The Nigerian Home-Grown DDR Programme—Its Impacts on Empowering the Niger Delta Ex-Militants

Abstract

On 25 June 2010 the Federal Government of Nigeria Niger Delta Amnesty Programme under the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta (OSAPND) was set up. The aim was to implement the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) with a mandate to initiate, plan and implement the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme. The DDR called for 30,000 ex-agitators (822 female) to handed in their weapons, sign up for the PAP, and in exchange they would receive a monthly stipend of N65,000 (US$400) and undergo vocational and academic training in Nigeria and abroad. Livelihood strengthening through training became an essential part of OSAPND’s strategy for economic empowerment, for job creation by supporting academic, vocational and entrepreneurial training, and for engaging in business set-ups. This chapter discusses the impact of the DDR programme on the economy and on peace in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, focusing on how vocational or academic training has improved individual performance and had a positive influence on economic development. Four key questions for assessing this programme are: How did it differ from donor and UN piloted DDR programmes? What did it add? Did it increase the global capacity for a national DDR programme? Has the increase in economic development in the Niger Delta become a transformative mechanism to respond to the long-term structural and historical social exclusion that triggered the conflict?