Kano youths empowerment scheme turns sour

Malam Gambo Ado; the name is popular in Kano State, especially among the youths. Like a national anthem, they sing it at every public gathering they attend and yell unprintable words at the bearer. Malam Ado is the Director General of the state’s Directorate of Youth Development, a government agency that oversees youths’ activities in […]

Malam Gambo Ado; the name is popular in Kano State, especially among the youths. Like a national anthem, they sing it at every public gathering they attend and yell unprintable words at the bearer. Malam Ado is the Director General of the state’s Directorate of Youth Development, a government agency that oversees youths’ activities in the state.

The DG told Pyramid Trust, Tuesday that he had to change his mobile plane line recently to block the barrage of insults he received from malcontent youths who participated in the directorate’s empowerment program for tertiary students.

But the participants of the empowerment programme, on the other hand, are accusing the DG of being economical with the truth, saying the scheme was a sham; “an attempt by government to pretend that the youth segment in the society is not left out.”

The programme was introduced in 2008 by the Directorate of Youth Development (DYD), according to the participants, when they were asked to fill some forms. In 2009, they underwent a screening exercise that ended in the selection of 1000 candidates who received training in skills acquisition, poultry, fish farming, carpentry, welding and other vocations.

The youths were late last year, camped at various tertiary institutions within and outside the state capital for the three weeks that the training lasted.

While at the training camps, the youths said, they were assured that at the completion of the course, they would be given start-up funds to commence businesses of their own. “They promised us that as soon as we submit a business plan, experts will asses it and possibly review upwards our individual financial requests contained therein. What we were made to believe was that the federal and state governments and banks would make the funds available and every one of us can make request of seed money from N1million upwards,” Abdullahi Yusuf, a participant, told Pyramid Trust.

The participants also said the sum of N500 was collected as admission letter processing allowance from each of them by the directorate; however they added that they were paid N100 daily as transport and feeding allowance during the camping.

Doubts started creeping into their minds, they said, when on completion of the programme, no official of DYD was present to speak to them about the seed money. From then on, they added, their relationship with the DG turned into a hide and seek affair. He was seldom seen at his office and when he was around, he hardly agreed to meet with them, according to them.

However, a ray of hope was renewed in them in February this year, when the state governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, at a parley he organised with the youths at Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kano, promised to release funds for them. They said the governor assured them of the release of N250million before March ending to be used to settle the start-up fees.

Meanwhile, they argued that before the funds were released, Malam Ado presented them with an option of taking N50, 000 government donations with which they could start up business, but under the condition that they would abandon the original settlement plan, where they can draw upwards of N1million. Because of the introduction of the strange arrangement which they said was apparently targeted at denying them the opportunity of becoming self-reliant, they turned down the offer, they said.

And when they approached the DG for settlement at the expiration of the governor’s deadline, they claimed he resorted to harassing them and dishing out threats. They said he issued such threats whenever he agreed to parley with them, telling them that whoever worries him over the settlement will be reported to the authorities.

Similarly, Pyramid Trust also learnt that even the staff of the directorate who showed sympathy towards the fate of the youths were invited and questioned by a security agency at the instance of Malam Ado. One of the participants who has been invited by the police in connection with the matter is Aminu Haruna Ahmed aka Aminu Sparrow.

 “I was invited via a phone call by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and they told me that I wanted to incite the public in the state,” Aminu Sparrow revealed. But he said after explaining the reason for their agitation to the police, they let him go.

Aminu Sparrow also explained to Pyramid Trust that the DG sees him as a threat because he is at the vanguard of the campaign for the release of the funds, saying he had organised meetings, as a de facto leader, with the affected youths, where they discussed a possible recipe out of the impasse. On several occasions, the self-styled youth leader was delegated to sit with Malam Ado, he said.

It was due to his insistence that DYD must fulfill its promise to the tertiary students that he has become a mouthpiece that the DG wants to silence, he told Pyramid Trust. Instead of the invitation by the police, Aminu Sparrow says the fire of their struggle will not quench until they get justice. “We may end up suing them at the end of the day,” he disclosed. “We will ask them to go and explain in court their reasons for exploiting us by asking us to part with our N500 for a deceitful scheme,” he added.

But according to the police, Aminu Sparrow was only invited to be advised against taking actions that may jeopardize public peace. Reacting through its spokesman, SP Baba Mohammed Azare, said the youth was only questioned and asked to go.

However, while reacting to the charges by the youths, Malam Ado blamed them for being impatient; saying the little delay being experienced is due to the fact that his office is seeking means of advising the state government to include the 1000 affected tertiary institution students in its “normal empowerment” program. He further explained that the original arrangement for the youths was for them to be exposed to a bank facility with government standing as guarantor. But he said, now they are planning to abandon the loan option and request government to approve empowerment package for each of the participants. He said the directorate will apply for N50 million to be used to settle  them.

Malam Ado also described the assertion by the youths in relation to the N250 million promised by the state governor as incorrect, adding that Malam Ibrahim Shekarau approved the money for other categories of beneficiaries of the scheme and not the 1000 youths.

Also, he described as untrue, the allegations that he masterminded the questioning of some of the youths by security agencies, saying he too was invited to explain why certain youths wanted to incite public disturbance. He however, declined to comment on the purported questioning of some of his members of staff by security agents in connection with the fate of the youths.