Why We Set Up PAP Cooperative Society with 1.5.Bn as Take off Grant – Tonye Bobo

Tonye Bobo is the Financial Secretary of the Presidential Amnesty Cooperative Society Limited, recently launched by the interim administrator of Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP). In this interview with PAULINE ONYIBE, Bobo explains the reason behind the launch and the process of getting the loan under the scheme

Recently a cooperative society was launched by PAP, where its members can assess loans to start up some businesses. How does it work and is it authentic?

I want to assure you that it’s real. If we don’t tell our success stories, nobody will do it for us. This cooperative that has been launched is a life-changing thing for the 30,000 ex-agitators.

I want to assure you that it will not be business as usual where people will be trained and given starter packs and they misused or sold them. Now, as I’m speaking with you, we are having N1.5 billion in our account managed by ex-agitators.

As part of the preparations, the monetary and evaluation team will be fully involved. We have the integration staff that will help to make sure all that will participate are the beneficiaries of the amnesty programme.

Is it just starting?

We started it during the previous administration but due to one or two reasons, the administration was put off. Government is a continuum and Paul Ndiomu has swung into action and we have seen the dividend.

We have been given more training. We have interacted with people and we have seen reasons why we are changing the narrative and the perception of the Niger Delta people that we can do this business.

This Amnesty of a thing cannot last forever. It’s a programme and anything programme has an expiring date. We are just believing God that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should see the reason why he should sustain the programme.

How sustainable is this project?

To sustain it, every month, it has been said that N500 million will be put into the cooperative account and it will be managed prudently. Transparency and accountability is our watchword.

So, we are calling on our brothers, the ex-agitators, the critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta, the royal fathers, and our beloved newsmen to take advantage of this for us to partner so that we can be propagating positive stories about the Niger Delta.

Therefore, I’m saying that the government of today should see the reason why the administrator of the office of the presidential amnesty programme should not be changed often.

We cannot really scrutinize to see the achievements of the administrators because of incessant changing. We are pleading with the president to allow the interim administrator to continue on his good plan for us.

But some people are already agitating?

Yes, they are agitating because it’s no longer business as usual. He has good policies, which might not augur well for some persons because he wants to redirect and refocus the amnesty programme.

He has done the needful by redirecting and changing our minds, rebuilding and refurbishing our training centres. He has taken care of our debts owed by the amnesty office.

That is why people are shouting, saying there is no training, no education for this period that he assumed office. But, you cannot be accumulating debts for the office, then you will leave the office and leave behind huge debts. It will not speak well of your successor. So, he has decided to take care of these debts. Only education is about 7 Billion.

What about vocational trainees, who are clamoring bitterly for empowerment? We are telling them that this is the only opportunity for them to actualize their dream businesses by embarking on the cooperative so that things will normalize in the Niger Delta.

Why was the cooperative setup?

The reason why the cooperative was set up is to make us entrepreneurs and self-reliant. That is one of the excesses of the presidential amnesty cooperative society limited. The chairman is Justice F F. Tabai, a retired Justice of the federation.

What qualifies somebody to access the cooperative loan?

The first criterion to access funds as ex-agitators is for you to be a potential delegate because we have our data where we scrutinize people and before you are cleared to obtain money from the cooperative, you should have a small-scale business or you are intending and we also make sure that those in cooperatives are made up of 10 or thereabout. It is well organized.

We don’t want it to be business as usual where people will come for empowerment and want to use it for their personal interest. That is why if you say you are a delegate of the programme and you have a passion for business, be it fish farming, cassava processing, barbing saloon, and other businesses, our own is to encourage you.

We would come and make a feasibility study of your site and make sure that it belongs to you and we will then make every necessary arrangements to see that what you are getting into is not a fraudulent act.

We will encourage them by helping them to expand their businesses but we will not directly put money into their hands. Whatever they need, we will provide for them but we will not run the business for them. Our own is to do proper follow-up till you become an employer of labour.

How do they pay back?

We have your data in the amnesty programme. If peradventure you were given 5 Million to grow your business, there will be a document for you to sign. If you default, the penalty will be there on the documents that you signed. In as much as you are a beneficiary of PAP, you are receiving your stipends every month, we will withhold it.

The N1.5 billion came from where?

500 Million every month, where is it coming from? Well, our allocation is about N5.6 billion. When this money comes, the first primary purpose is the stipend. Next is the staff working in the presidential amnesty office. Then, the next are contractors, those that have done their jobs and are asking for their money.

Every month, Gen. Ndiomu has a reason of pulling out N500 million to put into the cooperative because it will enable us to have success stories as soon as possible. We don’t know when these programmes will elapse. We believe that the Federal Government will be sensitive enough to see the reason why the funding of this cooperative is very important.

But some people are not ex-agitators and they are also beneficiaries of the programme. How do you fish them out?

That is why I always respect my bosses from Col. Dikkio to the present administrator, Gen. Ndiomu (rtd). These are potential leaders we have in the region. Ndiomu has blocked all the leakages.

That is why people have always been going against him, using all derogatory statements against him just because he doesn’t want it to be business as usual. If you go to PAP, those people have benefited more, that is the reason why people are asking, ‘30,000 delegates?’ ‘Are there no deaths recorded?’

But the impacted communities, during the time of Kingsley Kuku, created that room for impacted communities to benefit from the programme because they were affected during the militancy crisis.

But what I’m trying to estimate, like people that are schooling abroad, if they are 50 people, you will not see more than two to three ex-agitators, and this programme was meant for them. Instead of you taking the real delegates to ensure that they are well taken care of, you go and give them half-baked training.

Where will the cooperative office be domiciled?

The office is in Abuja but we will have liaison offices operational base in the entire Niger Delta region.

How do you guard against political influence?

That is why we have a competent chairman in the person of a notable retired Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice FF Ta- bai and a dogged retired general in the army.

These people have their integrity intact with them. If you see the way and manner our leaders are going about it, they don’t want any loopholes because these people have their integrity to keep. We don’t want it to be a cash cow where people just go to make money.

Is this an exit door to the amnesty programme and if it is, what next?

We are trying to plead with the Federal Government so that we do away with this programme. If it’s something that will be “Niger Delta Sustainable Development, let them give it some other name because the name amnesty is not something people are okay with. I have an opportunity to make some research. Amnesty does not last more than five years all over the world.

Now, look at us in Nigeria, because of bad leadership, the people at the helm of affairs used their influence, and political connections to do what they want to do. We know so many things that are going wrong in that office but thank God, Gen. Ndiomu has come within this short period of nine months to make that office become a place where somebody will now be thinking of his future, thinking of his own destiny, thinking of how to exit this programme, because if you don’t have something for yourself, the day they will say the programme has been terminated, some will find themselves in the hospital. Some will be in the graveyard. That is what we are avoiding by using this means.