Effective Assessment Framework: Sustainability of Post Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta Region for National Development

Abstract

The Niger Delta is said to be the world.s largest wetland. The oil and gas in that region represents 97% of Nigeria.s foreign exchange earnings and this accounts for a major chunk of the wealth of the country. The Niger Delta has for some years been the site of major confrontations between the people and the Nigerian government.s security forces, resulting in extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, and draconian restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. To proffer solution, Federal government came up with post-amnesty program. Based on this, the study sought; (i) To determine the level of effectiveness of the implementation of the Post Amnesty Programme since its inception in 2009, (ii) determine how effective evaluation method can sustain Post Amnesty programme beyond Amnesty peace agreement in Niger Delta. The research design was descriptive survey method. The population of the study was 4,798,519 million youths [15-39years][last Census2006] in Delta state, Bayelsa state and River state. The study made use of qualitative and quantitative data analyses. The sample size was 400 using Taro Yamane formula. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents in each of the states, while hypothesis one was tested using Friedman Chi-Square test statistics, hypothesis two was tested using One Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (Z) test. Effective evaluation method significantly maintains the Post Amnesty Programme in Nigeria (X²_(friedman)cal = 137.098 > X²<sub<calculated = 5.9915, p < 0.05). Amnesty program does have economic benefits in Nigeria (Z_cal = 4.930 >Z_critical = 1.96, p < 0.05). The study recommended that the Amnesty International and all other agencies involved in peace building and in managing conflict in Niger Delta should borrow a leaf from other countries. management techniques such as in Canada and USA.