FG May Retain Npower Volunteers Npower , a federal government empowerment scheme which was initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari in late 2016 is aimed at empowering 500, 000 unemployed graduates for a duration of two years. Presently, the scheme has already engaged 200, 000 unemployed in December 2016 and are already receiving a monthly stipend of N30, 000. Though there have glitches in the accurate payment of the stipend, the Npower management are currently working on correcting and verifying information of those who are yet to receive their monthly stipend. They are also working on clearing those with outstanding payments (backlog). How To Resolve Npower Payment Issues [UPDATED] In the second Batch Npower Management are currently working on engaging another 300,000 unemployed graduates. The recruitment process has already in the Preselection stage where volunteers who were successful in the assessment stage will be shortlisted for physical verification in their various states. How to check Npower Participant List for 2017 Applicants At the time when volunteers agitate against the opacity of December 2016 payment of stipends which revealed a black hole of discripencies with selective payment of volunteers who were all verified the same date and the same time in the same venue, it was revealed on social media that the N-Power Team while entertaining N-Power volunteers in their premises, authoritatively said that the federal government is overstaffed, that there is no vacancy in the civil service in order to retain Npower volunteers. Because of this, Npower volunteers are hoping to creating a movement so that the government will see to their struggles and what will become of them after the 2years duration of the scheme. A volunteer wrote; N-Power does not employ, only the federal government employs, therefore N-Power Team should focus on managing the scheme they have been entrusted with for its smooth implementation. Npower scheme initiatives is in no way a duplication of Civil Service Commission and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, it was recently put in place to monitor and manage the full implementation of the scheme which is a volunteerism scheme which managers were employed for its successful implementation. N-Power Team should stop interfering with the vision of Buhari/ Osinbajo vision of full empowerment of the youths. We do not believe that the federal government that chose to extract from the streets a number of unemployed skilled graduates lacks the capacity to keep them away from the streets after carefully and thoroughly nursing and testing them for optimum employability. This is a promise earlier made before the setting up of Social Investment Programme. It is based on this background that we stage an aggressive campaign at all levels to make our interests count in the decision making. N-Power should not be another way to establish that it is only when you have connection that you can get a permanent employment in Nigeria. It should not be that the common men kids are only good for temporary employment while the upper class’ kids are good for full employment. It should not be that we got it wrong that all is still business as usual to pull political stances. It is clear that the level of wastage of the meager resources on frivolous allowances of both elected and non elected officers is paramount to governments of ours than to truly alleviate the level of poverty and inhumane treatment of workforce in the land. When our senators heartedly pocket 1bn+ monthly to service their known allowances, the youths, frustrated, disabused, disillusioned and bittered, are totally cut off of most of the legal ways to make a living; they are subjected to requirements that only “aje-butter-kids” can meet up. They are accused unnecessarily for collecting a token which can not even assure 3 meals per day. When voices go up, some so called wise men choose to castigate us, the youths, by saying that if we are not satisfied we should just take a leave. What a beautiful mindset. I would like to know if their kids can manage N30,000.0 for 30 days for a living: paying rent, transportation, food and drugs to sustain good health. The youths cannot continue to be at the receiving ends of all governments policies. We have to force the enactment of policies which takes fully care of us and the up coming generations. We can no more be passive to what goes on in our polity. We can no more allow to be brainwashed by political platforms which are only after their sole interests. We can no more play the second role in the general affairs of the nation, it is our own future that is at stake in the present dispensation. We are used and dumped continually in the same ways, and we, youths, have learnt nothing . We keep on following, fighting, dying for them while their kids are preciously kept abroad to come back later to rule us. We subsidy the education of their kids with lower rate Dollars while they choose to close down our universities, jeopardize our primary and secondary schools. Today, we are offered a golden opportunity to come together to save ourselves from perennial denial of the youths of this great country. As we all know, no single form of violence should be used. We have to act academically and strategically. We have to explore all means of ingenuity which we used to survive in the streets. We have to weigh in our rhetorically known strength, our long appraised energy. We are not weak until we accept to be one. We are not losers until we accept to be one. We are great, let us establish our greatness for this country to fully develop . It is on this note that we have to adopt #ItTakesAStruggle as our cardinal common platform. We have to also adopt the latter hash tag in all our comments and write-ups on all social platforms. We have to create the momentum in our various places to ignite the process of our permanency. We have to serve the Senators and Reps both at Federal and States levels with copies of same content nationwide. We have to carry along all state volunteers recognised excos. We have to mount the pressure both on streets and social media. We have to conduct all this in the spirit of “One United Nigeria”. A Volunteer per State is being gathered to liaise with state executive body of volunteers to canvass our goals and carry them along on the ways forward. October 1, should be used for the launch of the movement #ItTakesAStruggle nationwide . Each state has to launch #ItTakesAStruggle. Do not sit on the fence. Do not choose not to be part of our history. Do not be a traitor. Remember, we all represent an army with many battalions. We are grouped in various entities with the same goals. Once again, our permanency is our sole goal. Nobody should bring his political partisanship in the struggle. Anybody found castigating personalities and political parties will be tagged as traitor and a mole implanted in our midst to rubbish our aim and discredit our struggle. You are warned!

Buhari is working...