Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has said his administration is willing to support the new ongoing reforms under the Federal Government’s school feeding programme to take the Almajiri off the street and return them to school.
Governor Sule while speaking on Friday while he was hosting the Senior Special Assistant to the President of the Schools Feeding Programme, Yetunde Adeniji on a familiarisation visit, in Abuja promised to personally support the initiative that would see to the evacuation of the almajiri off the streets.
According to him, It is only in northern Nigeria that are still offering traditional Quranic schools.
The Governor noted that the step taken by the federal government to embark on the reforms would see to the inclusion of the Almajiri, children with disabilities and children living in IDP camps under the school feeding programme.
“Every state you go to, every major town you visit, you will find people who are learned and can teach these children. The ideal thing is for these children to attend Quranic schools in their hometowns from their parent’s houses. These children need to spend time with their parents,” he stated.
“You have touched an area of great interest to me. If you can pick it, you just tell me how I can be of help and you will find me doing my best there, including my support. I’m always upset whenever I come across minors in tattered clothes roaming the streets barefooted”, Sule stated.
Earlier, the SSA to the President on Schools Feeding Programme. Yetunde Adeniji had disclosed the resolve of President Bola Tinubu to continue with the school feeding programme initiated by the past regime, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda, where all children in the country would have access to quality meals and they would be taken off the streets.
The SSA said she was in Nasarawa State because the state received recognition at the first global meeting of the School Meals Coalition, in Paris, where Loko Local Government Area received a standing ovation as one of the first local governments to embrace the school feeding programme.
She added that under her watch, certain lapses were discovered in the initial programme which saw to the decision of the Tinubu administration to include the almajiri, children with disabilities and children living in IDP camps in the school feeding programme.
“All of those haven’t been captured yet. Under my office, we are coming together with some NGOs and donor agencies to see how we can cover that demographic. We have been talking to donor partners and NGOs and they have been on board trying to see how we can feed these cadre to take them off the streets and bring them back to the classrooms,” the SSA stated.
Adeniji announced that her office was embarking on a programme where they can start with 5, 000 children, before moving to 50, 000 and then 100, 000, geared towards taking these children from wherever they are into classrooms.
“Very soon, we even planning to come to the state to meet up with the stakeholders to see how we can first obtain data on these children and see how we would commence feeding them. We plan to do it for 75 days. After that and with the momentum and feedback, we want to see if we can increase the number of days. It’s in this area that we need your support and partnership,” she said.
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