President Buhari’s N-Power Programme: The Journey So Far!

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Nigeria as a nation state has been battling with the hydra monster phenomenon known as poverty and unemployment. Both the civilian and military regimes that piloted the state coupled with the bureaucrats; technocrats and other institution drivers and policy makers, failed in their reform attempts to eradicate or reduce to a significant acceptable rate, the unabated increase of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria. Thus, the President Buhari’s administration however, in September 2016, launched the N-Power programme which is a Sub-Unit of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) with the aim of addressing the incessant rate of poverty and youth unemployment and at the same time; provide some sort of social safety net to the poor and vulnerable in the country.

The programme was designed for unemployed youths between the ages of 18-35 years.These categories of youths can participate in the N-Power programme by applying through the N-Power online platform (www.npower.com.ng for batches A and B) while the current batch C applicants are to register through; (www.npower.fmhds.gov.ng/register) and be verified through their Bank Verification Number (BVN).

The N-Power scheme was developed in order to checkmate the youth unemployment malady in the country. Furthermore, the programme was launched in order to create an avenue for unemployed youths to be absorbed into two years paid voluntary services. It also, aims at improving the dexterities of the unemployed youths so as to enhance their employability chances in a competitive global labour market through the; learn, work and earn focus of the programme.

The N-power programme comprises of graduates and non graduates categories. The graduate categories comprises of graduates from polytechnics, colleges of education, and university. While the non graduates are those who possess the West Africa Council Certificate (WAEC) and or it equivalents. The N-Power graduate volunteers are paid a N30, 000 stipends every month, alongside loaded devices which will aid them in discharging their duties around the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, while the non graduate categories are to be trained on the various skills such as; script writing, auto mechanics etc and they are to be settled with the needed paraphernalia’s upon completion of their trainings. They are equally placed on a N10,000 monthly stipend.

N-Power as a programme is unique in its approach as regards selection and recruitment of the would-be beneficiaries. The bottom-top approach was utilized since, there exist 500,000 beneficiaries scattered around 774 local government areas in Nigeria. There exist a synergy between the federal government; state and local authorities as regards the selection and deployment of selected beneficiaries. The federal government has the responsibility of stipend payment for the beneficiaries, while, the state in collaboration with the local government was in charge of the verification exercise for the selected beneficiaries.

Before now, the Ministry of Budget and National Planning was in charge of the financial and procurement management of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of which N-Power is a sub-unit. While, the office of the Vice President supervises and nurtures it, but towards the ending of 2019, President Buhari through an executive order created the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Another unique aspect of the programme lies in its ability to take into cognizance the critical sectors in Nigeria such as; Education, Health, Agriculture and Taxation. Likewise, the programme also provided opportunities for digital and entrepreneurial skill acquisition for its non graduate’s beneficiaries. Applicants were to apply online and it was free of charge and free to some extent from political manipulations. Although, recent trends as regards the perceptions of some Nigeria senators about the programme and the funds injected into it so far, points to the fact that in the future the programme may be politicized or ends up been hijacked by some Nigeria elites who does not have any iota of feelings for the unemployed Nigerian youths and the general masses who are living in extreme poverty.

Arguably, the N-Power programme has been criticized base on wrong placement of the volunteers into the sectors they are not qualified to operate. For example, the N-Power Teach beneficiaries are expected to teach in public primary and secondary schools. However, most of these N-Power Teach beneficiaries are mostly graduates of Polytechnics and Universities without a proper background and exposures in the faculty of education or having any contact with an Institute of education. Thus, the needed training in form of educational curriculum planning and implementation, education laws and practices, psychology of learning, philosophy of education and continuous assessment planning as well as teaching practicum are all lacking in such categories of graduates from non faculty of education. Consequently, sending such graduates to teach in the public schools in form of assistant teachers is a bastardization of the teaching profession.

Although, the federal government noted that these N-Teach corps were given loaded devices that will enable them master how to formulate lesson notes and plans coupled with the textbooks attached in the devices. Such excuses was not accepted by the Nigerian Union of Teachers and as such, there exist a backlash between the traditional school of thought in teaching as a profession and opposing School of Thought that supports the pwer of technology to drive teaching and learning. The traditionalist are of the view that teaching is a profession, that must be handled by professionally trained graduates from colleges of education, Institute of education and various faculties of education in the universities in Nigeria. While the technologist are of the view that with the aid of technology teaching and learning can be enhanced without necessarily involving a professional teacher.

Some of the N-Power beneficiaries noted that what necessitated such lackadaisical attitude to work lies on the uncertainties of the programme towards their permanency after the expiration of two years. Also, the beneficiaries experienced some hiccups as regards payment of monthly stipends as at when conformably. Thus, the incessant delays in the payment of monthly stipends and the increasing cost of living which was exacerbated by the 2016 fuel subsidy removal which brought about 300% increase in the prices of goods and services paving way for the 2016 economy recession and the recent advent of coronavirus and its impact on the Nigerian over dependent oil driven economy have also impacted negatively on the living standard of the beneficiaries.

In order to ascertain the journey so far with the N-Power programme, it is pertinent to look at the poverty and unemployment figures in Nigeria. Between 2016 and 2019, unemployment rate ranges from 16.20%, 18.20%, and 21.10% respectively. Currently, the unemployment rate is already nose-diving towards 33.5%. Likewise, Nigeria has become the global poverty capital of the world taking over Indian. There exist over 93 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty.

Likewise, the unemployed youth's figures are increasing unabated. For example in 2018, there exist over 20.9 million unemployed youths. This figure has increased to over 26 million in 2019.

The fight against poverty and youth unemployment through the N-Power job creation programmes seems to be a flop. This is because 26 million minus the 500,000 engaged N-Power graduate volunteers will leave a shocking insignificant balance of 25.5 million unemployed youths.

The recent development to disengage the 500,000 N-Power batches A and B in order to recruit batch C to fill the space of 400,000 shows that there is no job security. As such, these graduates’ beneficiaries are to go back to the labour market after having the needed experiences that will enhance their CVs. Furthermore, such plan aimed at exiting these beneficiaries was not base on equity. This, however, constitutes a kind of inequality as regards months of service and deployment of devices among the beneficiaries. For example, the Batch A N-Power volunteers started in 2016 and ought to have been exited in December 2018. However, they were allowed to work till June 30th 2020 which has been set aside for their exit. While, the Batch B N-Power volunteers that emerged in August 2018 are to be exited by July 31st 2020. Thus, the Batch A enjoyed working for 40 months while the Batch B worked for only 23 months. This shows that the Batch A had a 17 months advantage over the Batch B that lost a month.

On the issue of device deployments, the Batch B N-Power volunteers where not given any devices whereas, the Batch A got their devices and also, enjoyed monthly subscription that goes with it. Although, the federal government noted that the susceptible situation of the Nigerian economy due to price instability of crude oil at the international market, coupled with the decrease in revenue generation of the federal government all necessitated in the delays and subsequent failure to deliver the said devices.

Nevertheless, the programme is not free from the tempest of corruption. News had it that about 50,000 slots was given to law makers out of the 400,000 available slots that was juttled by over millions of unemployed youth's within hours the porter was opened. This news was refuted to be fake but instead, pushed aside as fake news while the system becomes more open for the looting to take place unnoticed. It seems like the federal government is aware of the loopholes in the programme as such, in the 2020 proposed budget, the allocations to the NSIP dropped from N500 billion to N30 billion. In the same vein, the managers of the programme failed to account how much was spent in the programme since it's inception in 2016. Likewise, they failed to tender the pay slips for all the volunteers to the law makers.

Moreover, the programme has some loopholes that are yet to be closed. There are many ghost beneficiaries that don't report to work but get paid. While there are also, some who are gainfully employed in other MDAs but are at the receiving end for double salary. The recent overhaul of the system points to such fact. News has it that about 14000 N-Power beneficiaries are gainfully employed but refused to resign from the programme so as to enable those jobless youths to benefit.

It is pertinent, to reiterate that N-Power can not solve the problems of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. This is because the programme lacks the capacity of providing job security for the beneficiaries. The programme should have a synergy in form of Public private Partnership with the aim of tracking available employment opportunities for the beneficiaries before exiting them. Before then, the N-Power scheme needs to be audited and the recruitment exercises be free from Political manipulation while being accommodating enough to take into cognizance unemployed disabled youths.

• Furthermore, instead of paying unemployed youths N30, 000 for few moths and push them back to the labour market, the National Directorate of Employment should be revamped to be more operational towards Skilling up unemployed youth's across the 774 local government areas. While, more industries should be cited in order to absorb many unemployed youths and the Nigerian tax system should be made more dynamic and progressive in nature so as to ensure prosperity for all Nigerians through massive investment in infrastructures in the country.