By Teddy Preye

Just 28 months ago, guns… guns…guns everywhere in the core Niger Delta region of Nigeria .

The country was on the precipice of economic bankruptcy. The cold realities stared the then President, Late Musa Yar’ Adua in the face as the hostilities in the Niger Delta, the nation’s cash cow, raged on.

The armed forces were incapable of handling the violent dimensions of the militancy and the huge disruptive effects in the petroleum industry. Nigeria was losing N8.7billion ($58m) daily as the militants held the Niger Delta region on the jugular.

Besides, the extreme insecurity in the core Niger Delta States of Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River states which officially recorded over 126 kidnapping cases of expatriate staff of oil and gas multinational firms within a year, along with other hues of criminality by armed thugs, have thawed seriously into some level of stability.

No doubt, this highly successful and wholly-Nigerian brand of peaceful resolution of the violence factor of the Niger Delta militancy was squarely on the shoulders and integrity of one main Nigerian: Godwin Osagie Abbe, the arrowhead, lead negotiator and Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Programme from infancy to maturity.

He was the key bridge and facilitator between Late President Musa Yar’ Adua and the motley crowd and pockets of leadership of the militant groups that dotted the difficult mangrove and swampy ecosystem of the Niger Delta region.

Godwin Abbe, a retired Major-General, who is of Bini extraction in Edo State , is remembered more simply as the Minister of the Interior and later Defence in the Federal Executive Council until its dissolution in March 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Definitely, it was no mean strategic feat to peacefully disarm 26,358 heavily-armed youths with pent-up grievances, under a loose command structure of different groups in a difficult environmental terrain, and with only political promises on the table. As the Amnesty Programme which took effect from August 6th and ended midnight October 4th, 2009 rolled to fruition, even the skeptical international community was aghast as another batch of 6,166 hard-nosed militants willingly came out of their camps and other hiding places and publicly deposited their weapons in designated locations.

The challenge was enormous, the risk of failure was high, the stakes for the country enormous, and time to make a positive difference too short. The single most important element in the first phase of the amnesty programme – disarmament – was trust.

The most delicate gift, which surprised even the lead negotiator and Nigerians, was the simple trust that the militants themselves bestowed later, even in the dying minutes, on the Minister who was driving the process.

This feat, against odds, was made possible by the doggedness and sincerity of Abbe, whom the militants saw as one of them from the despoiled Niger Delta region; the unfettered access he enjoyed to the President and honesty in presenting the militants’ messages to him; and as well as the kind assistance offered Abbe by some strategic Ijaw ethnic players like Hon. Kingsley Kuku, the incumbent Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta and a close pal of his, Mr. Wilson Ajuwa, and Elder T. K. Ogoriba, who not only saw the sincerity of purpose of the lead negotiator of the Federal Government and helped to secure the support of some critical militant leaders and traditional rulers, who were benefiting from the crisis.

The intervention was timely to curb the antics of those that wanted to take advantage of the unpleasant time frame when late President Yar’Adua’s health dose-dived and official correspondences were being hijacked.

and conspiracies taking front seat in the implementation process. The negative roles against the disarmament component of the Amnesty Programme, especially during the last few weeks before the expiration of the period of pardon, had to be confronted by the Governors in the South-South geo-political zone, and at a critical stage, Chief Tony Anenih, had to be involved in the surrender of Government Ekwuempolo (Tompolo) in Delta State.

A great moment of victory for the Amnesty Programme, and indeed the best evidence of the intense and successful legwork of the Abbe – led Committee was the parade of the leaders of the various militant groups that were herded into Aso Rock Villa to confess their sincere embrace of the Amnesty Programme.

Frail-looking President Yar’Adua, accompanied by the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, described the epoch-making event as the 49th independence anniversary gift to him as President and Commander-in-Chief.

It was an open appreciation of the genuine efforts of the team he put together to make the programme succeed. The international community was dazed by the success quotient of the programme that was very high.

The Nigerian Amnesty Programme is adjudged by the international media as one of the most successful in the world, and interestingly, it was a wholly – Nigerian Disarmament, Demobilization and Rehabilitation (DDR) programme carefully bereft of lapses in order to the screen out opportunists and foreign interest who, like vultures, always want to benefit from the crises in developing nations of the world.

The good news today is that this hero of our time who helped to re-define armed conflict resolution and peace paradigm in the African continent is being remembered and honoured by privately-owned Benson Idahosa University (BIU), Benin City with a doctorate degree in Public Administration (Honoris Causa), at this year’s convocation ceremony. A key feature of unsung heroes is that they understand the humility of ascribing all feats to the glory of God. Incidentally, Godwin Abbe is a living example of one of them.