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[OPINION] President Tinubu And The Niger Delta: A Match Made In Heaven

Published

2 months ago

June 5, 2025

Editor

By Dennis Otuaro

The Niger Delta has never had it so good, enjoying a period of peace, stability and development. Although some challenges remain, the last two years under the administration of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have indeed been momentous for the region. Consequently, age-old grievances are melting away, hope is renewed, and the cry of marginalisation, which the area had been known for, is gradually fading as a result of this administration’s deliberate policies and interventions.

The first pointer that the President meant business for the Niger Delta was at his inauguration on that fateful day in May, 2023. He had pledged that, ’whether from the winding creeks of the Niger Delta, the vastness of the northern savannah, the boardrooms of Lagos, the bustling capital of Abuja, or the busy markets of Onitsha, you are all my people. As your president, I shall serve with prejudice toward none but compassion and amity towards all.’’

Two years on, the President has indeed kept that promise, with development strides and appointment of Niger Deltans into key government portfolios and roles. For me, as I listened to him on that inauguration morning, little did I know that I would be one of his foot soldiers to take the message of renewed hope and development ‘’to the winding creeks of the Niger Delta.’’

I was appointed in March 2024 as the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), amidst keen competition for the role. I was selected, I believe, due to my academic and professional records and my history as a person who has been involved in the Niger Delta’s struggle for justice, equity, greater say in resource management, and a better life for our people.

Since my appointment, I have contributed my modest quota to ensuring that the President’s vision of development, peace and security in the Niger Delta is achieved. I have steered the Programme towards ensuring these goals through significant investment in human development, with the knowledge that the best way to develop a society is to empower its people by educating them.

When I was appointed, only a few hundred students were on the Programme’s scholarship. I have since expanded that to over 3000 students, selected across the length and breadth of the region, in a process that is open, fair and transparent. That way, the son of a fisherman and the daughter of a farmer stand a chance of a quality education, fully funded by the federal government, making the President’s promise of a renewed hope not just a campaign slogan, but something the Niger Delta can feel and touch.

We have also revitalised the overseas scholarship scheme, which had been suspended before my appointment. Now, over 60 Niger Delta indigenes are pursuing studies in the UK, US, Canada and other countries sponsored by the government. We also ensured that these courses, whether for undergraduate or postgraduate students, are development-focused, which can help the speedy growth and transformation of the Niger Delta.

Vocational training programmes have also been ramped up, with the training of 40 aircraft engineers, 98 maritime cadets at the Joemarine Institute in Delta State, and others, thereby enhancing the Niger Delta’s human capital in critical sectors. On the Programme’s core mandate of ensuring the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-agitators, we have ensured the prompt payment of stipends and implemented comprehensive data management reforms to eliminate duplicates and update the records to reflect training completion. We also seek job placements, training and career opportunities for ex-agitators, their families, and those in impacted communities.

Perhaps because of these record achievements, the budget for the Programme was increased in the current financial cycle. In addition, I think it was reviewed upward because of the President’s love of the Niger Delta and commitment to right the historic injustices against the region and the people. This demonstrates that his pledge to be fair and just was not just political talk but one that he is truly committed to.

That is probably the reason why the Niger Delta is the only region with two intervention development agencies. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 to address the socio-economic and environmental challenges of the Niger Delta region from the impact of oil and gas exploration and foster sustainable development.

The NDDC has played that role since its formation with some measure of success. However, recently, when regional blocs started clamouring for similar agencies to tackle their peculiar developmental challenges and the President acquiesced to their requests, setting up the northwest, north-central and other agencies, the popular thinking was that there was no need to establish one for the Niger Delta region because of the existence of the NDDC. But the president, perhaps aware of the outsize role the Niger Delta has played as the main source of foreign exchange revenue for the country in the last 60 years, didn’t follow this line of reasoning. He established the South-South Development Commission with its headquarters in Akwa Ibom State and approved a significant budget for its take-off.

The President deserves commendation for his bold efforts to tackle head-on the developmental challenges of the Niger Delta and bring the region to the central focus of his development agenda. If you asked me, I would dare say the President is positively biased in favour of the Niger Delta, quick to approve projects and key appointments for the region and its people.

A few examples will suffice. While the former President had dilly-dallied with endorsing the Maritime University Okerenkoko Bill, President Tinubu signed it immediately the bill reached his desk, thereby providing the necessary legal framework for the university to thrive and become a hub for maritime education and research in the coastal belt of the country.

He also signed the bill establishing the Federal University of Environment and Technology (FUET) in Ogoni land, Rivers State, designed to provide more opportunities and development in the area. The clean-up of Ogoni land through the environmental remediation efforts overseen by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has also intensified under President Tinubu.

As with Ogoni, so it is with the rest of the Niger Delta. Our rivers are cleaner, our air is fresher, and our people can fish and farm again, as the government has tackled oil bunkering and theft, which have polluted both the rivers and land in the region. Security agencies, in collaboration with private consultants such as Tantita Security Services, under the supervision of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, have reduced oil theft, bunkering, and destruction of oil and gas infrastructure. The impact has been immediate and growing such that Nigeria has doubled its daily oil production to around 1.6 million, meaning there are more funds for the Niger Delta states to carry out development projects through the 13 percent derivation allocation.

And there is more. Niger Delta indigenes now lead key government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Emomotimi Agama; Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe; Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola; and Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), Dr. George Kelly, amongst others.

As we roll out the drums to celebrate the President’s second anniversary, it is good to let the world know that the President’s Niger Delta scorecard is sterling, demonstrating his love and commitment to the region and people. We thank him with the assurance that someday soon, we will pay back in FULL.

Otuaro, Phd, is the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

Related Topics:#Tinubu Dennis Otuaro Otuaro

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BREAKING: Tinubu Appoints New Federal Fire Service Boss

Published

8 hours ago

July 30, 2025

Editor

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Adeyemi Olumode, as the new Federal Fire Service, FFS, Controller-General.

The appointment was announced on Wednesday on behalf of the Federal Government by retired Maj.-Gen Abdulmalik Jubril, Secretary of the Civil, Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board, CDCFIB.

Jubril said the appointment followed the retirement of the current Controller-General, Abdulganiyu Jaji, on August 13.

Jaji is retiring upon attaining the age of 60 by August 13.

Jibril further disclosed said that Adeyemi Olumode is qualified for the position, having attended and passed all mandatory in-service training, Command courses as well as other courses within and outside the country.

“He brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having transferred his service from the FCT Fire Service to the Federal Fire Service and grown to the rank of DCG in the Human Resource Directorate of the Service Headquarters.

“He has served in various capacities and is equally a member/fellow of the following professional associations including Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, ANAN, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria, Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria and Chartered Institute of Treasury Management of Nigeria.”

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[OPINION] Northern Amnesia: Governor Sani, The Table Shaker

Published

8 hours ago

July 30, 2025

Editor

By Israel Adebiyi

“When truth is buried underground, it grows, it chokes, it gathers such explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it.”
— Émile Zola

There’s a kind of silence that settles over the land after years of failure. A silence made of shame, denial, and carefully chosen half-truths. In Northern Nigeria, that silence has become an institution — polite, predictable, and profoundly dangerous.

Then came Uba Sani — with words that cut through like harmattan wind.

At a recent citizen engagement summit in Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani did what few northern politicians have ever dared. He faced the region and told it the truth: “We failed our people.” Not they. We. All of us who have held power in the North in the past two decades, he said, must offer the people an apology.

In that single moment, he shattered the convenient forgetfulness the North has grown used to. He didn’t call out Abuja. He didn’t drag the South. He didn’t blame some vague colonial past or “outsiders.” He pointed the finger inward — and included himself.

That is no small thing. That is not politics. That is an act of courage.

Because what Governor Sani spoke to is not just political miscalculation. It’s a generational betrayal. A betrayal that has left too many Northern children unschooled, too many women dying in childbirth, too many communities in darkness, and too many homes listening for the next gunshot.

Let’s stop for a moment and look at the evidence — not the emotion, but the math.

According to the 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index, nine of the ten poorest states in Nigeria are in the North. In Sokoto, over 90% of people live in poverty. Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa — same story. We’re not just failing; we’ve normalized failure.

And yet, this is the region that has held the most power in Nigeria since independence. Presidents. Military heads of state. Senators. Generals. Governors. Ministers. National Security Advisers. We’ve produced them all. But not the outcomes.

We’ve built palaces in Abuja, but not a working school in Shinkafi. We’ve padded budgets but abandoned hospitals in Birnin Kebbi. In some states, over 60% of children aged 6–15 have never seen the inside of a classroom. What kind of leadership allows this?

Northern mothers still die in delivery rooms at three times the national average, according to the latest NDHS report. Some rural health centres don’t even have paracetamol. The elites fly abroad. The poor bury their dead.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: [OPINION] BUHARI: The Man Who Missed Redemption

Security? Forget it. From Zamfara to Katsina to Niger, bandits have made homes out of forests. Whole villages are ghost towns. And yet, most of the top military chiefs in the last decade came from this region. Who, then, is to blame?

Let’s talk money. The North is land-rich but cash-poor. While Lagos alone contributes over 30% to Nigeria’s GDP, most northern states struggle to hit 1%. But the same northern governors go cap-in-hand for federal allocation and call it development. Where are the industries? Where is the productivity?

This is what Sani is shaking — a region that has grown comfortable with underdevelopment and allergic to self-reflection.

Some elites have pushed back, of course. Former senators and political juggernauts who built their careers on recycled loyalty have tried to downplay his remarks. They say he was too harsh. That he forgot their “service”. That he shouldn’t “wash dirty linen in public.”

But if that linen hasn’t been washed for 40 years, where should it be aired?

Let’s be honest — it is easier to blame Buhari, or Tinubu, or the South. But Sani refuses the easy route. He says: we, the North, are not victims here. We are architects of our own decline.

He refuses to play the amnesia game.

You can feel the discomfort in the air. He has stepped on toes — and many of those toes wear agbadas. But the truth is not about comfort. It’s about course correction.

This isn’t about just Uba Sani. It’s about whether the North still has the capacity to face its reflection. To see the rot — and clean house. To stop building dynasties and start building schools. To stop naming roads after ancestors and start giving roads to rural farmers.

Too many of our children are stuck in almajiri cycles while the children of the elite occupy UK universities. Too many of our mothers die in labor while wives of past governors set up foundations for photo-ops. Too many old names have stayed too long — and are grooming their sons for the throne.

That is what Governor Sani is fighting: not just silence, but the inheritance of silence.

He says, “Let’s apologise.” But apology alone is not enough. It must be backed with a plan. A Marshall Plan for the North — real investment, not campaign slogans. Functional education, not workshops. Security that protects, not retaliates. Jobs that empower, not enslave.

It must come with the rethinking of what power is: not title, not convoy, not prayer photos — but legacy measured in lives changed, not lives lost.

Governor Sani’s voice may be lonely now. But history listens to such voices. And perhaps, just perhaps, in that lone voice, the North might find a new beginning.

Because silence, when it becomes tradition, is nothing but consent.

And now, one man has dared to shout.

News

Edo Assures Pensioners Of Improved Welfare, Universal Health Coverage

Published

9 hours ago

July 30, 2025

Editor

The government of Edo State has assured pensioners in the state of improved welfare and universal health coverage.

The state deputy governor, Hon. Dennis Idahosa gave the assurance in Benin on Tuesday, during a courtesy visit to his office by members of the Edo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP).

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Friday Aghedo, Idahosa assured the pensioners of Monday Okpebholo’s led administration commitment to improving on the welfare of all citizens.

Idahosa said that the government remains upbeat and committed toward representing the interest of pensioners.

“The Governor is committed towards the welfare of the pensioners of Edo State,” he stated.

Idahosa, who reacted to a request concerning the need to expedite payments of outstanding arrears to already screened pensioners cutting across local government and state level, pointed out, “The Governor is keen at clearing all outstanding arrears.”

Simirlarly, the assured that the pensioners of benefitting from the state universal health coverage.

He concluded with the assurance that the governor’s work would soon be visible to all across the state.

The State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Comrade Samuel Okhuelegbe, who spoke on behalf of his executive, enumerated challenges of the union, which includes meager amount received as pension

He commended the state government for setting up a committee to review the Contributory Pension Scheme.

“The essence is to narrow the yawning gap in monthly pensions between counterparts, under the contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as well as define benefits of the scheme.

“Though the report of the committee has long been submitted, the final outcome of the report should be considered in the interest of affected pensioners,” he appealed

He, however, sued for improved benefits for retirees going by the improved minimum wage as applicable to workers in Edo State.