Fraud alert – halt the N-Power ‘employment’ scheme immediately (2)

Below is a step-by-step guide to applying for jobs on the N-Power platform. As is obvious, the jobs are targeted at indigent but IT-savvy young Nigerian graduates.

1. Visit the NPower portal npower.gov.ng

2. Click on the various programmes on www.npower.gov. ng and carefully read through them

3. Choose the programme that you are qualified for and best suits your aspiration

4. Click on the APPLY button at the bottom of the page to apply for your preferred programme. (Note: You will need to first register and then sign in with a unique username and password)Fill the form carefully and be certain to provide accurate information and documents to support your application.

5. After submitting, you will receive an acknowledgement email letter confirming the receipt of your application.

6. After 48hours, you will be notified by email and in your portal profile whether you are eligible or not for the N-Power programme.

7. If you are unsuccessful, you may apply for future N-Power programes, if you meet the eligibility requirements.

8. If you are successful, you may then proceed to the test page at MY N-POWER PORTAL

9. You will be required to write two tests; a general skills test and a program specific test

10. Depending on your programme, there may be a final interview before you are conditionally accepted into the N-Power programe. Otherwise you will receive an email confirming your provisional acceptance into the N-Power programme

11. You will have to confirm your acceptance to secure your place.

12. Specific enrolment and training information will now be made available to you

If you have any difficulty at any point of your application process, please send an email to info@ npower.gov.ng My concerns/discoveries From the attached single page taken off the N-Power list of employed candidates who will soon be taken over by state governments, I make these observations:

1. For a list generated by people who visited the internet for registration, only two out of these names have any presence whatsoever on the internet. These ‘young’ Nigerians who are also graduates, have no Facebook accounts, no twitter, no Instagram, nothing. These days, all around the world and in Nigeria too, the first thing people do when they meet someone is to ‘google’ them. Almost all these names taken as a sample, are not google-able.

2. This sample list - which I recovered off Facebook - drew attention because of the oddity of these types of names coming from Borno State. We understand that these are meant to be ‘residents’ of Abadam Local Government in Borno State. In view of the activities of Boko Haram in that part of the country, it is intriguing that on a single page, there will be such density of non-indigenes. But let us assume they are just patriotic Nigerians. We can put that in our left hand and forge ahead.

3. A simple internet search revealed that there is no presence for “Obaseki Recebah” online except the one that registered at N-Power. I tried Obaseki Rebecca. That generic name exists but is an adult that doesn’t live in Nigeria. There are two “IbeIje”s on Facebook - or online in general. Both live in Lagos. One works for an insurance company, the other is a businessman who graduated in 1994 and whose profile shows is married. The only Godson Ihemere online worked with BUA Group and now works with one ady.ng., according to his LinkedIn page. He is not a young man per se and doesn’t stay anywhere near Borno. Interestingly, the only Michelle Okwesa available online works with Prof Pius Adesanmi at IAS Carleton Uni, Canada according to her LinkedIn page.

4. Further, even though Murtala Mohammed should be a generic name in the north, it isn’t. Three people bear that name online when I searched. Only two bear that exact combination. One is an elderly person with whom I share about 278 friends on Facebook. He is a very active fellow on social media. The other is a cool guy who was an ex-banker and now runs his company.

5. Gamsheya Gara does not exist anywhere on the internet and has no footprints except when he showed up as a government employee. The only Joel Otalu online is a staff at Standard Chartered Bank, Bulus Kururtsi does not exist anywhere but on N-Power employment list, Cynthia Adaeze are both female names (no surname). Juliana Aboyi does not exist anywhere as well. The same goes for Osarenoma Ohiwere, and Aboi Dorothy. Oriyomi Attairu sounds like a cynical Yoruba name to me, in the league of ‘Omoshetan Omorele Oyinbogo’.

6. Another interesting phenomenon obvious in this little sample is where people’s surnames are not known. So we have Ezeani U. (Ezeani is usually a surname, so in this case, U is unknown. It could be Uche, it could be Udo, or anything else), we have Adekunle G. (whom I initially thought would be a junior brother to the famous saxophonist, Kenny G, but someone explained to be that it could be our own famous musician, Adekunle Gold, trying to change his career and being humble about it). Then we have the joker of the bunch, “Na’ajatu NONE”. No, that is not some exotic African name. It is to tell us that Na’ajatu has no surname, simple.

7. Let us even crown a King for the lot. And that would be Igwe Eze. Now, that must be a prince from East of the Niger. The two names mean that this is an important personality. If one meets an Igbo man with such names, one asks questions about his lineage because he may go far in life. There are two Igwe Ezes online. One worked with UBA and became a big man. He now runs his own company. The other is a hard core Biafran who does business in Lagos. His real name is Eze Ochinawata.

I believe there is a need to take down the entire list and use a comb to sift through very carefully before this thing goes too far. If on a page with about 27 names, a critical mind can find potential problems with 24 of them, then we are on to something here.

As I rounded up this article, I came across Mr Ayo Olukotun’s write-up in today’s Punch (25th November, 2016) titled “Ghost Workers and Programmed Dysfunction”, in which he chronicled some of our sensational issues with ghost workers. He mentioned that Kwara State recently discovered 9,000 ghost workers on its payroll. Hear more from him:

“…It should be noted that the figure of fictitious names smuggled into the state payroll is almost onethird of the entire workforce and that salaries had not been paid for several months…. Three years ago, for example, Dr. NgoziOkonjoIweala, a former Minister of Finance, and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, informed the nation excitedly that as a result of the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System, across 215 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, government had fished out close to 47,000 “ghost” workers resulting in the saving of N119bn in the monthly wage bill. However, we now know that what was saved by the right hand was stolen by the left, to the extent that the “ghost” workers appear to have returned to the system with a vengeance.”

I profoundly believe that this otherwise great initiative has been fatally contaminated. It must be stopped for thorough review before it progresses to the state level and we lose track, and audit trail.