Presidential Amnesty Programme: Empowering Niger Delta Youths With Quality Education

By Onesirosan Agbajoh
LAGOS JULY8TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Presidential Amnesty programme for the people of Niger Delta today, has become a Success Story and a pointer to the fact that Nigerian Government indeed is committed to addressing the aged long neglect and marginalization of the Region which has remain the economic nerve-center of the country.
The Programme which was initiated by late President Musa Yara-Adua and has been sustain by the current administration led by President Mohammadu Buhari has not only brought peace to the region but has also advanced young men and women from the Region with quality education and professional skills, to a people who before now have battled with low self esteem occasion by social economic deprivation of the Niger Delta.
As a beneficiary of the Scholarship Programme to Study in the United State of America, I can testify that if the successes recorded though the intervention of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, is replicated in other programme and policies of Nigeria government, Nigeria would have been a Better Place.

The Presidential Amnesty Programme under the watch of Prof. Charles Dokubo as the Special Adviser to President Buhari President on Niger Delta /Chairman Amnesty Program, has given the programme a New lease of life, and I wish to suggest that the success recorded should be sustained, and improved upon.
As a Nigerian immigrant to US i felt unsafe, but as a New Lawyer, I feel Empowered. A USF Law Graduate, at Law School i was a dreamer activist and have helped to establish a Scholarship Scheme for Undocumented Law Students. In 2017, I received a Scholarship from California Bar Foundation where I also Passed the California Bar Exam in December 2017.
Despite what some may say, Africa is full of highly educated, motivated, accomplished professionals. I was raised by one of them, a Nigerian lawyer, My Mother Barr Mary Oyibocha-Agbajoh
What I have become today would not have been possible if the administration of President Buhari on assumption of office in May 29th 2015 had scrapped the Presidential Amnesty programme for Niger Delta. I came to America at the age of 12 and I came by Myself, and like most immigrants, I wasn’t versed in the intricacies of American Immigration Law. I didn’t have Special Legal Training then, but now through the scholarship programme, I am a proud lawyer and now helping out other with immigration issues.
Now, should such programme with has successfully transformed my life and many thousands of young Niger Delta not be sustained, improved upon to sever as a catalyst for brining sustainable Peace to the Region? It would be practically impossible for My likes and many others who have been Empowered by the Scheme to turn around and take to crime against State which has given us much to leave for.
This is why it’s so important for young immigrants across America to remember where they came from. Remember your country and your family and use your background as inspiration to fuel your success. To all the young immigrants of color: you too can become a doctor, and engineer, or a lawyer.
However, this Success Story will not be complete without commending and appealing to our father President Mohammadu Buhari take a critical look again at thePresidential Amnesty programme for Niger Delta, by improving its funding on the Leadership of Prof. Charlse Dokubo who has translated the President’s Dream of a BETTER Niger Delta into a Reality.

Onesirosan Agbajoh a Lawyer writes from Abuja

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