Exploring Funds: A Mitigation towards Sustaining the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme (Published)
The amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is expected to improve the human capital development of the region and the country, which is presently low. Hence, the study investigated exploring funding mitigation for sustaining the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme. The study critically examined the role of private sector funding to the amnesty programme. The study was anchored on public-private partnership theory with the assertion that a philosophical approach to actualizing infrastructure services by leveraging private capital, know-how, and effectiveness while merging the advantages of the public and private sectors. The study adopted a qualitative approach for data collection. An in-depth interview (IDI) was used for data collection. The populations of the study were ex-militants in the Niger Delta state. The sample size is 15 ex-militants in the Niger Delta who have benefited from the amnesty programme. The IDI questions were structured in line with the two research questions. The findings revealed that private sector funding of the Niger Delta amnesty programmeme in the region would lead to continuity of the programmeme’s burden of funding on the part of the federal and various states. It concluded that there is a need for the federal and state governments to seek funding from the private sector in areas of manpower training and reintegration of trained ex-militants into the world of work with appropriate functional skills. It was recommended that the government sensitise the public and private sector companies, in particular, to the need for support through funding in terms of financial or material goods that will help enhance the programme.
Keywords: Amnesty Programme, Funding, Niger-Delta, exploring