By Fidelis Soriwei

In March 2024, President Bola Tinubu left nobody in doubt  about his plans to entrench enduring peace in the oil rich Niger Delta. He made the deliberate bold step to break away from the tradition of getting retired military personnel to preside over the affairs  of the Presidential Amnesty Presidential, considered a strategic agency for peace sustenance in the Niger.

After a seemingly long process of consultations he came up with a  decision many have described as a masterstroke. He appointed a young dynamic and vibrant advocate for peace and development in the Niger Delta, Dr Dennis Otuaro, to oversee the affair of the office.

With his appointment, President Tinubu also displayed his position to ensure that the Amnesty Office was given the deserved place of priority as a Federal Agency of serious relevant. In what many considered rightly to be a reassuring break from the practice of the past, he appointed Dr Otuaro as the administrator of the programme with an obvious intent to stabilize the office and allay earlier fears.

Those who were privileged to lead the office under the former Administration of President Mohammdu Buhari, Col Dixon Dikio and Gen Barry Ndiomu had the clausal uncertainty of ‘interim administrator’ to their position because of the then moves to scrap the agency which was roundly condemned accross the Niger Delta and by all lovers of Nigeria.

President Tinubu was emphatic about his quest for lasting peace in the Niger Delta when he announced Dr Otuaro as the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Office.

The President’s decision was greeted with widespread celebration as the keen observers of the Niger Delta and its recent history of development go to town to assert the strong optimism that Dr Otuaro’s antecedents are too strong to fail the President and the Nigeria Delta. The hope of success was widespread.

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First, Dr Otuaro is one leader who does not require any briefing about the agitations in the Niger Delta and events that built up to the granting Presidential Amnesty by the late Yar’Adua Administration and establishment of the agency. His passion for peace and development in the Niger Delta are beyond the realm of doubt. That he would do his best and make the region proud was not in contest.

On assumption of office in March 2024, he made it clear that his motivation was not to make money at the Amnesty Office but to ensure that the programme was made effective and returned to the people of the region in line with its founding objectives.

As a man with a burning desire to sustain a tradition of impact for which he is reputed, he opted to explore the vast advantages of stakeholders consultations for optimum benefits. This was expected as it was contained in his opening remarks while taking over the office in March. “I need everybody’s cooperation here to take this programme to greatness. As from today we should back the crowd and face the job. I need everyone’s cooperation so we don’t disappoint the President, the NSA, the people of the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole.”

He opened the effective consultation process with the visits to six partnering universities of the PAP  in Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa States from May 7th to 11th, 2024. These universities are the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State; Benson Idahosa University, Edwin Clark University, Western Delta University, Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, and Bayelsa Medical University. His mission was to hear directly from the students under the PAP scholarship scheme with a view to addressing emergent issues and exploring new areas of cooperation to the benefit of the region. He was the first Administrator to take the initiative to visit the students in person in all the partnering institutions.

In June, he had productive consultative meetings with ex agitators and all the stakeholders of the Niger Delta in Warri Delta State. His gospel of peace resonated in the summit held with the theme”Fostering, Consolidating, and Collaborating for the Peace, Security, Stability, and Development of the Niger Delta.”

He urged the stakeholders to unite in the pursuit of peace, consolidate the success of the Amnesty Programme to prevent the Niger Delta from relapsing into the pre-amnesty years of serious conflicts and violence, and its negative impacts on the region and the country.

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In September, Otuaro expanded the frontiers of consultations by  engaging women across the Niger Delta in a summit in Warri with the theme “Niger Delta Women Empowerment: A Panacea for Peace, Stability and Economic Growth in The Region.”

He seized the opportunity to assure the women folks of his administration resolve to include more Niger Delta women who are an integral part of the consultation process, in the implementation of the PAP mandate. The meeting, the first of its kind, was part of an expanded Niger Delta stakeholders’ engagement by the PAP office with traditional rulers, opinion leaders, women group and youth bodies, among others.

The Conference was attended by frontline activist, AnnKio Briggs, former CNN African Reporter of the Year, Ibiba Don-Pedro, Beauty Warizowei, Primrose Kpokposei, Madam Godfrey Bebenimibo, Caroline Ene, Vero Smooth, Ghana Pondi, Rosemary Naingba-Oduone, Philomena Onukpuvie, Dr Beauty Agbaiboror, Tonbra Kilopirite, Dr Lolo Fubara Sax-Hailsham, and Rosebella Jackson.

Otuaro did not exclude the traditional institutions in the consultation process. He met with respected traditional rulers in the Niger Delta in a conference with the titled

‘Working Together for the Sustainable Peace, Security, Stability and Development in the Niger Delta’ where the royal fathers assured the President of their support with Otuaro’s style and administration.

The top monarchs expressed the hope that the Niger Delta would benefit from the President administration which appointed Otuaro and had shown positive signals of support to the region.

“We need to appreciate the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for finding our son worthy of that office and putting a square peg in a square hole. He (the president) should be rest assured of our full support.

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“Having listened to the plans he has for us, from our own end, we will do everything necessary to ensure that Mr President succeeds. The developmental plan he has for the Niger Delta will be given the necessary support to ensure that it is executed, and our people will be the beneficiaries in the long run.

“We want to also assure you that you have our full support and the message should also be taken to Mr President we are in full support of all his developmental plans for the Niger Delta”,

These were the  unanimous thought of the royal fathers of Tuomo kingdom, HRM King Justice F. F Tabai (retd); Kabowei kingdom, HRM King Peremobowei Erebulu; Agbon kingdom, HRM King Ogurimerime Ukori, CON; Akugebene-Mein kingdom, HRM King S.P Luke; and Ogulagha kingdom, HRM King Joseph Timiyan, and others.

In addition, Otuaro has had several private meetings with the top political leadership including the Ijaw  National Leader, Pa Edwin Clark, former  President Goodluck Jonathan, National Assembly members, governors, former Governors, ministers and other stakeholders to deepen the process of consultation.

Apart from the elaborate efforts at stakeholders enlistment in the affairs of the PAP, Otuaro has made a bold statement in pursuing his treasured area of priority – improvement of the manpower base of the Niger Delta through quality vocational training education, skills acquisition and empowerment, agriculture, among others.

Between March and December, Otuaro has ensured deployment of deserving beneficiaries in diverse areas of vocation including aviation training, acquisition of relevant skills in the maritime sector where 98 trainees were certified, and the granting of 1700 undergraduate scholarships painstakingly executed without controversy accross the region.

Otuaro believes that the most effective way to key into the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President is the entrenchment of peace and security in the Niger Delta. It is without contestation that he has shown character and determination in pursuing this objective with clear results.

Fidelis Soriwei, Media Consultant, Publishes the Network.ng