Kingsley Kuku, a former Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, has called for the rehabilitation and completion of vocational training centres in the Niger Delta region.
Kuku who also served as Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme under the Jonathan administration, specifically said the training centre in Kaiama, Kolokuma Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State which was vandalised by hoodlums in 2019 needs urgent rehabilitation.
He made the request on Wednesday, when he visited the Presidential Amnesty Office in Abuja.
He said, “Bring back the centre, no matter what it will cost you. The facility when revived, can serve as an advanced training centre for universities in the region, even beyond being a facility for training ex-agitators.”
Kuku commended late President Umar Yar’Adua, ex-Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as incumbent President Bola Tinubu for the creation and sustenance of the Programme respectively.
Commending the Aviation Resuscitation Programme for Pilots/Aircraft Maintenance Engineers under which some of the beneficiaries are currently undergoing their Type-rating Certification Programme in South Africa, he said, “In today’s Aviation Industry, any Pilot without Type-rating is nothing. You are touching lives. After what you are doing for them now, they will get jobs easily”.
He expressed delight that Ndiomu has brought back hope to the Niger Delta, and assured of his unalloyed support towards sustaining the gains of the Amnesty Programme.
The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Major General Barry Ndiomu (retd) said the Amnesty Programme has not fully lived up to its objectives, Ndiomu recommended a possible transition of the scheme into “a Social Investment Agency” to directly impact the lives of youths in the region.
Ndiomu further lamented the vandalisation of the Kaiama Vocational Training Centre in Bayelsa.
He disclosed that when completed, the Vocational Training Center in Agadagba-Obon in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State will be named after Kuku.
