Npower Disengagement - 500000 Volunteers Plan Massive Protest In Abuja

It seems the Npower batch A and B volunteers Nationwide has run out of patience as the 500,000 Beneficiaries of the FG empowerment programme plan to embark on a Nationwide protest on Thursday 9th July. The volunteers plan to flood the city of Abuja to protest their sudden disengagement from the N-power program amidst Coronavirus pandemic without a detailed exit plan or exit package.

The N-power program inaugurated by the President Mohammadu Buhari led administration recorded a monumental sum of 500,000 beneficiaries who have been manning the unmanned classrooms, Health Centers and Agricultural Extention units across the 774 LGAs of the Federation on a monthly stipend of N30,000, and are being trained as large workforce for both the public and the private sectors.

The design of the N-power program was such that the beneficiaries would through the program be linked to available jobs in both Government and Private Sectors, and some to Entrepreneurship with supports from the Government to further in their future endeavors after their programs as the Government promised not to send them back to the streets.

However, the Minister of the Ministry of humanitarian affairs in charge of the Npower programme has sent her farewell message to the Npower batch A and B volunteers ahead of their disengagement into a said government entrepreneurship scheme and have stated that volunteers concerned will be contacted individually regarding the transition.

The sudden disengaged by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development of Npower Volunteers without a laid down exit plan or exit package, the reason they have spent years in the program as the Federal Government promised not to terminate their engagement without a concrete exit plan so as to reduce youth unemployment and support the plan of our dear President in lifting 1 million Nigerians out of poverty.

The N-power beneficiary during the campaign for the 2019 General election received a promise from the Federal Government that their PVCs were their tickets to permanent employment, demanding that they reelect President Mohammadu Buhari to gain sustainability of their program and perfection of the purpose of the program.

Among the agitation of the trained N-power Volunteers is for the Federal Government to offer them permanent employment as citizens of their country or provide them with substantial exit package as they can not go hungry with their wives and children especially now that COVID-19 has dealt with many economies of the world, job market saturated and opportunities too narrowed.