A VIRAL post on social media claimed that the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHDS) in Nigeria has shortlisted candidates for its 2020 N-Power programme.
The post which was repeatedly shared in several WhatsApp groups, directed people to follow a particular link to check their names.
“Check your name on the N-POWER Shortlisted names. Documentation will commence immediately”, the post retrieved from a WhatsApp group read.
Similarly, financialwatchngr, voiceofnigeria.org.ng, unn-edu.nfo and some other blogs had posted some click bait articles to claim people have been shortlisted for the N-power programme, but the content of the reports are not shortlist as stated in the headlines.
THE CLAIM
N-power has shortlisted names for its 2020 programme and that people can check via a particular link.
THE FINDINGS
Checks shows that the claim is false.
The N-Power is a scheme set up by the President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, It is meant to address the issues of youth unemployment and social development.
It was created as a component of the National Social Investment Programme.
In a bid to verify the claim, the FactCheckHub observed that the website in the post is different from the website created for the programme by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHDS).
The official N-Power website is https://npower.fmhds.gov.ng .
The website in the claim “n-power-list.bid” seeks to gain traffic by prompting people to share.
For instance, the first page of the website asked people to click a link to check their name, while the following page asked for their mobile number. After which it directs people to another page asking them to share the post in 12 WhatsApp groups before having access to process the documentation.
The FactCheckHub also reached out to the FMHDS to confirm if a shortlist for the N-Power programme is out as claimed.
Halima Oyelade, a special assistant on media to the FMHDS minister noted that the claim in circulation is false and that the ministry is yet to shortlist people for the N-power programme.
”This is not true,” she replied The FactCheckHub‘s enquiry via a text message.
The ministry also made a tweet debunking the claim labelling it as fake news.
#fakenews pic.twitter.com/EU6ZATZOkM
— Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs (@fmha_pa) November 13, 2020
In addition, the FactCheckHub had earlier fact-checked and debunked a similar claim.
Such kind of claims masquerading as what they are not usually target topics and areas that a lot of people are interested in, like relief fund, recruitment and in this case youth unemployment which affects a lot of people either directly or indirectly.
The objective is often geared towards driving traffic to a website – as it often asks for a link to be shared a certain number of times. It could also be a survey website getting people to fill out questionnaires under false pretense. Sometimes such websites are set up to obtain people’s information for nefarious purposes.
One way to avoid falling victims to such is to try and verify the information by going to the government, institution, agency or company social media handle. A number of such institutions that attract public interest are verified on social media. Such social media handle usually have the website included in the bio.
In this case the N-Power twitter account is not verified , so you might be faced with several accounts passing itself as the real account. The FMHDS account is verified, this is the ministry overseeing the N-Power programme. You can check it timeline and see if it is retweeting content from any of the N-Power accounts. That way you can know which of the account is authentic.
In addition, since you have a verified FMHDS twitter handle you can go through the bio to go to the website and and look for the N-power programme – It is the parent body, it should have information about N-Power.
And in this case it does. Clicking on the N-power programme listed on the ministry’s website provides a link via which you can go to the authentic N-power website.
You can now compare this website with the one in the broadcast message if they are the same or not.
Another way is to google search the information using key words, government, agencies or ministries would often release a press statement about different steps or milestones of their programmes as such it is most likely going to be in the news.
Google searching can also let you know if a claim has been a subject of a fact-check.
THE VERDICT
Based on the checks above the claim that N-power has shortlisted names for its 2020 programme is FALSE.
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