Paper Title
Women within the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme: A Festival of Peace

Abstract
The Presidential Amnesty Programme designed for the Niger Delta region comes with a lot of goodies for the region. The programme marks the end of a plaguing era of violent destruction of the region through armed struggle and the destruction of oil facilities. The implementation of the programme can be likened to a celebration of peace in the region which invariably creates a festival like atmosphere for the people. But the current study takes a look at the women and how they feature in this current celebration of freedom at last. The study recognizes the fact women have been sidelined in this celebrations of the return of peace to the region and we warn that the celebrations would not last longer if women are continuously taken to the background of events. The study recommend amongst others that a separate unit be set up within the Amnesty Programme to cater for the needs of the women in the region. We also recommend that women be given at least 45% of the slots available in the Amnesty programme in the area of scholarship, skill acquisition, start up kits and other areas in which it seems the men are benefiting more at this moment. Keywords - Women, Struggle, Amnesty, Festival, Peace, Etc.