Probe billions spent on school, home feeding programmes

A whooping N186 billion is said to have been spent in feeding school children under the school and home feeding programmes carried out by the National Conditional Cash Transfer Office and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs/Disasters Management. The said amount is said to have been spent on feeding school children between 2016 and 2020. A […]

A whooping N186 billion is said to have been spent in feeding school children under the school and home feeding programmes carried out by the National Conditional Cash Transfer Office and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs/Disasters Management.

The said amount is said to have been spent on feeding school children between 2016 and 2020.

A breakdown of the expenditure indicates that N63.2 billion was spent in 2016; N32.2 billion in 2018 and N124.4 billion in 2020.

It is baffling that such humongous amount is said to have been expended on the feeding programme which many people are yet to benefit from.

More worrisome is the claim that a humongous N124.4 billion has been spent under the home feeding programme in 2020 alone.

How and when did that happen? What food items did they feed the children with? How many times did they feed the children?

How many children have benefited from the so called home feeding which was carried out under the lockdown?

What modalities did the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs use in distributing the food items to the beneficiaries? I can go on and on with more posers on this outrageous claim.

Even though, many questioned the rationale behind embarking on a feeding programme amidst the lockdown, the agency still went ahead with the exercise for whatever reason best known to it.

In many cases, parents did not get the food items as claimed by the handlers of the programme.

While we appreciate the genuine interest of the federal government in bringing palliatives to the masses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we must point out that the foot soldiers that handled the distribution have not done enough.

Billions of naira was equally spent to deliver food palliatives to the people in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown but the distribution was fraught with issues as many complained of not getting the items.

Some of the states that received the palliatives complained that the items brought to them were not fit for human consumption.

In fact, some of the states out rightly rejected the palliatives on that ground.

Many have described the federal government’s home feeding programme and COVID-19 palliatives as conduit pipes being used by government officials to enrich themselves at the detriment of the masses.

We therefore urge the House of Representatives to be thorough in its ongoing investigation to ensure that the truth is unraveled.

All the agencies and officials that have hands in the exercise must be made to account for every single dime spent on the feeding programme.

The era in which a few government officials who are saddled with the responsibility of serving the masses turn such privilege to their personal advantage must not be condoned.

We are watching and waiting for the outcome of your investigations.

Biola Ogbodaga writes in from Katampe, Abuja