N-Power is one of the federal government’s social investment programmes initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. As mentioned in his 2016 budget speech, N-Power is a job creation and empowerment scheme. The scheme targets graduates who are expected to fill basic manpower gaps that exist in some essential sectors of the country’s economy. Graduates, as defined under the N-Power programme, include holders of a first degree from recognized universities; holders of the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) as well as those who possess Ordinary National Diploma (OND) certificates.
N-Power is designed to engage 500,000 unemployed graduates who were to be recruited and trained to provide services in the education, health and agricultural sub-sectors of the economy. According to the scheme’s blueprint, while some of them were to be deployed to teach mathematics and science subjects in schools across the 36 states of the country, others were to serve as public health assistants to provide basic health diagnostic services at primary healthcare facilities. Volunteers deployed under the N-Power agro scheme were to serve as intermediaries between researchers and farmers. The agro group of volunteers is to help farmers with tips on better farming practices in order to increase yield and thus make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production.
In practical terms, N-Power is not a full employment scheme as the period of engagement is designed to last for only two years. This also explains why university graduates participating in the programme are paid a monthly stipend of N30, 000 only. Nonetheless, it is a scheme of immense benefits not only to the nation’s teeming population of jobless youths in specific terms but also to the country’s economic development in general terms. It provides immediate jobs for half a million jobless graduates who have rather remained idle for many years after graduation. The programme also provides the volunteers with opportunities to improve upon their already acquired skills which will further enhance their working experience. This will subsequently make them, at the end of the N-Power scheme, more competitive in the larger job market.
While the first batch of the scheme came on board in November 2016, the list of the second batch of intakes was published in December 2017. However, the second batch of the N-Power enlistment isn’t anything different from the first batch that was largely characterized by anomalies. It would be recalled that allegations of irregularities trailed the first batch of 200,000 volunteers of N-Power recruited in 2016. The most critical of the accusations was the one which claimed that most of the names that appeared on the list of N-Power intakes for some states and Local Government Areas (LGAs) did not reflect the demographic traits of such areas. An obvious example of this was the case of Abadan LGA in Borno state where it was reported that over 90 percent of candidates taken from the area had names that did not resemble those of the indigenes of Abadan LGA.
As one of the LGAs that severely suffered Boko Haram attacks in Borno state, indigenes of the area became Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) either in Maiduguri or neighbouring Niger Republic at the time the online recruitment in to the N-Power scheme was carried out. Surprisingly, names like Adebayo, Oyebisi, Onilola and Okechukwu appeared on the N-Power list for Abadan LGA. The question asked by many at that time was: “If the indigenes of Abadan LGA were IDPs outside their birthplaces, how come did non-indigenes stay back to fill forms online from Abadan where internet services were then non-existent?”
The N-Power list of second batch intakes for Agaie LGA in Niger state is a ‘replica’ of the first batch of candidates enlisted for Abadan LGA in Borno state. Agaie, as an emirate and as a LGA; is a typical Nupe community in north central Nigeria with a culture similar to what obtains among Hausa populations of northern Nigeria. The recent list of the second batch of beneficiaries displayed at the National Orientation Agency office in Agaie is a classic example of “name padding” in the N-Power scheme. It is amazing that the list of 400 names for Agaie LGA is full of identities of persons from the south-east, south-south and south-west regions of Nigeria as if Nupe natives from Agaie LGA never applied for mobilization in to the N-Power scheme. I know of tens of applicants from this area who applied but were not enlisted.
Given the culture of nepotism that personifies our national life and events in Nigeria, it would be ‘normal’ to also find the list for other LGAs in most northern states of the country containing non-native names as obtains in Agaie. Predictably but sadly, the list of intakes for LGAs in the southern states of the country are unlikely to be doctored to consist of names that depict northern identity such as Garba, Asmau, Kolo, Tsiga, Hadiza, Abdullahi, Gana and Zainab. While names such as Kenneth, Chioma and Olufemi appeared on the N-Power list of their indigenous LGAs, the same names are also smuggled to come up where they do not demographically belong; displacing other names from their respective natural environments. This is how applicants from Arewa were short-changed in the recruitment process of the two separate batches of N-Power scheme. This sort of situation expectedly stirs suspicion as much as it amplifies public dissatisfaction and loss of confidence in the scheme that was intended to bring relief and also endear President Buhari and his administration to poor, underprivileged and vulnerable Nigerians.
Although the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity Mr. Laolu Akande attempted to clarify the allegations that trailed the recruitment process of the first batch of N-power beneficiaries, it failed to convince short-changed applicants and indeed most Nigerians that the process was as transparent as claimed by Akande. Now that the history of short-changing Arewa candidates has repeated itself, it behooves the federal government to probe the existing recruitment process in the scheme.
The integrity of the N-Power can only be guaranteed if its recruitment process visibly symbolises fair play and equity. Unless public assessment of the scheme substantiates impartiality, N-power would be seen to have lost national outlook. There is no harm asking focal persons in the states to collaborate with local government officials for purposes of reconciling applicants’ bio data with the demographic concerns of their localities. May Allah (SWT) guide those entrusted by President Buhari with national responsibilities to be fair in the discharge of their duties, amin.
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