At Home with Amnesty

Three months ago, i returned to Nigeria, to partake of the widely acclaimed Niger Delta Amnesty Programme. Truth be told when i got on the team, i had an impression of it being another futile effort of trying to fill a basket with water.
During my first weeks, i discovered the power of a right thinking and ever advancing team members, i also discovered the "invisible" power chains that came to play in such programmes as this, especially in Nigeria
On the amnesty,........ Hmmm. At first it looked "unworkable" if i might say, during the planning phase lots of issues came to the fore front and strategies to counter them were developed, meetings were had and loads of research conducted. From all these, i discovered that like our African elders say "A pure heart is worth more than pure clothes" the heart of the government is in the right place concerning the Amnesty Programme.
As expected of people who have been failed again and again, there were reservations from the participants and expectations of certain failure of the programme. We worked hard, worked long, worked deep and we worked strong to identify the interests of the participants, sieve corrupt vendors from truthful ones, plan and implement strategies and coordinate resources. Three months in, i can boldly proclaim "The course was just"