Reps committee seeks increased funding for presidential amnesty programme

Members of the house of representatives committee on Niger Delta Affairs have called for increased funding for the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP). 

The members reached the resolution after a meeting with Barry Ndiomu, PAP’s interim administrator, at the amnesty’s headquarters in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

They said the value of the annual PAP budget has plunged by a “whopping $105,000 USD since last year” when the “naira began to slump against the dollar at both official and parallel markets, with consequential impacts on the programme’s policies and activities”.

Eugene Dibiagwu, chairman of the visiting house committee, assured of renewed interface with colleagues in parliament to plug the amnesty funding gap.

The lawmakers added that a presentation would be made to President Bola Tinubu and the federal government for an increase in PAP’s annual budget to reflect economic realities.

The legislators commended Ndiomu and his management team for a “a rare display of character and leadership quality in managing one of the most challenging public agencies in the country”.

“We hereby say the designation of interim administrator be changed to a substantive chief executive of this programme and we encourage you to work closely with the house committee to enable us collectively address those obvious challenges of the programme” the lawmakers said.

Dibiagwu said the house committee embarked on the visit to interact with the interim administrator and his team on issues bordering on the PAP mandate, mission and vision, as well as the impact of its activities on ex-agitators who are the direct beneficiaries of the programme.

Other areas of interest, he said, are “achievements of the PAP in intervention activities, prospects for the future and overall composition of management and staff as well as any other business that might arise in the course of the engagement”.

“You have administered the PAP soundly and some of the details we have requested for can help in channelling those legislative decisions toward any necessary amendment and we also suggest the PAP collaborate with other interventionist agencies in the Niger Delta for greater benefit,” he said.

In his presentation, Ndiomu gave an account of activities since his assumption as chief executive in September 2022 and declared that “the purse of the PAP is currently stretched to the limits due to the forex challenges”.

“This has made the cost of both local and foreign education and other training schemes highly exorbitant,” he said.

Ndiomu also disclosed that PAP is partnering with 18 universities and 61 non-partnering universities onshore.

He stated that a total of 1,659 students’ beneficiaries under the PAP scholarship scheme have graduated from offshore universities, even as the programme has trained more than 19,000 beneficiaries in vocational skills.

The interim administrator said he inherited N41 billion debt linked to projects in vocational trainings and empowerment from between 2017 to 2019, and another N14 billion debt from unpaid stipends to beneficiaries.

“Also inherited were vocational training centres in Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Ondo states but unfortunately the only one which was completed and equipped at Boro Town-Kaiama in Bayelsa State and ready for take-off was broken into, vandalised and looted for which the PAP would require about N8 to N10 billion to rehabilitate now,” Ndiomu said.

“While the monthly stipend payment to ex-agitators gulps about 50 percent of the annual PAP budget, the age of beneficiaries and attendant difficulties for most of them to adapt to learning in a formal education setting, necessitated the initiative of the PAP Co-operative Society Limited (PACOSOL).

“Which is currently birthing a new breed of entrepreneurs through the provision of financial support, market linkages and mentorship to enable them grow their businesses.

“PAP’s annual budget is N65 billion, an amount that has remained constant while the official exchange rate since I assumed office has continuously witnessed an increase; and this is severely impacting activities of the programme.”

He also added that staff composition at PAP reflects federal character, and appealed to the lawmakers to always support the initiative with their legislative interventions.