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N-Power: Ex-Presidential Aspirant Attacks FG Over Disengagement of 500K Beneficiaries

Published

3 years ago

Jan 10, 2022.

N-Power handlers criticised over handling of famed scheme

EKO HOT BLOG reports that a former presidential aspirant and Convener of Movement for New Nigeria, Dr Abubakar Alkali, has condemned the administration of Muhammadu Buhari for disengaging Batches A and B beneficiaries of the N-Power scheme in July 2020.

It would be recalled that N-Power Batch A and B beneficiaries who were engaged in 2016 and 2017 respectively were disengaged in July 2020 and a fresh batch brought on board in 2021.

While the Federal Government launched a portal (NEXIT) for the disengaged N-Power beneficiaries to apply for their exit package, nothing has been heard concerning the NEXIT after roughly two years.

The government is also owing approximately 14,000 beneficiaries five months’ stipend, prompting ceaseless criticism for the supervising parastatal, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Reacting in a lengthy statement at the weekend, Alkali finds the Federal Government’s decision to exit Batches A and B beneficiaries, and engage a fresh batch “incomprehensible”.

Dr. Abubakar Alkali

Read his full post below:

DISENGAGED N-POWER BENEFICIARIES DESERVE A BETTER TREATMENT FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The N-Power programme is indeed a laudable one initiated by the Buhari administration to impart skills on interested Nigerian youths to enable them gain permanent employment or become employers of labour themselves by setting up micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The scheme was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari on 8 June 2016, as a part of the National Social Investment Program, (NSIP) to provide a structure for large scale and relevant work skills acquisition and development and to ensure that each participant will learn and practice most of what is required to find paid-work or set up a small business. This is with a view to promoting a skills-based economy through job creation and enhancing social development. The programme was for a period of two years with the pioneer batch A engaged in 2016. Batches A and B from the 774 local government areas were engaged for about 4 years until June 2020 when the honourable minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management Hajiya Sadiya Farooq abruptly disengaged the two pioneer batches.

Curiously, the two batches were disengaged after the 2019 elections not before, when their two years ‘contract’ ran out in 2018.

Based on the current crisis regarding the abrupt disengagement and non-payment of the exit packages and absence of an exit plan for the disengaged batches A and B, it is fair to say that the N-power programme has been grossly mismanaged and enmeshed in crisis. The current altercation between the beneficiaries batches A and B on one hand and the government on the other is needless and a pointer to the mismanagement of the N-power programme in its entirety.

The N-power programme, meant to be part of the measures by the Buhari administration to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, is now engulfed in controversies over certain issues related to the disengaged beneficiaries batches A and B.

It is pertinent to ask certain questions regarding the disengaged batches A and B inter alia:
– Why should the ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management disengage these promising youths only to recruit fresh hands even when the competency of the former is not in question?
– Why should the ministry disengage these lads in the heat of the current economic turmoil and hard times occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic?
– Why should the ministry disengage these youths and not look at the security implications in these times when security has all but totally collapsed in the country?

It is incomprehensible as to why anybody will think that the best strategy is to sack batches A and B and employ new beneficiaries batch C. This is more so when juxtaposed with the fact that batches A and B if nurtured properly through the N-power programme, could potentially grow, gain skills and experience to set up their small businesses and even employ other Nigerians through a multiplier effect.

Indeed, Why not continue with the batches A and B and impart the necessary skills into them to enable them set up their small business and become employers of labour themselves? It doesn’t take rocket science to understand that it is better to continue with batches A and B until they formally ‘graduate’ to find a permanent job or set up their own business than to sack them, cut their career midway, recruit new set of beneficiaries and start afresh.

The disengagement of 500,000 N-power beneficiaries could be viewed as a misplaced priority and this is more so when juxtaposed with the fact that it could potentially worsen the current astronomical rate of insecurity in our dear country.
Many youths are going into crime as evidenced by the surge in numbers of Yahoo-Yahoo boys and Kidnappers. So why send 500,000 energetic youths into the labour market? The risk to security is very clear.

When the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management Hajiya Sadiya Farooq announced the disengagement of 500,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme (Batches A and B) in June 2020, many observers faulted her hasty action.

Without taking it personal with the honourable minister Hajiya Sadiya Farooq, it was clear that she went over the top to have sent away these hapless Nigerian youths – young men and women in batches A and B- whose only fault is that they chose to be productive citizens of Nigeria who look the other way from crime and criminality. In her high-handed treatment of batches A and B of the N-power programme, Hajiya Safiya Farooq was clearly ruthless and pitiless. She ought to have treated those young lads more humanly and renewed their contracts rather than send them away with a stroke of the pen.

The federal government said the need to give others a chance was the reason it disengaged the 500,000 N-Power beneficiaries. Indeed, this is not enough justification as under the principle of empowerment, a beneficiary is not thrown out in the middle of his/her training until he/she is certified fit to stand on their own and given what is referred to in local parlance as ‘freedom’.

Disengaging the beneficiaries actually negates the key objective of the N-Power programme which is to midwife these young lads and ensure that they are gainfully employed or become business owners. As a matter of fact, skills acquisition as an enabler to set up small businesses is an important aspect of the N-Power programme which has been bastardised through the hasty disengagement of the N-Power pioneer batches A and B. This calls for a review of the tenure of the programme: instead of making it a two year programme, it should be open – ended until the beneficiary is able to set up his/her own business or find a permanent job.

These disengaged N-power youths have no one to stand for them – even their senators and members house of representatives couldn’t save them from the honourable minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management Hajiya Sadiya Farooq. The major responsibility of our senators and members HoR is to defend their constituents: they should have prevailed on Hajiya Sadiya Farooq to renew the tenure of these young lads instead of disengaging them in the heat of COVID-19 and economic turmoil.

One wonders what offence these innocent youths committed or what wrong they did to deserve this treatment- be thrown out of the programme without any exit plan or package. Actually, most of them felt that they were used and dumped because they participated actively and as a group -N-power group- in the campaign for the ruling party in the 2019 elections only to be shown the exit door after victory was secured instead of an exit package.

There is no doubt the fact that the disengagement of these vibrant youths was not thought through by the authorities concerned because it runs counter to the major objective of the programme which is to assist qualified Nigerians learn skills and also practice the skills they learnt to find or create work. To this extent, the disengagement of batches A and B is not only contrary to the objectives of the programme but also a near-waste as these beneficiaries were not able to put the skills they acquired into practice by finding employment or setting up small businesses. This is more so when juxtaposed with the huge amount of money the federal government expends in the N-power programme only for the beneficiaries to be thrown away before they are able to put into practice, the skills they acquired during the programme.

The federal government said it spent N279 billion between 2016-2019 on the N-power programme which is such a big investment in our youths that shouldn’t be allowed to go to waste.

The right thing to do was to not only nurture these committed youths into skilled individuals but to also support them to set up micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The N-power monthly stipend of N30,000 is so small that you will commend any graduate who accepts to take it rather than join the crime world of violence and kidnapping gangs.

THE ISSUES FOR BATCHES A and B.
The unresolved issues currently revolving the N-Power programme centre around the following:
1. Unpaid 5 months arrears of allowances for 14,000 beneficiaries of batches A and B.
2. Non-payment of exit packages for 500,000 beneficiaries of batches A and B as promised by the Honourable minister for humanitarian affairs and disaster management.
3. Why did the ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management sacked Batches A and B abruptly without giving them anything to fall back on?
4. NEXIT portal which was introduced to enable the disengaged batches A and B access the empowerment programmes under the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) is making little or no impact.

EXIT PACKAGE: NEXIT PORTAL
The honourable minister of humanitarian affairs has repeatedly promised through the so-called NEXIT portal that the 500,000 beneficiaries she disengaged will receive what she called ‘exit packages. That promise is yet to be redeemed to date. The NEXIT portal though a good idea, has not made the desired impact as it is very challenging for the beneficiaries to directly access any empowerment programmes of the CBN without the support of the ministry. As a matter of fact, no beneficiary in the disengaged batches A and B has been able to access any empowerment programme of the CBN since the launching of the NEXIT portal in November 2020 (more than a year on).
It is in this regard that the disengaged beneficiaries feel that the NEXIT portal was all but created by the ministry to divert attention and to douse tension but not to achieve anything meaningful.

An exit package in form of cash or kind from the federal ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management (the managers of the N-power programme) will go a long way in giving these disengaged young lads something to hold on to. For example, the beneficiaries could be assisted with a start-up capital to set up small businesses in technology or farming based on what they learnt in their places of primary assignment (PPA). This will be in line with the N-power programmes component units particularly N-Agro.

It is disheartening that about 14,000 N-power beneficiaries are still being owed up to 5 months arrears of allowances. This adds salt to injury and further dampens the morale of these productive youths. It is necessary that the ministry of humanitarian affairs not only listens to the cries of the 14,000 beneficiaries being owed 5 months allowances, but also makes amends to reinstate the 500,000 beneficiaries in batches A and B into the programme until they officially ‘graduate’ and are able to set up their own businesses or find a permanent job.

THE SOLUTION
The solution to the current crisis of confidence rocking the N-programme is to reinstate batches A and B into the programme and ensure that they are fully trained and nurtured to find permanent employment or set up a small business.

Unemployment in Nigeria today is hovering around 35% which is utterly unacceptable. The very high rate of unemployment in Nigeria is worsened by the current economic crisis occasioned by the COVID – 19 pandemic. In the last 3 years, Nigeria’s economy has been in and out of recession and turmoil which drastically increased the rate of poverty to 71%. The current high level insecurity and youth restiveness are unsustainable hence the need for the federal government to do everything humanly possible to create jobs and ensure that the youths are engaged in productive activities. From the South-South, to the South-East, to the North-West, to the North-Central, to the South-West, to the North-Esst, there is youth restiveness everywhere as evident by the very high rate of insecurity in Nigeria today. The N-Power programme can be expanded as a means to stem the growing restiveness of the youths in all parts of the country.

There is the need for the National Assembly to use the oversight powers granted it in sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 constitution (as altered) to intervene more purposefully and get the 500,000 disengaged youths in batches A and B back into the N-power programme for the good of our dear country Nigeria.

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