By SONY DANIEL

ABUJA—Special  Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, said on Wednesday that it was actually President Goodluck Jonathan that paved the way for the cessation of the militancy that drastically reduced the nation’s oil production between 2006 and 2009.

Kuku, who spoke when he received the new leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council in Abuja, made it clear that it was actually Jonathan who while serving as Nigeria’s Vice President wrote the amnesty brief, persuaded the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to accept and implement the deal for the militants in exchange for peace.

Kuku said that beyond the persuasion of Yar’Adua to grant amnesty to the militants, Jonathan was actually the most senior Federal Government officials who risked his life and frequently went to militant camps and begged the militants to lay down their arms and accept peace.

“So, the truth must be told that it was actually Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that paved the way for the amnesty that has made it possible for peace to return to the Niger Delta and for oil to begin to flow in significant quantity, thereby making more money for the country and its people,” the presidential aide explained.

“The records are there: Jonathan went to the notorious Camp 5, begged Tompolo and other fighters to lay down their arms and accept the terms of the amnesty programme, which he drew up and showed to them.

“Without President Jonathan’s strong voice for amnesty and his personal involvement to get it off the ground, there would have been no oil for the country today. Nigeria is lucky to have him as a President and we should put the record straight,” he said.

Kuku, who frowned at what he called a deliberate attempt by some Nigerians to distort the history of the Presidential Amnesty in Nigeria, said that they IYC, which was at the heart of the Niger Delta struggle, would not allow the change of the story of the region for political reasons.