The Federal Government failed to
commence its free National Home Grown School Feeding programme at the
beginning of the current academic session in September as promised
The sharp reduction in government revenue prevented the Federal Government from meeting with the target date.
The programme, which was formally
inaugurated on June 9, 2016 by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, is part of
the Social Investment Plans of the present administration for which
N500bn has been budgeted in the 2016 Budget.
The Federal Government, through the
national manager of the programme, Mrs. Abimbola Adesanmi, had in July
said it would commence the scheme in September when schools resumed,
with 5.5 million pupils across the country.
The promise was that the programme would
benefit 5.5 million pupils in the first year of its operation, while
Adesanmi had explained that the Federal Government had resolved to start
the programme with pupils from Primary 1 to 3 at the beginning, and
then move to other classes later.
However, the Senior Special Assistant to
the Vice-President, Mr. Laolu Akande, blamed the drop in oil prices and
oil pipelines vandalism by the Niger Delta militants for the delay in
the commencement of the programme as planned.
An office headed by the Special Adviser
to the President on Social Protection Plan, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, created
for the purpose of implementing the plan which formed a major part of
the All Progressives Congress’ campaign promises ahead of the 2015
presidential election is in the Office of the Vice-President.
Akande also cited the need to ensure that the beneficiary states were ready as part of the factors responsible for the delay.
He, however, assured all stakeholders that despite the setbacks, the scheme would soon kick off.
He said, “We had to first ensure there
is operational readiness in the states where the programme will start.
That took some of the time.
“The other reason for the delay had to do with the general drop in revenues occasioned by the drop in oil earnings.
“The economic sabotage and attacks on
oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta is also a factor, which at
some point, meant Nigeria was losing one million barrels per day of the
2.2mpd that had been estimated in the budget.
“But the good news is that the
programme, which has been budgeted for, will take off very soon. Please
note that the programme has kicked off in Kaduna State for months now
and for years in Osun State.
“The steering committee, set up for
social investments with presidential oversight, has recently made
provision for the programme to kick off very soon.”
When told of a recent statement by the
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, that N60bn had been released for
the programme, Akande said the sum was meant for all the components of
the social investment plan, and not for the feeding programme alone.
He described the money as the first tranche of funds, saying more releases would follow.
He explained that the money would go straight to the service providers, the cooks, through banks.
On the beneficiaries, Akande confirmed that all pupils in Primary 1-3 in public schools in the first set would benefit.
Apart from Osun and Kaduna where their
state governments are already implementing the feeding programme, he
listed other states in the first set to include: Borno, Ebonyi, Enugu,
Anambra, Ogun, Akwa Ibom, Sokoto, Zamfara and Oyo.
He said as the government goes ahead
with the scheme and once state governments show readiness, more of them
would join the programme.
According to an overview of the scheme
presented at its inauguration in June, the plan runs till 2020 and forms
the cornerstone of the nationwide Home Grown School Feeding programme,
which when fully realised, would provide a meal a day to over 24 million
primary school children.
“Not only will the Home Grown School
Feeding programme help our pupils become better students, it will also
boost the local economies, and create new jobs along the way,” Osinbajo
had said at the inauguration.
Saturday PUNCH had in its
September 3, 2016 publication reported exclusively that the reduction in
Federal Government’s revenue caused by the sharp drop in global oil
price was threatening the full implementation of President Muhammadu
Buhari’s planned social protection programme.
Other schemes under the social
protection plan include the Micro-Credit Scheme, Teach Nigeria Scheme,
the Youth Employment Agency, Conditional Cash Transfer, and Free
Education Scheme for Science Students.
Meanwhile, some parents from across the
country have criticised the Federal Government and expressed
disappointments that it failed to commence the programme in September as
promised.
The parents, all of whom have children
in public schools, said they were hoping that their children would
benefit from the programme.
A parent in Katsina State, Mallam Nasir
Manir, said, “The programme was to commence last month and the
government has not told us the reason for the delay. I pray it does not
end up being another campaign gimmick.”
A parent, who identified himself as
Kazeem, said he was disappointed that the Federal Government failed to
keep its promise to feed school pupils.
He said, “The government promised us and
we were hopeful, but it has not done it. I feel it is very bad for a
government to take the people for a ride because we had trust in it, but
it is failing us.”
A social commentator in Ekiti State, Mr.
Ayo Adegbuyi, also slammed the Federal Government for not keeping to
the promise, saying it should apologise to parents.
In Kwara State, Mallam Aliyu Balogun,
who has four children in primary schools, doubted the sincerity of the
promise when it was made by the APC, adding that the government’s
failure to commence the programme in September as promised showed that
he was right.
Another parent, Mrs. Joy Omosebi, called on the government to fulfil the promise “by all means.”
But the Kwara State Chairman, Nigeria
Union of Teachers, Musa Abubakar, had during his speech on World
Teachers’ Day in Ilorin, said that the school feeding programme of the
Federal Government would be a “colossal waste” if not properly
harnessed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
PLEASE BE POLITE