What Nigerians think about FG’s decision to feed school children at home

Criticisms have trailed the federal government’s plan to go ahead with its national home-grown school feeding programme even as schools remain shut due to the coronavirus pandemic. Daily Trust Saturday samples the opinion of some Nigerians. Faith Saater, 25, Businesswoman, Makurdi The Nigerian government is not serious with poverty alleviation. Right now, we are facing […]

Criticisms have trailed the federal government’s plan to go ahead with its national home-grown school feeding programme even as schools remain shut due to the coronavirus pandemic. Daily Trust Saturday samples the opinion of some Nigerians.

Faith Saater, 25, Businesswoman, Makurdi

The Nigerian government is not serious with poverty alleviation. Right now, we are facing the threat of COVID-19 and talking about palliatives for households which the government is not even handling well. Suddenly, the FG starts talking about home feeding for school children when the N20,000 it claimed to have distributed to Nigerians to cushion the effect of hardship hadn’t been felt in Benue because I have not seen anyone owning up to have received the money in the state. In my opinion, if the federal government is sincere and serious about palliatives, they should channel the money to each household across the country to enable parents feed their children.

 

Nwama Ibe, 72, Owerri

It is a deceit of the highest order for anybody to talk about home feeding for school children in this period of lockdown. Where are the children you are feeding? It is another ploy for humongous theft and embezzlement. How do you assemble such children, most of whom have gone back to their parents who probably live outside the locality of the schools?
The federal government should be careful. For anyone to use this corona virus to amass wealth, the fate of his children would be very pathetic.
We all saw the colossal failure of the distribution of the so-called palliatives, which some people used to enrich themselves. Enough is enough!

 

Ahmed Magem, Founder Gombe Peace Project

The FG’s Home School feeding programme, in my opinion, is fraught with lots of anomalies. The program is not well thought out and it is very much another drain pipe of much needed resources. The truth is that what Nigerians need at these trying times is proper palliatives to help or support families. If families are supported, then they’ll be able to feed their entire family and not just the children. Now, since the children are back home the programme ought to have been suspended till normalcy returns and schools reopen. For me, this issue is just suspect and believe me, most Nigerians will see it for what it is – another window of corruption.

 

Jamiu Folarin, 40, Lecturer, Abeokuta

The Homegrown feeding programme is a good initiative at the right time but the country lacks the structure on its proper implementation.
It is unfortunate that the Federal Government is trying to implement the project as if it has a perfect system in place. How does the government intend to successfully implement this project at this time when there are no mapping of areas of beneficiaries and data of prospective pupils? Has the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs conducted due diligence before deciding to commence the implementation of this project? If truly conducted, what is the result of the evaluation of the project so far implemented in some states before this pandemic? If these parameters are not considered, it will no doubt make nonsense of the project with a window for some corrupt individuals to divert the fund.
The Federal Government should therefore suspend the project and go back to the drawing board in order to channel the country’s resources to more beneficial projects.

 

Daniel Kparev, 30, Journalist, Makurdi

It is a good project but the Federal Government must make sure that the home feeding programme is done effectively. Most of the times they carry out such programmes, one rarely knows who got anything. We pray that this particular activity they are about to embark on is done effectively.

 

Oluseyi Dasilva, 55, Finance consultant, Ilorin

I stand to condemn the Federal Government’s school feeding programme. From all indications, it will be another failed project, waste of our limited resources. How are they going to capture the children in their homes, do they have the data, do they know their houses? I think it’s just another political propaganda and means to embezzle our money.

 

Nsikakabasi Friday, 35, Teacher, Akwa Ibom

It will not work. It will be politicised. The people that are involved will not distribute it to all households. They will convert it for their private use because schools are not in session. The Federal Government is not sincere about the school feeding programme.

 

Nuhu D. Cheshi, Writer, Abuja

This decision was well thought of and would go a long way in ameliorating hunger in some families. Some parents, I strongly believe, have no heavier burdens than how they would feed their children. It is interesting to note that this school feeding program has made a lot of children even enroll in public schools because of the anticipated food that they would be served in school. In the northern part of the country, school feeding is community based because parents of the children are contracted to cook, while in the southern part, vendors are contracted. However, with the Home-Grown School Feeding Program, so many parents and children will be eased off burdens.

 

Damian Iheme, 43, Painter, Orji Owerri

The idea is good, but the problem lies with implementation. The pertinent question to ask is how is it going to be implemented in this period of lockdown when schools are not in session? Are they going to distribute the goods house or school by school?
There is also the question of sincerity of purpose. We have seen how previous school feeding programmes were implemented and how pupils were served poorly prepared and tasteless food. Another problem is longevity. How long is the problem going to last? By and large, I believe that the whole programme should be thought through and planned to avoid the pitfalls and failures that bedevilled past programmes like this.

 

Azeez Adeyemi, 30, Unionist, Abeokuta

For me, the Federal Government’s insistence to go ahead with the school feeding programme despite criticism by Nigerians, especially stakeholders in the education sector has shown that the programme is another way of perpetrating fraud on another large scale.
The continuation of the feeding programme for the school children at their homes is another smokescreen aim at deceiving Nigerians. One still wonders how the program would be carried out without even spreading the virus. So, I don’t support it and I think it should be suspended immediately.

 

Comfort Olalusi, 47, Tailor, Ilorin

I don’t see the feeding program working out. It will be like their other failed initiatives. Look at how their palliative program failed. This one too will fail. I think they just want to waste Nigeria’s resources again. How do they want to go about it, do they have records of where the pupils live?

 

Yahaya Tanko Baba, Lecturer, Sokoto

The Home-feeding Programme for school pupils, as announced by the FMHDS, is an initiative that is arguably far from being pragmatic. Without pre-existing data on pupils’ households, it remains to be seen how the feeding programme will be efficiently executed as part of family support packages to cushion the hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.