Child Development and Concern Foundation (CDCF), with focus on child protection and development working with indigent school children and their parents, has observed that the Federal Government’s intervention on school feeding programme to three locations of FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States during the COVID-19-induced lockdown period which gulped over 500 million naira lacked the required transparency and honesty required of such a good and essential intervention.
According to the figures given by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD), Mrs. Sadiya Umar-Farouq, the total number of households reached in the three targeted areas marked as pilot for the intervention was 127,589 based on the summation of (FCT- 29,609, Lagos- 37,589, Ogun- 60,391) and not 124,589 as claimed by the Minister.
Also, the analysis of the financial figure given for the take-home ration of #4200 per household of 3 children spent per month to the total beneficiaries of 127,589 should be #535, 873, 800 and not #523,273,800.
The flaws identified in the figures given is a reflection of inadequate planning and execution of the project which discredits the sincerity of the intervention programme.
The minister didn’t reveal to the public how the authorities assigned to execute the programme were able to reach and assemble the school children during the lockdown period.
It is a known fact that authorities of the various schools are not known to have the ability to locate the residential houses of most of their schoolchildren. How were the children contacted and brought together each day for the take-home-ration? She has failed to convince the public that the fund has not been spent on imaginary schoolchildren.
The Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP), a provision of Universal Basic Education Policy 2004, was not being properly implemented even before the COVID-19 era. HGSFP which actually started in 2016/17 does not cover all the states in the federation where it is being implemented.
This discriminatory way of implementing the programme formulated as government policy does not give credibility to the government as seriously caring for the children who should be properly cared for and prepared as leaders of tomorrow. A nation that cares for the future must adequately care for the children.
If the government wants to truly exhibit its good intention in its handling of palliative programme including HGSFP, the programme, should be assigned to the community development associations through the local governments’ administration
Iskil Yussuf,
Ibadan.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
More Shocks As Unemployment Data Exposes Misery Status Of Nigerians
BEFORE now, economic and finance experts found it difficult to assess the healthy nature of the labour market and how to measure the impact of government policies targeted at creating jobs because of lack of real time labour data. But on Friday, August 14, 2020, the concerns were only slightly eased as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published second quarter (Q2):2020 labour statistics, the first report since Q3:2018…School feeding programme School feeding programme School feeding programme
MONDAY LINES: Obasanjo’s (D)Art Of Condolence
Ben Guriano of The Washington Post described them in 2018 as ‘taboo enforcers.’ These are trolls seeking to upend truth and subvert facts about the life and times of the dead. ‘Do not speak ill of the dead’ came originally from a Spartan philosopher, then it was latinated by the Romans to read De mortuis nihil nisi bonum – and got spread around the world like Chinese viruses. The black man, as in all cases, contracted the no-no and turned it into a religion, got drunk with it and won’t mind killing for it…School feeding programme
2.4 Million Households To Benefit From FG’s Stimulus Package — Presidential Aide
TO ensure food security for citizens, at least 2.4 million households will benefit from the Federal Government’s post-COVID-19 stimulus package, a presidential aide says. Dr Andrew Kwasari, Senior Special Assistant (SSA), to the President on Agriculture, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja. Kwasari spoke against the backdrop of projects anchored by the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Committee (NESC) to secure the economy against the effects of COVID-19…School feeding programme
and then