Soji Ajibola, Ibadan
Former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has urged the new Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in Abuja, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), to give priority to the sustenance of human capital development in the region in line with the objectives of the programme.
Jonathan stated this when he received Dikio in his house in Abuja.
The visit signalled the commencement of consultative meetings with critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta, having met with the Commander-in-Chief of Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, last week.
He advised Dikio to ensure that the scholarships for degree programmes within and outside the country alongside payment of monthly stipends to beneficiaries of the programme are given the deserved priority.
The former President urged the new leader of the Amnesty Programme to avoid the temptation of taking on responsibilities beyond the funding capacity of the office.
According to him, “One thing I should tell you also is that you should not bite more than you can chew as the saying goes. You should accommodate the projects which you think you can effectively carry out with your budget.”
Jonathan added that the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Presidential Amnesty Office had been of concern to the stakeholders even though the Amnesty Programme has fared better in terms of pursuing the objectives that inspired its establishment.
He admonished that if 70 percent of funds budgeted for the two agencies were utilized for the intended purposes, the Niger Delta region would have been better.
Earlier in his remark, the Interim Administrator, Dikio hailed Jonathan for his historic role as the first President from the Niger Delta and for midwifing the entire Amnesty process as the then Vice President to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
He added that his visit to the former President was in furtherance to his consultations with critical stakeholders in the region on how best to approach and tackle the task of productively running the office to the benefit of the region and Nigeria.
Dikio said that his vision was to restore and actualise the objectives that inspired the establishment of the Amnesty Programme through effective collaborative efforts with relevant government agencies, state governments and other stakeholders to achieve enhanced security for economic prosperity in the country.