Hon. Kingsley Kuku: Giant Strides of a Silent Archiver

The relative peace in the entire niger delta region, has undoubtedly been the result of the sustained and diligent implementation of the Federal Government's Amnesty Programme for former militant youths in the region. Hon KINGSLEY KEMEBRADIGHA KUKU, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Office will for ever be remmeberd by posterity for very ably steering the programme – refocusing the youth on constructive life, improving human safety in the region and boosting the economic fortunes of the nation. The Niger Delta Amnesty Programme which began as an off-shoot package of the presidential pardon granted to Niger Delta militants through a proclamation by then President Umaru Yar'Adua on 29 June 2009. The programme offered transformation training and skills acquisition opportunities for any militants who laid down their arms. The Presidential Amnesty Office chaired by the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta was mandated to administer the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of the ex-militants, as a pre-condition for medium and long term development in the Niger Delta. Specifically, the Office was to groom the 26,365 ex-militants who accepted the offer of amnesty in 2009, to become key players in the emerging economies of the Niger Delta. Kuku (left) receiving Handing Over Notes from Timi Alaibe Kuku was appointed Special Adviser to the President and Chairman of the Amnesty Office on Niger Delta in January 2011 and formally took over from his predecessor, Chief Timi Alaibe, on 3 February 2011. Hon. Kuku immediately hit the ground running, completing the disarmament and demobilization processes, and forging ahead with the task of reintegration. On 25 May 2011, Kuku and his team achieved closure in the disarmament phase of the Programme. In collaboration with the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu, the Amnesty Office publicly destroyed the arms and ammunition that were submitted to the Federal Government by the ex-militants in 2009. The weapons destruction exercise which took place in Lokpanta, a boundary town between Enugu and Abia States, was carried out in conformity with the extant DDR codes as spelt out by the United Nations. Over the years, the Amnesty Office under Kuku's leadership made considerable progress in reintegrating the ex-militants. It refocused many of them towards becoming key players in the emerging economies of the Niger Delta. Equipped with new skills and knowledge, a growing number of these youths have now been empowered to work not only in the oil and gas sector, but also in the many new construction sites, town development projects, railway projects, agriculture and pipeline protection projects that are expectedly underway in the Niger Delta. However, the impact of Kuku's work has gone well beyond the primary mandate of his office, which was to refocus the ex-militants and reintegrate them with normal society. Perhaps the most critical indicator of its impact beyond that mandate is the improvement in public safety and security which it has brought to the Niger Delta. Prior to the programme, kidnapping and hostage taking targeting both expatriate and local workers, as well as sabotage and outright damage of oil and gas infrastructure, were rampant across the region. The sustained implementation of the Amnesty programme and the non-violence transformation of many former members of cults and gangs has had a calming effect on the region. The improved climate of public safety and security contributed significantly to curbing electoral violence in the region, in the run-up to the April 2011 polls. Peace in the Niger Delta is also creating an environment for revival of economic activities, return of foreign investment and improvement of economic security. By 2009, the conflict in the region had greatly eroded the confidence of both foreign and even local investors. But with the effective end of armed conflict and the progress in peacebuilding, that confidence has been greatly restored, and is now attracting new investment, particularly to the upstream sector of the nation's oil industry. The success recorded by the Amnesty Office in 2011 owes largely to a number of personal attributes which Kuku brought to the job. First, he is a true believer in the cause of the Niger Delta, having paid his dues at various points in the region's struggle for a better deal in the Nigerian nation. He therefore came to the office with a clear understanding of the tasks and challenges at hand. John Idumange, a Certified Business Analyst, and Fellow of the Institute of Public Management in Nigeria observes that: "He (Kuku) has been involved in the Niger Delta struggle and that has given him first class knowledge of the needs of youths in the region. Thus, in managing the process, he gets the youths emotionally involved to appreciate the essence of the programme and what they stand to gain when they painstakingly undergo the required training and acquire the requisite skills". Secondly, the Amnesty Chief is a good manager of men and other resources. "My verdict as a stakeholder and a social critic", says Idumange, "is that the Amnesty Chief is generously endowed with a team-building spirit, the right organizational skills, the passion and, above all, the right strategy". Idumange further notes that, in terms of timely decision making, Kuku is "not only alert, but consults widely before taking actions". Thirdly, those who have worked with Kuku, say he is a tireless workaholic who pays good attention to every aspect of the programme. Kuku is keenly involved in networking with training institutes across the world to identify those with appropriate and credible training programmes; and he keeps a close eye on everything from the processing of trainees to their studies and welfare. As the need arises, he visits them at various training centres, tracking their progress and ensuring that they remain focused on their goals. Fourthly, Kuku's success also owes to what a former colleague describes as the "high sense of discipline" and zero tolerance of shoddy work, which he brought to the office. Several incidents have repeatedly underscored these attributes. In seeking to maintain a high level of discipline in the programme, Kuku has had no reservations in showing the red card to any trainee who violates the Code of Conduct or abuses the opportunities offered by the amnesty programme. Thus, the common verdict is that judged strictly by the provisions of its mandate, the amnesty programme, under Kuku's leadership, had been one of the most successful conflict management and youth transformation programmes ever implemented in the history of Nigeria. Nwokedi Nworisara, a policy and media consultant based in Port Harcourt, observes that: "The success of the Kingsley Kuku-led Amnesty programme is just a pointer that this is actually the direction government should be going, if she is serious about ending youth unemployment and its inherent instability in the polity". The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo used to say that "The great man is not he who comes home to distribute bread, but the one who comes home to distribute hope". Kuku, by his dedicated service to building peace in the once-violent Niger Delta, offers us the hope that someday peace and progress will be possible in all other troubled parts of the Nigerian nation. Last modified on Monday, 28 May 2012 10:26