By Francis Ogwo
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened a nationwide demonstration if the Federal Government does not end the School Feeding Program which was supposed to have ceased with school closures from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is coming as the FG on Friday explained that the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme would persist because it was almost difficult to recover the funds already paid to food vendors before the lockdowns were enforced in states.
NANS President, Danielson Akpan, in a statement in Abuja on Friday, argued that the programme was wrongfully conceived as a “discreet attempt to fleece the hard-earned resources of the country and a misplaced priority”.
According to him, the source of the proposed N697m to be spent daily totalling N13.5bn a month on the programme, must be investigated and condemned, describing it as “reckless spending.”
“The National body of NANS, after a deliberate and robust discussion on the Federal Government’s decision to commence the school feeding programme, during a virtual meeting held earlier on Friday morning, vehemently rejected and condemned in totality, the said decision.
“We condemn in totality, the plan to feed school children at home. We see it as an avenue to perpetuate corruption and fraudulent activities.
“We do not only condemn this, we also frown at any attempt by some people to further loot our national treasury. The continuation of the school feeding programme at this period that schools are closed is sheer fraud.
“If the Federal Government goes ahead to implement the programme, we will have no choice but to mobilise our members across the federation for a mother of all protests.”Akpan added.
Speaking further, he urged the Federal Government to divert the fund for the school feeding program into reviving the decaying educational system in Nigeria and boost institutional infrastructures.
Recall that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, had at the official launch of the modified scheme in Abuja, held at Kuje Central Primary School, defended the government’s decision to continue the program, saying that hunger came with the pandemic.
“Hunger is a serious by-product of this pandemic crisis, which is why from the onset, the ministry has been evolving strategies to facilitate humanitarian interventions,” she added.
Mrs. Farouq further added that her “ministry in consultation and collaboration with state governments identified the distribution of Take-Home Rations (THR) to the households of the children on the programme as a feasible method of achieving this directive after exploring several options.”
The School Feeding Programme which was launched by the present government led by President Muhammadu Buhari according to reports is part of a 500 billion naira funded Social Investment Programme announced by the administration to tackle poverty and improve the health and education of children and other vulnerable groups.
Reports say the program, when fully realised, was designed to support states to collectively feed over 24 million schoolchildren, making it the largest school feeding programme of its kind in Africa.
