23rd February, 2017

The Lagos State Government,
State Secretariat,
Alausa-Ikeja,
Lagos Nigeria.

Dear Sir/Madam,

DELAY OF PAYMENT AND POSTING OF LAGOS NPOWER VOLUNTEER CORPS MEMBERS

Permit us to start this letter with this words: ” We firmly believe that one of the primary responsibilities of government is to implement poverty alleviation program that lift millions of our citizens out of poverty and to use the resources at its disposal to create safety nets for the poor and vulnerable youth in our society”. “Every Nigerian should not live below the minimum standard”.- Senator Ashafa

N-Power is a Federal Government’s project in the economic, employment and social development areas.  N-Power addresses the challenges of youth unemployment by providing a structure for large scale and relevant work skills acquisition and development while linking its core and outcomes to fix inadequate public services and stimulating the larger economy.

Npower Focus areas are: Teaching, Health, Agriculture, Vocational, Technology, Community Service, Post Production and Animation.

The N-Power assessment commenced on September 21, 2016 for all candidates and lasted till October 31, 2016. This was an online aptitude test carried out to determine candidates that will be needed by the agency to undertake the N-Power programme.
After the conclusion of the online assessment test. selection process commenced and was implemented leaving LAGOS STATE with over 11,000 applicants.

After the selection process across board, verification exercise commenced since December 2016. The Npower Lagos State verification exercise was serially delayed by the authorities, for no just reason, while applicants from other states were duly verified in December 2016,

This ugly situation rose to a peaceful protest to the State House of Assembly in Alausa by the applicants in January 2017, the protesters were able to pass their message and The Speaker, Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa, together with some other members addressed the applicants on the subject matter. The Speaker, Rt.Hon Mudashiru Obasa, however, urged the coordinator to ensure that Lagos State is not short-changed while carrying out the directive of the Federal Government and to also make sure that applicants from the state are paid their December and January stipends.

As a result, verification commenced and Npower Lagos State Applicants were duly verified in all the Local Government Areas.
Post-verification, as other states were duly paid their N30,000 stipends of December and January outstanding, Lagos State Npower Applicants didn’t get further notification from the authorities nor was the outstanding December and January stipends paid, till date.

In the same vein, Lagos State Npower beneficiary were left out from all activities of Npower program which include deployment, verified stamp (on our portal) and device selection on our online portal were not accessible. This called for our attention that our verified list has not been sent to abuja yet and if it had been sent, there shouldn’t be any reason for the colossal delay in deployment, payment and device selection. Selection of device from the portal is on-going across the nation with an exclusion of Lagos State from this process. Most of us are sitting at home doing nothing because of the trust we have in federal government regarding this scheme.

*We have however decided to resolve into protest come Monday 27th February. Since it seems this is the only language that the LASG understand and if it will help table our grievances, we have no other choice than to protest against our exclusion from the scheme.*

On this note we are imploring the Lagos state government in the best interest of her mandate and the nation at large to use the power of your exalted office to unravel the mystery surrounding Npower Lagos State regular delay, non-communication, exclusion, injustice and non-engagement as we believe in the good intention of the Federal Government on the Npower Program.

Yours Faithfully,

Concerned (OVER) 11,000 Lagos Npower Applicants

Cc:

Office of the Governor, Lagos State

Office of the Deputy Governor, Lagos State

Office of the Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly

Office of the Secretary of the Government of the State Government

Office of the Lagos State Npower Focal Person

Lagos State Ministry of Information

Lagos State Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations

Lagos State Ministry of Justice

Lagos State Ministry of Youth

Lagos State Ministry of Education

Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture

Lagos State Ministry of Health

Lagos State Office of the Public Defender

National Human Rights Commission, Lagos State

National Orientation Agency, Lagos State

Department of State Security, Lagos State

State Universal Basic Education Board, Lagos State

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Lagos State