IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH (IJSSMR )

E-ISSN 2545-5303
P-ISSN 2695-2203
VOL. 11 NO. 6 2025
DOI: 10.56201/ijssmr.vol.11no6.2025.pg215.230

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The Presidential Amnesty Program: Subsisting Violence and Sustainable Peace in the Niger Delta

Iti Orugbani

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Abstract

This study critically examines the PAP’s effectiveness, arguing that while it initially reduced large- scale violence and restored oil output, it ultimately evolved into a mechanism of elite patronage and rentier appeasement rather than a transformative peacebuilding initiative. Drawing on the greed versus grievance thesis and political settlements theory, the paper finds that the PAP’s transactional approach—characterized by stipends, contracts, and political appointments for ex- militant leaders—failed to address the structural drivers of conflict such as political exclusion, unemployment, and environmental injustice. Instead, the programme entrenched a fragile peace dependent on continuous financial inducements, incentivizing ex-militants and political actors to strategically threaten renewed violence whenever the programme’s termination was proposed. The analysis concludes that the PAP’s containment strategy has institutionalized a cycle of dependency and performative peace, undermining prospects for genuine reconciliation and sustainable development in the region. The implications are significant for policymakers and peacebuilding practitioners: without addressing the underlying causes of discontent and shifting from rent-based appeasement to inclusive, structural reform, amnesty interventions risk perpetuating rather than resolving the dynamics of subsisting violence in resource-rich, conflict- prone societies.

keywords:

Niger Delta, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Violence, Sustainable Development.

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