25th May, 2017
Volunteers of the N-Power scheme in Kano on Thursday expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for initiating the scheme as one of the Social Investment Programmes of his administration.
The beneficiaries also commended the scheme for exposing them to practical knowledge of their courses and impacting in the lives of the people.
The volunteers bared their minds when the Presidential Monitoring and Evaluation team, led by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, visited them on the field.
Umma Musa Saliu, a graduate of Agriculture from Bayero University Kano (BUK), who is in the N-Agro field in Tarauani Local Government Area, said that the programme exposed her to practical things she could not learn in the university.
She said that with the experience that she had gathered, she planned to establish her own hatchery at the end of the volunteer programme.
“A lot of things that we have been taught at school were theoretical but here in N-Power, I have been able to see it practically and as the saying goes `seeing is believing’.
“I am saving money in order to have my own incubation centre to be hatching some chick and provide them to our community for poultry farmers to grow.’’
Mr Charles Dike, a 2013 first class graduate of University of Maiduguri, saluted the motive behind the N-power scheme as it had provided him the chance of being a volunteer lecturer in the Kano State School of Hygiene.
Dike, an Anambra indigene, said that after suffering the Boko Haram problems in Maiduguri, he came down to Kano where he began a Masters course at the Bayero University Kano (BUK).
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“I graduated with first class but I was not retained to lecture in the University of Maiduguri.
“After my National Youth Service Corps programme in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, I was retained but unfortunately when the issue of Treasury Single Account (TSA) came up, my appointment was revoked.’’
He said he applied into the N-Power scheme, when his friend asked him to give it a trial, towards the end of the application period, I was lucky to be selected among the volunteers in the state.
According to him, he initially did not believe that the programme was real as he thought it as one of those government schemes to compensate relations and political associates.
“I want to say a very good thank you to N-Power, a very good thank you to the administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
“I am really grateful and in spite of my not being from this state and not knowing anyone, I was given this opportunity to contribute to empowering Kano indigenes,’’ he said.
Another volunteer, Mr Mohammed Inuwa Wada, a graduate of Animal Science from UNIMAID, said the scheme had helped him to achieve his goals.
“Presently, I have about 100 birds that I have been raising from my stipends.
“I dispose them after eight weeks and this has been able to make me keep body and soul together and I thank the Buhari administration for this initiative.
Amina Kakira, who read Biochemistry at ABU Zaria and a volunteer in the health programme, thanked N-Power initiators for the lifeline to unemployed graduates.
“Many of us were jobless; we stayed at home doing nothing but after this engagement, we started gaining financially which we used to help our families.
“We have since acquired more knowledge in the health sector and also have counseled the community on the need for regular medical tests and immunization of their children.
Mrs Bilkisu Yakubu, an Agriculture Economist from BUK, posted to Kwata Bunkure area of Kano, said that the N-Agro had assisted the rural farmers to improve on cultivation and raised the yield from their farms.
The farmers admitted that before the volunteers came, they were not making good profits from their farming but added that the yield had improved by nearly 100 per cent.
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Mr Imoukhuede’s team also visited the Kawaji Jigirya Special Primary School in Nas local government area where 20 volunteers were deployed to teach.
He hailed the Headmaster, Mr Ibrahim Babangida, for diligently monitoring the volunteers as well a volunteer who had continued to apply her skills to the teaching of pupils in spite of some challenges.
The Presidential aide reaffirmed the importance of the scheme to empower the youth but advised the beneficiaries to observe the tenets of the scheme to improve their wellbeing and the communities they served.
Imoukhuede reminded them that it was a programme of the Buhari administration meant for serous minded youths.
“This scheme is money paid for work done and the standard will not be compromised,’’ he said.
He told beneficiaries who had yet to get their stipends to be patient as the allowances would be paid in full to those who had been verified and remained faithful on the jobs.