Acting president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has reportedly demanded an update on the Federal Government’s post-amnesty programme.
The request, expected to be officially transmitted to the General Godwin Abbe-led post-amnesty coordination committee, is said to be coming on the heels of reports, penultimate week, that former militants in the Niger Delta were threatening to return to the creeks due to the long absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua from the country on health grounds.
According to sources in the presidency, Jonathan instructed one of his aides to reach out to the ex-militants immediately after his empowerment by the National Assembly as acting president on Tuesday.
A source said: “The man is inundated with reports that those who were given responsibilities were either playing politics with the programme or foot-dragging for no reasons. The truth is that the acting president has indicated that the committee saddled with the post-amnesty package should present an updated report on the progress made so far to enable him to know exactly where to start from without necessarily duplicating efforts.”
However, Gen. Abbe, who is also the Minister of Defence, expressed confidence that the post-amnesty programme was on course.
Meanwhile, indications emerged that ex-militant commanders are billed to converge on Arogbo, Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State, to appraise the current political development.
A source, who gave the indication, said: “We will review our earlier resolve to stay away from the post-amnesty programme, but everything depends on the agenda of the new leader who has promised to reprioritise the administration’s seven-point agenda with the Niger Delta taking a pivotal place.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has promised its unflinching support for the acting president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in moving the country forward.
The congress gave the promise just as it commended the National Assembly for empowering the former vice president as acting president.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, on Friday, after an emergency meeting of its Central Working Committee (CWC) on the state of the nation, the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, commended the National Assembly for its action and stressed its endorsement by the NLC.
While pledging the labour body’s total support for the acting president, Omar charged Jonathan to promptly address key national issues.
The labour leader called on the acting president to, as a matter of urgency, find a lasting solution to the scarcity of petroleum products in the country.
On the post-amnesty issue, the CWC resolved that the acting president should immediately put machinery in motion and implement the terms, which deadline had been exceeded, to ensure peace and stability in the Niger Delta.
The congress also mandated Jonathan to improve on the current power supply within a short time “because Nigerians have been fooled enough on the 6,000 megawatts power generation.”
It urged Jonathan to implement a new minimum wage for workers and to impresss it upon the banks that engaged in mass sack to recall affected workers.
It claimed that it was unfair to put the pain on innocent workers since the losses of the troubled banks were not caused by them, but the frivolousness of some chief executive officers.