Just In: N-Power Beneficiaries Declare Support for Atiku Ahead of 2027 Election
- A 'nationwide delegation' of N-Power beneficiaries announced support for a top 2027 presidential candidate
- The development was disclosed by a prominent member of The Atiku Movement, a group backing Atiku Abubakar
- The endorsement arrives as N-Power faces a history of suspension and an alleged N81 billion backlog of unpaid allowances
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Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over nine years of experience covering politics, elections, public affairs, and governance in Nigeria and Africa.
FCT, Abuja - A 'nationwide delegation' of N-Power beneficiaries has declared support for Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 elections.
Legit.ng reports that AbdulAziz Na'ibi Abubakar, a political commentator and member of The Atiku Movement (TAM), disclosed this in a statement published on his Facebook account on Saturday, August 29, 2026. The Atiku Movement is a support group backing the former vice president's 2027 presidential bid.
Source: Twitter
Na'ibi wrote:
"Breaking News: 1.4 million N-Power beneficiaries declare support for Atiku Abubakar ahead of 2027."
While Na’ibi claimed that 1.4 million N-Power beneficiaries declared support for Atiku, Legit.ng could not independently verify the figure.
The endorsement comes as political parties and opposition figures across Nigeria step up their mobilisation activities ahead of the elections.
N-Power scheme's troubled history
N-Power, one of the social investment programmes launched under now-late former President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2016, was designed to tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria. The programme, established by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, enrolled thousands of beneficiaries across its Batch A, B, and C cycles. The former N-Power graduate volunteers were entitled to a monthly stipend of N30,000 for at least a period of one year. The non-graduate beneficiaries earned N10,000 monthly stipends.
In October 2023, the federal government suspended the N-Power scheme and ordered an immediate audit. A communique signed by the National Programme Manager, Akindele Egbuwalo, on behalf of then-minister Betta Edu, cited irregular payments to beneficiaries whose participation had long expired.
The communique read, according to Guardian:
"Recently, we discovered instances of programme beneficiaries whose participation has lapsed since 2022 but have remained on and continue to expect payments from the government."
It also noted that some beneficiaries were receiving monthly payments despite not reporting to their places of primary assignment, while others had taken up separate employment but continued to collect stipends.
Source: Twitter
N-Power: Alleged N81 billion debt unresolved
In July 2025, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin stepped in to broker talks between federal government officials, aggrieved beneficiaries, and their legal representative, Abba Hikima. The N-Power beneficiaries had threatened legal action over an alleged N81 billion backlog of unpaid allowances dating back to 2022 and 2023.
Following the discussions, Jibrin said the beneficiaries agreed to suspend their plans to sue the government after receiving assurances that payments would be made. According to The Cable, he acknowledged that the debt was inherited from the previous administration but said President Bola Tinubu's government remained committed to settling it as part of the renewed hope agenda.
It was against this backdrop of unresolved financial grievances and political uncertainty that the reported endorsement of Atiku by the N-Power delegation took place.
Read more on AbdulAziz Na'ibi’s N-Power here.
Read more on N-Power
- N-Power: "This is regretted", famed Nigerian govt’s scheme hampered by mismanagement
- N-Power: Fire destroys NSIPA's warehouse as reps order Tinubu to unfreeze accounts
Ex-N-Power beneficiaries tackle FG
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that no less than 230,000 former beneficiaries of the N-Power scheme dragged the APC government before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Abuja division, to seek immediate payment of their outstanding stipends and allowances.
The aggrieved former beneficiaries are also demanding the sum of N5 billion as general damages and compensation for what they described as deliberate labour exploitation, unfair treatment, and breach of contractual obligations on the part of the government.
Source: Legit.ng
