeria.

The IYN claimed in a statement signed by Federal Ebiaridor, the Secretary, and President Frank Ebikabo that the call being supported by ethnic chauvinists is a diversion from the new PAP leadership and is not worthy of serious consideration.

The group was reacting to remarks made by a man named Frank Tietie, who stated on national television that the PAP was corrupt and that despite the Federal Government spending money on it, nothing had been accomplished by the organisation.

The Ijaw youths denounced Tietie’s assertion that only one ethnic group was claiming the PAP, emphasising that the Niger Delta currently needs coordinated development efforts rather than the incitement of polarising ethnic sentiments and their use to undermine a legitimate organisation having an impact on the area.

According to the IYN, the PAP’s carefully considered programmes have made a significant contribution to maintaining the current state of peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Read Also: Rivers crisis: Two representatives and Ijaw youth forcefully enter government house

The group stated that it is undeniable that a number of former agitators and members of affected areas are thriving in a variety of economic fields as a result of their PAP training.

The group went on to say that many of the PAP’s beneficiaries would not have had the chance to receive such advanced manpower training if they hadn’t been able to find gainful employment as air traffic controllers, flight instructors, aircraft maintenance engineers, pilots, underwater welding technicians, and other professionals from the various Niger Delta states.

According to the IYN, a number of people who received training and empowerment through the programme are succeeding in a variety of trade fields, including hairdressing, fashion design, fish farming, baking and confectionery, rice production, and the trading of cement and building materials, among other businesses.

“We find it obligatory to condemn the reprehensible act of hiding under the toga of ethnicity to attack the PAP,” the group stated, adding that they had no intention of bringing the unpleasant inter-ethnic fighting in the Niger Delta to light just yet. Now more than ever, the Niger Delta and the nation as a whole require cooperation and coordinated development efforts.

Our region has seen far too much hardship, and we cannot continue to be kept back by these foolish actions.

“We heard the fervent plea for the termination of the Presidential Amnesty Programme made by a man identified as Mr. Frank Tietie, who purportedly was an activist in the Niger Delta. Citing corruption within the agency, Tietie informed his interviewers that the Presidential Amnesty Programme has failed and needs to be terminated.

The assertion made by the purported Niger Delta activist that only a specific ethnic group had applied for the Presidential Amnesty Office was even more disheartening. This is misleading and inaccurate.

Additionally, he claimed that the Presidential Amnesty Programme had cost the Federal Government N500 billion with little return on investment. We find it hard to think that the Federal Government spending N500 billion on the PAP is anything that a sincere activist would be upset about. The so-called stakeholder neglected to disclose the amount of money the federal government has allocated to the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Ministry of Niger Delta, as well as the reasons why, if corruption is the norm for agency survival, both organisations ought to be abolished.

“We cannot forget in a hurry that, during the height of the armed struggle prior to the declaration of the Presidential Amnesty in 2009, those calling for the Program’s termination labelled the former agitators and their Ijaw ethnic nationality as troublemakers, even though we do not want to leap to the conclusion that anyone has selective amnesia.

“Yet, Nigerians from outside the region recognised the underdevelopment, suffering, anguish, and frustration that resulted in deep-seated grievances in the oil-producing regions.”

As evidenced by the facts, the IYN emphasised that the Federal Government did not declare selective, ethnically-based amnesty in the Niger Delta.

The group emphasised that attempting to mislead the nation with the misleading narrative that the 30,000 ex-agitators listed under the Programme were there on the basis of ethnicity was just plain wrong.

Nigerians are aware that the Federal Government of Nigeria has not granted the former militants in the Niger Delta a selective amnesty. The 30,000 former agitators apprehended as part of the initiative are not included because of their language proficiency. General Lucky Aralile (retd. ), Mr. Tietie’s kinsman and the original head of the Presidential Amnesty Programme