The Nigerian government has disengaged over 2,000 beneficiaries of one of its National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), N-Power.

NSIP spokesman Justice Bibiye said the beneficiaries were dismissed for absconding duties at their places of primary assignment (PPA) for a long time.

N-Power was introduced in 2016 by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration “to imbibe the entrepreneurship culture in the Nigerian youth aged between 18 and 35 — both graduates and non-graduates”.

An estimated 500,000 youths across the country are currently engaged in the scheme, providing services in the country’s education, health, agriculture sectors and local government offices with a monthly N30,000 stipend.

“Instances have compelled the need for continued action against those who are seen to be undermining the smooth implementation of a well-thought-out federal government social intervention initiative,” Bibiye said in a statement.

Bibiye stated that N-Power is not a charity programme, thus everyone captured under the scheme is expected to justify the benefits and rules of engagement through diligence, hard work and commitment to designated duties.

He said similar acts of dereliction of duty, indolence, absenteeism and indiscipline on the part of the beneficiaries will continue to be sanctioned.

Bibire disclosed that government has increased the number of monitoring partners for supervision and monitoring of all components of the NSIPs for effective and efficient service delivery.

He urged members of the public to report cases of absenteeism as strict measures would ensure fewer cases of misconduct against the values of the programme.

“The public and the media would only be supporting the efforts of the administration to reduce unemployment, by reporting the relatively few indolent, erring volunteers who were lucky to have been selected to serve under such a programme,” Bibire said. (The Guardian)

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