The Minister of
Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, yesterday said with the amnesty
programme of the Federal government, youth in the region have
discovered that it is necessary to embrace peace in the area. The
minister was in the state for the grand finale of “Youth Empowerment
through Entertainment” organized for youth in the nine Niger Delta
states. Mr. Orubebe had been in eight other states. Claiming that the
potential in the land were more than crude oil, he said the programme
was organised to discover artists was part of the youth empowerment
programme initiated for Niger-Delta young people.
“I want to tell you that the Niger Delta problem has been on since 1957 and it has developed a lot of interests,
this is a problem that can not be solved within two months,” he said.
He pointed out that
it was imperative to change the orientation of the people in order to
come to terms with the federal government. Mr. Orubebe said the
government was determined to construct coastal roads that would connect
the region, adding that the opening of the area with accessible roads
would further develop the region.
The minister
praised President Goodluck Jonathan for providing packages to Niger
Delta youth particularly those that would make them self-sustained.
According to him, the federal government wanted the youth to be more
productive especially in various skills such as marine, agriculture,
tourism and entertainment. Former Special Adviser to the President on
Niger Delta, Timi Alaibe, had in November last year told journalists in
Abuja that government had successfully secured and retained the
services of about 114 vocational/skills acquisition centres within the
country, as well as 81 local and 33 offshore training partners that
handled the training of about 7,286 transformed ex-militants since last
August 25.
“All the 20,192
registered ex-militants will pass through the nonviolence
transformational training. It is compulsory. Once they pass through
Obubra Camp, we will place them in skills acquisition centre based on
the trainees’ preferred choice of vocation,” Mr. Alaibe said.
The training for each of the trainees, which the special adviser
said would span between six months and two years, would be in vocations
such as pipeline welding, underwater welding, ocean diving, crane
operations, oil drilling, automobile technology, fish farming and
entrepreneurship — grocery, building materials and business centres
operations.
