FG To Spend Abacha Loot Feeding School Kids At Home, Parents Kick

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has disclosed that the federal government will still go ahead with the school feeding policy in spite of the fact that public school are not in session.

The policy is a cardinal one in the APC led government and billion of naira have been allocated to it in the last three years.

The Buhari presidency has two days ago said more funds have been allocated to the programme from the $311 million Abacha loot recently repatriated from the US government.

Both public and private schools have been locked due to the corona virus pandemic, therefore, many analysts have questioned the possibility of feeding children who are now at home with their parents.

But while speaking on the issue on Wednesday during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force in Abuja, Umar-Farouq said the government had overhauled the school feeding programme in a way to ensure that schoolchildren were fed at home despite the lockdown.

Unlike in the past when children are fed in school, the food allocation will now be carried out door-to-door, the minister said.

According to her “We have made progress in the overhauling of the homegrown school feeding programme and sensitisation has already begun in the three frontline states of Ogun, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory for implementation.

The overhauling was sequel to a March 29, 2020 directive by Mr President to identify modalities and continuation of the school feeding programme during the COVID-19 pandemic in the lockdown states as of then.”

She explained that the programme is being done this time with the cooperation of state governments.

The minister further stated that “The plan has been adopted, with implementation now set to begin.

The programme will therefore be carried out based on data provided and structures put in place by participating states with support from partners that include the World Food Programme.”

Meanwhile, experts have slammed the door-to-door feeding policy insisting that such is meant to fail in  a country where logistic is a problem.

Some parents who spoke with the magazine said their wards have never benefited from the policy, insisting that the prospect of more children being fed at home is even more difficult now that they are not in school.

Therefore, analysts insist that billions of public funds are likely to be siphoned through this policy, which they say has been doomed to fail from the beginning.