Written by a concerned Npower Beneficiary
It is no longer a breaking news that the Nigerian Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq had yesterday, announced over the radio that she is disengaging the over 500 Thousand volunteers of the Npower Program, an arm of the National Social Intervention Program(NSIP) which comprises mainly of unemployed Graduates placed on a N30,000 stipend.
Recall that there are numerous youths in this country who are placed on life salary in the name of repentant militants in the Amnesty program; a program founded by former president Yar’adua. Also, we are aware that there are so many youths in the northern part of Nigeria who have been empowered for life in the name of repentant members of the terrorist group known as Boko Haram.
So undermining good social conduct and empowering the criminals has been the bane of the Nigerian Governments since 1960 just because most politicians want to remain an authority over the unintelligible and feeble minds and are afraid of being killed by criminals.
However, one thing about this Buhari Administration is that it came and initiated the Npower Program for the unemployed Graduates for the purpose of Empowering them and graduating them into created Jobs and it had been running smoothly under the Vice president Yemi Osinbajo until a new Ministry was created sometimes last year and NSIP was handed over to it.
Most beneficiaries of NPower are being owed 7, 5, 4, 3 months backlogs of stipends till date and they have been agitating for their payments until yesterday a news broke up that the minister, who had been keeping quiet and unconcerned of the sufferings of the volunteers as a result of nonpayment in this trying time, wants to disengage the over 500 thousand unemployed graduates and select some of them for entrepreneurship and new recruitment process started for other graduates to benefit, whereas these volunteers have received various experiences from the Educational, Agricultural, Health and Technological sectors where they were posted. Meanwhile, it is highly “political” to tell those who have been trained and are awaiting a promised secured Job that “some of them” would be transitioned into Entrepreneurship.
Consequently, this politically motivated sad news has created a lot of mixed reactions within the volunteers most of whom have no other source of income except the stipends.
To them, they had been waiting for the government to create jobs for them as promised. To the other youths hoping to be recruited, the volunteers should be disengaged in order to create an avenue for other youths to benefit. Therefore, to the Minister and the graduates eyeing the program and asking if the volunteers are the only graduates in Nigeria, let me ask you these simple questions:
1. The thousands of youths in the Niger delta region of Nigeria who have been receiving over N60,000 life salary in the name of repentant Militants, are they the only repentant criminals we have in Nigeria?
2. The thousands of illiterate Youths in the Northern part of Nigeria that were trained overseas and are collecting free money, are they the only illiterates we have?
Let me tell you, these acclaimed repentant criminals have the freewill to resign when they acquire a better job and some have done so already. So why not sustain NPower program as the President stated in one of his budget proposals at the national Assembly?
Finally, to NPOWER Volunteers. Except you are an “Ajibo”, you know the rigours involved in going to the average Nigerian University to acquire certificate.
Most of the volunteers had to do the unthinkable in order to attain this level of education, but because these graduates do not want to carry guns(not because they cannot), that is why some persons feel they can treat them anyhow. Now is it an abomination to sustain the NPower program as the President stated in one of his budget proposals at the national Assembly?
Finally, to NPOWER Volunteers. Except you are an “Ajibo”, you know the rigours involved in going to the average Nigerian University to acquire certificate. Most of the volunteers had to do the unthinkable in order to attain this level of education, but because these graduates do not want to carry guns(not because they cannot), that is why some persons feel they can treat them anyhow.
Now is it an abomination to sustain the Npower program and make it open for all graduates pending when they find a greener Pasteur? Why are we an enemy of ourselves?. Why must the government be so biased on her educated youths? Must the government continue to empower criminals and keep the unemployed graduates more economically susceptible in order to be called a Government?. Therefore let me remind the honorable minister that the vision of NPower has not changed, which is “an Employability Enhancement and Job Creation Program”.
Therefore the only thing that would make a volunteer leave the program is “a secured Job” and, good a thing, some have secured jobs and left the program. Recall that Mr president last year made a comment in that regard, stating that the NSIP “will only increase”.
So if the Government is not yet ready to provide the Job, then why would a newly created ministry be in a hurry to push these ones out to the street without any job security? Honestly, doing so is an invitation to a new era of digital crime because pushing 500 thousand lettered and informed graduates back to the street would have a socially disastrous ripple effect. Let us all be guided.
From a concerned NPower Beneficiary.
November 22, 2024
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