Recurrent Leadership Change in PAP Impacts Policy Implementation, Says N’Delta Youth Leaders

A development expert and a Niger Delta youth leader, Dr. Matthew Ayibakuro, has expressed concern that frequent change of heads of public institutions and interventionist agencies distort their plans, policies and programmes of such organisations.
He cited the current Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd), saying it would be unfair to assess his performance in office because he had spent only few months.

Ayibakuro, said in Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital that frequent leadership changes make it impossible to assess them whenever the leadership is removed from office, saying the period they spent would have been grossly insufficient to make any real or meaningful impact.
He stressed that some good intentions and well-thought out plans of heads of such agencies of government are easily truncated when they abruptly leave office, leading to avoidable waste of public funds.
He, however, lauded Ndiomu’s effort to create sustainable partnerships between PAP and other public as well as private institutions, noting that, if he succeeds, it would be for the benefit of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta.

In Ayibakuro’s words: “I think it’s a bit early to form any strong perspective of him (Ndiomu), I think that six months is a very short time in a programme like PAP to do that.
“I’ve seen him try to form partnerships, I don’t think that six months is a good enough time if anybody is being objective to say he has been effective or he’s not been effective.
“You have to give people the benefit of the doubt. But then that takes me back to the point: are we going to have him for two years so that we can actually assess what he has achieved?
“If it’s a training programme, if he came in you don’t expect that he’s going to start new training programmes on his own, there were training programmes already existing.

“So six months is a short time within training circles for you to be able to say the person in office has been successful or not successful.”
Another youth leader and chairman of the Ondo State Chapter of the Niger Delta Amnesty Delegates Network, Ominidougha Richard, also opined that it was too early to assess the performance of Ndiomu “given that it is barely a year”.
He said that, “I am very sure that if given ample time and the opportunity to remain in office under the new administration, he has the capacity and the political will to turn things around for the best.”

Richard advised PAP delegates and stakeholders to be patient with Ndiomu in his ongoing efforts to restructure, refocus, and reposition the amnesty program and achieve its core aims and objectives.
While expressing optimisim that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would strengthen the PAP, he stated that doing so would sustain the existing peace in the Niger Delta.

He further added that PAP needs courageous leadership with the political will to effect positive change, fight corruption and challenge the status quo that has allegedly stampeded its progress.

“We need somebody who can take the PAP from a government department that consumes government budgetary allocation yearly and gives monthly handouts in form of stipends to beneficiaries to a department that empowers our people to be self-sufficient and active contributors to the nation’s economy by putting in place innovative policies that will engender sustainable development of our region. Ndiomu is that man and he is doing that,” he asserted.