By Fortune Eromosele, Abuja

The Niger Delta Presidential Amnesty Programme Vendors Union has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give more budgetary allocation to the Programme.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the Secretary of the Union, Barr. Etifa Johnathan lamented that currently the PAP was poorly funded and that with the economic hardship in the country, there was a need for more funding to the Programme to meet more needs of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta oil-rich region.

He also called for a tenure extension of the Interim Administrator of the PAP, in the person of, Major-General Barry Ndiomu (retd).

According to him, “It is worthy of note that since the inception of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, the budget allocated to running and management of the programme has remained same.

“However, as we would all agree, the value of the Naira has significantly devalued since 2009. In 2009, the dollar to Naira exchange rate was about 145 Naira to a dollar, while today it has increased by over 700%. That is to say, as regards its budget, the Presidential Amnesty Programme has become poorer despite the harsh economic realities being faced in its quest for success.

“This technical downsize of the PAP budget has become an impediment to the smooth running of the program and a cog in the wheel of its success. This is so because the PAP is in the Reintegration phase and this is the most expensive phase to administer as it involves building human capacity and repositioning ex-agitators for peaceful and sustainable livelihood. This is a sensitive phase of the program as it will define the overall success or failure of the programme.

“For instance, to ensure the ex-agitators and impacted communities are well trained and prepared with a pathway for self-sufficiency, the PAP over time engages her beneficiaries in onshore and offshore training, be it Vocational or education.

“These require funding, but the constraint of budget size has been a challenge for all leadership. As earlier mentioned the effect of devalued Naira has created an even bigger challenge to the Programme as the programme currently spends approximately 5 times more of its scarce resources per offshore training than it did in the past.

“As a union, we hereby draw the attention of the federal Government to this challenge and urge for the immediate increase in the budget of the PAP, as the effect it will have in ensuring the PAP meets her objectives cannot be overemphasised. The difference between the success and failure of the PAP is largely hinged on the adequate funding of the programme.

“Again, as a union, we have noticed a very worrisome trend that has technically hindered the performance of the leadership of the PAP and significantly distorted and destabilised the PAP towards its smooth running with the aims of delivering on its mandate.

“You will all agree with us that stability in leadership is a panacea for success. But with the PAP the opposite has been the case in recent times.

“As a Union, we use this opportunity to call on the Federal Government to ensure that the appointments of the leadership are done on a sufficient tenure basis going forward. This will ensure leadership stability and will help yield the dividends for which the PAP was formed.

“In line with the above as a Union, we hereby call for the FGN to elongate the tenure of Maj Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu as he has spent just over 1 year in office and his removal will continue the negative trends we have mentioned. Already he is in his second year and has understood to Programme and also is in the process of deploying Students on Scholarship for the 2024/2025 academic session. Any attempt to destabilise the current leadership is an attempt to further destabilise the Niger Delta Region.

“As vendors, we are unpaid for contracts executed for many years, this is also due to the instability in leadership, as every leadership issues new contracts in line with their vision, while existing contracts are mostly discontinued. The detriment of leadership instability over the years has become cancerous to the survival of PAP”.