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Special
Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Paul Boroh
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The Special Adviser to
the President on Niger Delta, Paul Boroh, has said that the scheme has
transformed the lives of former Niger Delta agitators.
News
Agency of Nigeria report continues:
Mr.
Boroh, who is also the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, spoke
at the graduation of 80 ex-agitators at Innoson KIARA Academy in Enugu on
Saturday.
He
said the federal government was impressed with the response of the participants.
The
coordinator said he decided to witness the graduation to underscore the
importance the government attached to the scheme.
Mr.
Boroh, a retired brigadier general, said government would ensure that none of
the graduates missed their track, but driven to prosperity following their
participation in the nine months course.
“I
remember when I was signing the document for over 200 of you to come to Eastern
Nigeria to study. I thought you will not come as you were only familiar with
the Niger Delta area.
“Today,
I have come to see you succeeding and that means the amnesty programme is on
course and succeeding. I am ready for you anytime you need my support.
“We
shall put our heads together to make sure that you follow through what you have
learnt so that other people will see you as serious and try to be like you,” he
said.
Mr.
Boroh said elsewhere, participants in the scheme had shown greater reliability
and commitment to succeed in life.
“Two
weeks ago I went to graduates some of our brothers and sisters in London. They
surprised everybody in the world because four of them made first class degrees
while 22 made second class upper division,” he said.
He
appealed to them to make the country proud in their chosen fields of endeavour
and be proud of their heritage.
He
charged them to hold the Niger Delta region very dear and be good ambassadors
of the area, adding that the whole of the region was a pride to the nation.
“The
Niger Delta is Africa’s largest delta and the third largest in the world. It
covers 70,000 square km and the home of 31 million people with over 39,300
settlements.
“Let
us appreciate it and not destroy it,” Boroh said.
Earlier,
the Head, Vocational Training of the programme, Faith Omofuma, appealed to the
graduates to dedicate the rest of their lives to making the best use of what
they had learnt.
Mr.
Omofuma said that the federal government painstakingly drew the programme to
make them gainfully employed as well as employers of labour.
She
appealed to them not to go back to the creeks, but to be ambassadors of the
amnesty programme in order to make disciples.
In
an address of welcome, the Chief Executive Officer of the academy, Endi
Ezengwa, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his continuous support to
ensure the programme achieved its set goals.
Mr.
Ezengwa said with the positive attitudes exhibited by the trainees, “I have no
doubt that the society will feel the impact of the time you spent here as well
as your desire to make Nigeria better.
“Innoson
Group of Companies is offering employment to all our graduates who wish to work
with us,” he said.
He
appealed to the Federal Government and states in the region to establish model
plastic industries in the Niger Delta since the raw materials were abundant in
the zone, especially in Eleme.
“When
established, clusters of our graduates will be part of these factories and we
will support them to establish, manage and own them eventually,” Mr. Ezengwa
said.
The graduates trained in plastic manufacturing processes under the empowerment and industry support initiative of the amnesty programme.
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