By Emmanuel Nduka
As part of more efforts by the Nigerian Government to reintegrate ex-agitators from the Niger Delta region back into the society, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has agreed to commence the employment process of 350 of them with immediate effect.
Dr. Yemi-Esan who disclosed this on Friday in Abuja when she received the new Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Maj. Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) in her office, assured him that she would do everything within the purview of her office to support the Programme to succeed.
“I just want to remind you that there is an embargo on employment but the President has given a room for us to employ graduates into institutions and also into security jobs. And so, if there are people that have relevant degrees, we can look at that, at least let us start doing something.
“We can accommodate them (ex-agitators). It will be a pleasure that we do that because even in the civil service, people from that region (south south) are very rare in the federal civil service.
“Recently, I looked at the list of how many civil servants we have per state and clearly, the south south was not well represented.
“Recall that a few years ago we even had to recruit directors from the states directly into level seventeen, just because we didn’t have good representation. So it is important for us to have good representation in the federal civil service.
“We must be able to support you to achieve great success in the Presidential Amnesty Programme. I need to say that we are here to give you all the assistance that you need from us, it is just a phone call. Even things that you think might be outside the purview of this office, because it is important for me to see that you succeed in that position, so we will do everything to support you.
“We will look at our own document. This is a memo that was written to the ministry of budget and national planning. So we will look it again and see if the committee was set up and where is the committee is and what happened,” she said.
In his remarks, Gen. Ndiomu had drawn the attention of the Head of Service to an earlier directive to employ the 350 ex-agitators who performed credibly well in their various institutions, most significantly, those who made first class, but that the said directive had not been implemented.
Ndiomu reminded the HoS of a committee that was set up to consider the employment of graduates from the Presidential Amnesty Programme, following an earlier directive from the Presidency.
“As a matter of fact, some time in 2017 there was a directive to employ about 350 of the ex-agitators that performed credibly well, most significantly first class, for these boys and girls to be employed in the federal civil service and its institutions. Unfortunately, since that letter was written, signed by the then Chief of Staff, late Abba Kyari, nothing has been done and these children have remained unemployed.
“Of course I don’t need to emphasize the need for us to ensure that what the intention of the administration was, is fulfilled because some of these ex-agitators have the intelligence and may want to go back to the creeks as they do not have any means of livelihoods, having lost all hope.
“The Presidential Amnesty Programme was conceptualized to bring about cessation of the conflict arising principally from the youth restiveness in the Niger Delta region. The idea behind the programme from inception was for it to be there for a short period of time as it was originally meant to end by 2015.
“But due to certain exigencies, the government of the day at the time decided to extend the programme beyond the time limit because they had to take in more of the ex-combatants in the creeks who were afraid to surrender their arms and ammunition because they thought they could be killed and when their fears were allayed, they came out to voluntarily submit their arms to the federal government.
“The civil service has played a very important role in midwiving the entire process, most of your officials have been involved.
“Once again we express our gratitude for the assistance we have received from federal civil service,” the PAP boss noted.
