The first batch of the ex-militants from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria on Wednesday traveled to South Africa through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos for six months training as seamen.
This is part of the Federal Government post amnesty programme which is in phases of disarmament, mobilisation and re-integration.
The ex-militants who embraced the amnesty programme were earlier camped in a rehabilitation centre in Obubra, Cross Rivers State, after they voluntarily came out of the creeks and submitted their weapons to the Federal Government.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos where 38 ex- militants were assembled, Senior Special Adviser to the President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta, Timi Aliabe, explained that other ex-combatants would be trained at the Artisan Skills Training Provider (ASTP) in South Africa, to become qualified seafarers, quartermasters, sea masters, boat drivers or even marine captains, even as others will be sent for training in Canada, Poland, Ghana among other places.
“These trainees who have successfully gone through nonviolence transformational training represent the future of the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole. The various kinds of training and general life exposure they are set to receive at the offshore training centre will further transform and prepare them
as agents of change,” he said.
He said they would remain in South Africa for six months after which they would be given the opportunity to put to practice what they learn.
“But even more important, President Goodluck Jonathan expects transformed and skilled ex-militants to form the bedrock and bulwark of the new economy of the Niger Delta,” he said.
He however, charged the delegates to consider the privileges given to them as rare and thus position themselves to effectively maximize the opportunity given as worthy ambassadors of the country.
One of the ex-militants, Oyibo Akpos who spoke at the gathering praised the Federal Government for the initiative.
“I’m happy to be able to express myself through dialogue without resulting to violence of any sort because violence would not win the eventual war,” he said
Another ex-militant, Taribolou Dick said that the time of hiding in the shadows and avoiding soldiers was gone.
Dick who was a soldier in Nigerian Army for nine years before joining the struggle, said that it was a sad sight watching colleagues in the struggle dying for the cause.
The amnesty program was conceived during the era of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, specifically, amnesty was offered on June 25, 2009 while 20,193 militants accepted the offer and started the disarmament process which took place on October 4, 2009.
Aliabe said : ” These trainees who have successfully gone through the non violence transformational training represent the future of the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole. The various kinds of training and the general life exposure they are set to receive at the offshore training centres is a further
attempt to effectively transform and prepare them as change agents, useful to themselves and value adding elements to the society.”
He charged the delegates to make maximum use of the investment in them, urging them not to exhibit the behaviors that could embarrass the government, while in South Africa.