Nigeria spent over $2bn to run costliest Amnesty Programme.

The federal government has spent over $2billion in five years on 13,000 ex-militants under the country’s amnesty programme considered most expensive in the world.

Nigeria, under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua conceived the amnesty programme to rehabilitate demilitarized and disarmed ex-militants of the Niger Delta region.

The programme was initiated to address the restive youths in the region targets and to bring 30,000 into the net. Currently 13,000 are being catered for while 17 are waiting to also benefit.

However, Charles Achodo, Executive Director of Nextier Advisory and Investments said the N65,000 monthly stipend to each of the ex-militants by the Nigerian government is at exorbitant rate and costliest in the world.

“other countries paid their ex-militants a maximum of $300 for their Transitional Safety net Allowance (TSA) to give militants something to hold on to prior to integration after disarming the militants in two installments, the Nigerian government was paying each ex militant N65,000 every month for five years.”

Achodo, a convener of the forthcoming national conference on the Niger Delta Way Forward Project in Abuja next month added that the government was also paying subsistence allowance or pocket money to the ex militants.

According to him, other countries pay $30 per month but Nigeria pay N90,000 for those schooling in Nigeria of £500 and $700 for those in school outside the country. 17,000 are in that category and awaiting the training.

These payments are exclusive of tuition and cost of training.

“In other countries amnesty budget is pegged at $1,500 per beneficiary, in Nigeria it is $60,000 to $70,000, this is a big drain on the national budget” he said.

The current form of amnesty programme is such described a blunder as it deals with the beneficiaries through the commanders who still their command structures intact and ready to forment trouble in future.

The commanders drew up the list of beneficiaries which the government granted amnesty largesse to the so called ex militants.

“Who are the people receiving these amnesty largesse?” Achodo queried.

A fraction of the money he said goes to the militants while a large portion of the intervention is pocketed by the militant commanders.

The advisory group advocated for “a thorough evaluation of the Amnesty Programme and redesign a new intervention so as not to set a precedence for other parts of the country.”

“The nation cannot sustain this. We have already, crises in the North East and South Eastern and we don’t want other parts of the country to replicate across the country”.

“By the time you add the value of the contracts like pipelines protection, all these contribute to the huge amount of the Amnesty Intervention Programme.”

He also disclosed that three percent of oil companies annual budget are paid to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for the integration and development of the militants and region “but they are excluded from the decision making process of how the money should be spent in the Niger Delta region” he said.