The Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (retd), says the United Nations has adopted Nigeria’s strategy in tackling problems in Niger Delta to solve militancy in Cote d’Ivoire.
Boroh, also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, made this known while speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja.
He said the UN had invited him to brief the body on the strategies being used by Nigerian Government to address the problems of militancy through its amnesty Programme.
Boroh said the programme had succeeded in restoring peace and stability to the region through human capacity development and various reintegration programmes for the 30,000 ex-agitators on its payroll.
The programmes, according to him include: education, vocational training, professional training in aviation and maritime, automobile engineering, entrepreneurial training and tourism and hospitality.
He said: “The Programme has developed and enhanced capacities of lawyers and other professionals, this year we have graduated 177 students in the U.S, 140 from the UK with a cost of about N48 billion, both in Naira and dollars.”
Similarly, Boroh presented certificates to three beneficiaries of the Programme that made first class honours in Information Technology from the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio electronics.
He said the three awardees, who hailed from Imo and Rivers States, had not only made the Niger Delta region proud but the nation as a whole.
According to Boroh, 29 of the graduates majored in various fields from the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, 16 others trained in related areas at Brest State University, Belarus.
He disclosed that 508 of beneficiaries across the nine oil-producing states were being trained to establish their own crop, poultry and fish farms.
He explained that only recently, 100 delegates were given starter parks after undergoing a recertification programme in catering and fashion designing at the International Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Yenagoa in Bayelsa State.
According to him, 105 delegates have been trained in agro-business at the Songhai Farms, Rivers, while 200 trained in fish farming at Perecastle Fish Farm, Patani and Delta.
Boroh added that agricultural revolution had brought hope to youths in the region.
He said: “An average of 25 each have been trained in fish farming in six centres, including the Delta State University by Gedisco Energy Solutions, Infinite Farms in Ozoro, Delta State, and Orus Resources Farm, Aluu, Rivers State.
“At the Institute of Oceanography, University of Calabar, Cross River State, 96 were trained in fish farming. Ma-Atari Farms, Port Harcourt trained another set in poultry farming. Ogbebor Leadership Institute, Ologbo, Edo State trained beneficiaries in rubber processing.’’
Boroh also uged the youth of the region to desist from using the region as battle fields, and advised them to employ holistic strategies to attract investors rather than taking to militancy.
He said: “When our region becomes attractive, we won’t have to beg investors to come. They will come by themselves.
“Let’s make the place attractive enough for the people to come and invest.”
The coordinator said government had designed strategic working plans for development of the region which would be based on community security approach for protecting oil pipelines and infrastructure.