Kuku blasts Tinubu over comments on amnesty programme

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Kingsley Kuku

Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, has faulted the claim by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that the programme is constituting a drainpipe to the nation’s treasury.

Kuku said in a statement by PAP’s Head, Media and Communications, Daniel Alabrah, on Wednesday that Tinubu’s claim was not true, adding that the programme had helped to stabilise the country’s security and economy.

He said Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, was fond of politicising every policy of President Goodluck Jonathan including the amnesty programme.

The statement quoted Kuku as saying that, “It is regrettable that as a former governor of a state like Lagos, his stock-in-trade is not only to politicise every policy or programme of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration but also vilely tries to achieve political capital through such less than salutary criticisms.”

Kuku challenged the APC leader to show proof of his allegations against the amnesty programme.

The statement also read, “As a security stabilisation programme for the hitherto restive Niger Delta, the amnesty programme has achieved its objective ,through well thought-out vocational training and formal education schemes for the former agitators in the region.”

Tinubu had on Monday described the programme as a drainpipe, adding that right from its inception, it had been corrupted and hijacked by the President’s clique.

The former governor had  said, “The amnesty conceived from inception has been corrupted and hijacked by the President’s clique. It is one of Nigeria’s drainpipes. A slush fund for political expeditions and a conduit to siphon money to the boys.”

However, Kuku in the statement argued that, “Is it a programme that has trained no fewer than 16,000 Niger Delta youths in three years that is a drain pipe?

“Is it a scheme through which commercial pilots have been produced for Nigeria that is a drain pipe? What about the delegates currently undergoing jet/type-rating training at the Lufthansa Pilot Institute in Germany?

“Is it a programme that is producing aviation professionals, aeronautical engineers, marine/maritime technicians and technologists that is a conduit?”

He recalled that prior to the commencement of the amnesty programme four years ago, violent agitations by Niger Delta youths had crippled economic and social activities in the region, which is the nation’s economic mainstay.

He said, “At the peak of the crisis in 2009, Nigeria’s crude production fell from 2.2million barrels per day to as low as 700,000 barrels per day.

“Today, following the proclamation and implementation of the amnesty programme, crude production hovers between 2.4 million and 2.6 million barrels per day.”

Kuku said with the proclamation of the amnesty programme, all the ex-agitators had since been “fully disarmed, demobilised and are either currently in training or have since been trained.”

He said the step by the Federal Government was aimed at adding to national Gross Domestic Product and improving the families of Nigerians.”

“A total number of 30,000 persons are enlisted in the Amnesty Programme. Of this number, over 16,000 have been deployed to universities as well as vocational training centres within the country and abroad for various skills acquisition programmes and formal education,” he said.