Npower Volunteers Demand Farouq’s Resignation

The National Association of Npower Volunteers (NANV) has asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq to resign over her alleged refusal to pay volunteers their January stipend.

NANV made the call in a statement it issued following a recent revelation from an interview  granted by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed on NTA Tuesday Live chat, where she was alleged to have disclosed that monies meant for the payment of npower volunteers had been released to the humanitarian ministry under the leadership of Farouq.

Npower, a program under the National Social Investment Program (NSIP) of Nigeria is a social welfare initiative created by the federal government of Nigeria in 2015 under the direction of the National Social Investment Office. The Program was created to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youths, and women.

What Finance Minister Said:

The Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed had during the live TV program said that the funds for Npower and NSIP had been released to the new ministry in charge for disbursement.

Ahmed, when asked why Npower stipend hasn’t been paid, said, “I can speak from the point of view of the finance ministry. We have released the fund and I think the ministry in charge should be in the process of payment.”

She said all the funds needed to pay beneficiaries of the Npower programme and the NSIP had been released to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development headed by Farouq.

The Minister disclosed that “We have released fund for Npower long before now, and the fund is with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, it is left for the minister in charge to make payment as at when due.”

Allegations Against Farooq:

The association alleged that the Npower volunteers across the 36 States of the Federation are still being owed their January Stipends as at February 2020 even when other Federal Government workers have promptly received their salaries up to date.

It also alleged that record has it that other sections of the NSIP program like the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program are suffering the same fate as school children who are the direct beneficiaries of the program are starving due to lack of release of fund for food vendors.

“However, until this moment the Minister Of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management is yet to refute the allegation by the Minister of Finance which has made volunteers to believe that Hajia Farouq has a selfish agenda to sabotage the effort of the federal government to eliminate unemployment as she is deliberately and continually holding on to public money without reasons,” the statement read in part.

The statement said the minister of humanitarian affairs should as a matter of urgency refute the allegation of her finance counterpart, adding that if the statement is true, she should provide reasons why she has refused to pay the volunteers for their service to the government.

Continuing, the statement added: “She should also give Volunteers reasons why she is still holding to that position she currently occupy knowing fully well that she is incapacitated to run this all important office as lives of many Nigerian youths solely depend on this stipend that she has continued to deny them.

“To this end, failure to give answers to these questions raised, we shall embark on a peaceful protest both physical and online to demand for her resignation, as volunteers patience is already running out,” the statement concluded.