When will N-power Beneficiaries be paid

The question, "when will N-power beneficiaries be paid?" is one that raises fear and concern among Nigerians and the beneficiaries of the N-power Program.

The 500,000 beneficiaries of the N-power program are made up of families with at least 4 dependants each, including a wife and about 2 kids. So, there are about 3 million households affected by the plight of the N-power Beneficiaries at a time of world pandemic when families find 2 meals per day, unbearably uneasy.

For two months, the beneficiaries of the program have not been paid particularly the month of June for both Batch A & B beneficiaries, June and July for Batch B beneficiaries, and more than 3 months for about 20,000 beneficiaries who are owed March, April, May and June/July stipends resulting from the migration of the payment platform to the Government Integrated Financial Management System Server.

Just few hours ago, the Handlers of the N-power social media channels responded to @Brownswags's request via Tweeter 'Dear N-power, please pay us June and July Stipends for today is 3 August, 2020................' and said, '@Brownswags we ask that you remain patient as we are working on effecting payments in the shortest possible time'.

To the N-power Beneficiaries' dictionary, 'Soon' means a week or two, while 'patient' and 'shortest possible time' connotes no definite time until essentially possibly, but purportedly, would be possible.

The Beneficiaries who have recounted the unfair treatment metted on them since the transfer of the N-power Program in October 2019 to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development have described it as a disaster and an attempt to dissolve the well thought and implemented program by the prototypical initiators, devoid of political penetration or manipulation.

The degenerating situation turned punitive by the disengagement of the 500,000 N-power beneficiaries in June without a clear exit plan as promised by the Federal Government and unconscientiously as defined, amidst COVID-19 pandemic when the economies across the world have been endangered, employment opportunities zeroed, and unemployment boomed.

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development during the announcement of the disengagement stated that there were plans by the Federal Government not to deliver the voulunteers back to the saturated job market as the beneficiaries would be communicated individually while a psycometric test would be a measure for ascertaining individual viability in the areas of the Ministry's undisclosed interests.

In what may be describes as a 'political promise', the N-power beneficiaries having waited for weeks without implimentation of any strategic measure to ensure they would not be plunged into the ocean of unemployment,  have taken to the streets of Abuja, Oyo and Other states to protest their sudden disengagement in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic without an alternative livelihood, while demanding a permenent employment as obedient graduate citizens of Nigeria who have dedicated at least 2years in voluntary services in Nigeria or a grant sum of N600,000 to proceed on entrepreneurial endeavours.

Describing the precarious situation the N-power Beneficiaries have been exposed to, Francis Akpan, an N-teach beneficiary in Akwaibom in his words stated, 'My diabetic mother in 2017 developed a major kidney disease that resulted in paralysis. Being the first child in a family of 6, I have been managing life with them with the N30,000. Getting another job isn't an easy thing especially when you have no one at helm of affairs. I have huge workload in my PPA and with the low teachers in my school, I handle 4 subjects prompting me to appear in School everyday or face the wrath of my principal. 

"I got married in 2019 after the General Election when the Government promised they would not exit us back to the street having in mind of promising future. Today I have family of my own, and my sick widowed mother who equally relied on the N30,000 for her medication and up keep, and my siblings. My wife is a tailor and her work earns a little only during festive  seasons. The COVID-19 pandemic crumbled her business as most families only struggle to eat and not to wear."

"The disengagement is hell on earth for me. There was no pre information and all of a sudden, it was announced. Sometimes committing suicide is the only thing occupying my mind. My mother is dying and there is no one to help, no other source of livelihood. We struggle to eat once a day. The non-payment of our June Stipend is terrible. Sometimes I blame God for making me a Nigerian".

The situation is the same for many of the beneficiaries as the social media has been restive with inceasant complains of non-payment and massive youth u nemployement, a situation that does not portray the integrity of Nigeria as a futuristic nation with a prepared plan for national progress and development, especially for the youths.