Make Dikio PAP’s Substantive Coordinator, Ex-agitators Urge Buhari

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Former Niger Delta agitators have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to confirm the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dikio (rtd) as the substantive coordinator of the programme.

Speaking in Port Harcourt yesterday, the National Secretary, First Phase Ex-agitators, Nature Dumale, said Dikio’s commitment in transforming ex-agitators into independent employees and entrepreneurs through his novel Train, Employ and Mentor (TEM) model had started yielding expected results.

He said Dikio had been outstanding in the management of PAP as an interim administrator and had the capacity to actualise the mandate of the programme if given the opportunity of a substantive coordinator.

Dumale recalled that recently, 346 ex-agitators became the pioneers of TEM following their graduation from a notable skill acquisition facility in Ondo State.

He said 80 per cent of the graduates would be employed by the training firm in line with the provisions of TEM, describing the Dikio’s initiative as the best solution to the problems of unemployment in the Niger Delta.

He said in the next six months, Dikio through TEM would have ensured the graduation of over 5000 ex-agitators with employable skills and entrepreneurs capabilities.

Dumale appealed to Niger Delta elders, leaders, youths and all stakeholders to throw their weight behind Dikio to enable him actualise his vision for PAP and the Niger Delta.

He described the PAP boss as a rare asset discovered during Buhari’s administration saying the Niger Delta would remain eternally grateful to the President if he would make him a substantive coordinator.

He said: “It’s on record, that 346 delegates from the Niger Delta region just graduated from Bradama International Skill Works Limited Agadagba Ondo.

“Out of this number of youths, 80 per cent of them are going to have job placements. They are going to employ them with the same training they have given them.

“We are calling on all Niger Delta leaders, opinion leaders, youth leaders, elders, politicians to rally round Dikio and give him more support for greater achievements and development in the region.

“The greatest development, you can give to any young man or to any person is to give him skill and not just to give him skill, to also meaningfully engage him so that he can become independent and also become an employer of labour in future.

“What Dikio has done is indeed laudable and encouraging. It is the first time in the history of the Presidential Amnesty Programme that we see this kind of success. This his flagship programme called TEM, Train, Employ and Mentor, has succeeded. This is the first graduation out of many graduates that will be unfolding in record time.

“Some of the students will be graduating in the next two months. Some of them will be graduating in January, some of them in February and so on.”