Lockdown: FG Under Fire Over Delay In N-Power Stipends

Beneficiaries of one of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP), N-Power, have lamented the delay in payment of their stipends since the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, under the leadership of Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, took over the scheme.
Farouk was appointed by Buhari to serve as the minister of the newly created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in July, 2019.
She was sworn-in alongside other 42 ministers in August, 2019.
The N-Power and other social investment programmes of the current administration were formerly under the office of the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
Since the creation of the new ministry, according to the beneficiaries, things have turned out worse, and some of them have taken to social media to call out the minister.
They described as inhumane the failure of Farouk to pay them their stipends in due time even at this period of the Coronavirus lockdown.
It was observed that in recent months, the beneficiaries had to wait until towards the middle or end of the next month before receiving their stipends.
In some of the comments, the angry beneficiaries even described the minister as biblical Pharaoh, while some said she was “heartless and cancerous.”
Some of their comments read: @timjayy wrote, “Dear ma, how do you justify your stay in that office? You have only worsened the situation you were called to salvage, and the greatest you have achieved and promoted is the cry of N-Power volunteers always calling you for payment at odd hours which you always ignore.”
“All Ministry, Departments and Agencies of the government (MDAs) have been paid in this critical time to help their family survive this period, what is delaying N-Power volunteers’ payment after six months in office? Should we say you @Sadiya_farouq is still going through our files?”