Two major events, though apart but related, happened last week. On Wednesday, May 24, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (Beneficiaries) Cooperative Society Limited (PAPCOSOL) was launched in Abuja.

Two days earlier, precisely on Monday, May 22, the 650,000 barrels per day, $18.5 billion Dangote Refinery was inaugurated in Lagos. Both events are related and bear a direct impact on the sustainability of Nigeria’s economy in the coming years.

Here’s how: Nigeria through the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) owns 20 percent of the refinery while Dangote Group owns the rest. Nigeria through the NNPCL would be the major supplier of crude oil to the refinery for production of petrol and other petrochemical products.

To be able to keep supplying crude oil to the refinery, Nigeria must sustain and even up her crude production capacity which currently stands at 1.353million barrels per day, up from 1.273 million last month but down from 1.529 million this time in 2022.

The logic continues: To keep the momentum of crude oil production and even surpass it, there must be peace in the oil-bearing Niger Delta region. To keep the peace, the ex-agitators in the creeks must and should be kept busy, made happy and actively engaged to deflect their minds from stirring the well of upheaval in the region.

This is why the launch of PAPCOSOL is not only grand in essence but also strategic to the growth and sustenance of the nation’s economy. The initiative is the brainchild of Major-General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (Retd), the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

Ndiomu describes PAPCOSOL as a “novel alternative economic development scheme designed to create a more viable means of livelihood for ex-agitators with socio-economic development of their communities and the Niger Delta region in general as an intended consequence.”

The PAP is setting aside a good N1.5 billion for the initiative with the sum of N500 million earmarked for each year. The goal is to help ex-agitators set up their own businesses and sustainable means of livelihood in lieu of the monthly N65,000 stipend.

The cooperative scheme is considered the most pragmatic approach to ensuring the sustainable reintegration of ex-agitators. It is owned and managed by PAP, with its headquarters domiciled in the Presidential Amnesty Programme’s office in Abuja. The cooperative already has physical presence in some states in the Niger Delta – Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers – which serve as branch offices to effectively reach the target beneficiaries.

The scheme would be supervised by the PAP Office and would be run by an all-inclusive Advisory Board led by Hon. Francis Tabai, a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and other seasoned professionals and ex-agitators.

PAPCOSOL is a carefully thought out scheme. It speaks to the result-oriented innovations wrought in the PAP by the leadership of Ndiomu. It is, so far, the most reliable and practical strategy to reintegrate ex-agitators into the society, this time as contributors to national development and creators of wealth.

In clear terms, the scheme will make millionaires and nation-builders out of the ageing ex-agitators rather than limiting them to monthly stipend collectors. Already, the ex-agitators have acquired one skill or another. What some have always complained about is the start-up fund and technical guidance to navigate them through the contours of their chosen fields of endeavour. PAPCOSOL provides all the answers to all the questions bogging the minds of the ex-agitators. It is the much-awaited catalyst to kick-start a new and rewarding phase of life for the beneficiaries. This will not only wheel them out of the path of poverty and stipend-dependency, but has the capacity to make them job and wealth creators.

Ndiomu says that the beneficiaries would be provided with technical support on their business ideas as well as access to grants. The initial core focus of the scheme would be agriculture and manufacturing. These are areas where the beneficiaries have core competences with many already skilled-up through their previous trainings. Other areas will be incorporated in the long term.

The scheme is already up and flying. Project consultants who will handle the technical deliverables and business development processes have been identified and engaged.  Inclusivity in the initiative has been achieved as representatives of different phases of ex-agitators currently form the foundation of the cooperative.

To guide beneficiaries into their respective areas of strength and comparative advantage, the support team would help them to identify businesses that align with their motivations/skill areas and subsequently help them to set up and turn the process into a profitable venture.

The initiative will provide technical and business development support to beneficiaries to enable them own and run viable business ventures that will meet their essential needs, create employment and boost economic growth in the Niger Delta region.

This is to be achieved through the following: Identification of business opportunities in beneficiaries’ respective localities, building beneficiaries’ entrepreneurial capacity to enable them sustain their business operations; provision of market and industry opportunities; attraction of development partners to fund/support business projects; provide beneficiaries access to grants or credits and enable their market offering in the consumer and global markets.

The vision of PAPCOSOL is to transform ex-agitators and other young persons in the Niger Delta region into active entrepreneurs who will contribute to the economic growth of the region, through the provision of innovative products and services, effective collaboration, and partnerships. This will help to engender peace, security and socio-economic development in the Niger Delta region, by improving on the existing economic and enterprise opportunities available to the people.

The PAP cooperative initiative is a masterstroke to end any form of agitation in the creeks. This translates to more production of crude oil in the region to meet OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels per day. At the moment, Nigeria is under-producing due largely to cases of force majeure. Engaging the ex-agitators in the manner proposed by the Ndiomu-led Interim Administration through the cooperative scheme is the most veritable key to improving the daily crude oil production output. It will also guarantee a daily and steady supply of crude to the Dangote Refinery; a mega project that holds the ace to ending dollar scarcity in Nigeria as well as helping to meet the demands of the local market.

In all ramifications, the PAP cooperative scheme is beyond a milestone; it’s a bell ringer for Ndiomu and for the nation to put to permanent rest the unrest in the Niger Delta region. A solution-focused initiative of such significance should be sustained and nurtured beyond the Muhammadu Buhari era until it becomes the culture and template for the administration of the Amnesty Programme. With the naira still taking the hit at the forex market, Nigeria needs to ramp up her crude oil production and petroleum products refining quotient. She can only achieve this if peace is maintained in the creeks. Ndiomu’s PAPCOSOL holds the ace for achieving such peace-enabled landmark of cresting the OPEC-allotted crude oil production quota. This is yet another good corporate governance creed from the fecund mind of Ndiomu and his team. It’s a bright spark in the oil and gas landscape that deserves to be sustained.

Author: KEN UGBECHIE, First published in Sunday Sun