Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, yesterday inaugurated a Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (M & E), to assist in setting the programme on the right track.
The 29-member committee comprising critical stakeholders and professionals in the Niger Delta is headed by a foremost environmental rights activist, Elder Timi Kaizer Ogoriba.
Dokubo, while inaugurating the committee at the Conference Hall, Treasure Suites, Abuja, said the committee would go a long way in giving new impetus and direction in the drive to refocus the Amnesty Programme to its original mandate.
He said: “When I took over this office, there was no M & E Committee. I was just swimming and looking for ways to run the programme. Initially, when I was searching, I brought all those who are elders in the region with a deep knowledge of the programme; those who have been here from the beginning of the programme. And, after close interactions with them, I was reliably informed that there was a standing M & E Committee, but ceased to exist for whatever reasons. Some of those who were there are present here.
“That was why I decided to reconstitute the committee so as to guide me through this mission so that we can have a better understanding of the programme and better direction, since these are the people that have been part of the Amnesty Programme.”Nobody has a monopoly of knowledge, and if we can learn from each other, especially from those who have been involved from the beginning of the programme.
I think it will take this programme to a better height.”
Dokubo, who noted monitoring and evaluation of projects, and activities were at the heart of the programme, however, highlighted the significance of the committee, saying: “We need it to be part of the office and the programmes we are running, because without M & E, we cannot do it properly; we cannot do it effectively.
“And, this will be my own visible direction. I strongly believe that with the personally of Chief T. K. Ogoriba and those who are there with him, we will steer the new ship on sail in the Amnesty Programme to an enviable berth,” Dokubo added.
He stressed that with the committee on ground; we could always guide and redial history, and make sure that those who do not understand will be better informed, adding: “And for those of us from the Niger Delta, if we do not do things to make use of this programme, posterity will question us as a people. I am determined to ensure that the impact of the programme will directly affect the lives of our people in the local communities. And, I hope that with the input of this committee to the programme, we will get a better roadmap to navigate this programme to its goals and objectives.”
While responding, the chairman of the committee, Ogoriba described the inaugural ceremony as the beginning of another era in the drive towards achieving better results in the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
He said the committee would be involved in process, technical,
