RAMADAN FEEDING AS GIFT OF FISH

in 1999 and eleven Northern states soon followed suit, mostly with inadequate conception and preparation. The same thing happened with the distribution of motorcycles. Once one state did it in 1999-2000, politicians in neighbouring states rushed to their governors and said it was a veritable vote-getter, so they must do the same thing. Kaduna State, for example, was late in starting it because then Governor Ahmed Makarfi, an expert in public finance, privately said commercial motorcycles known as Achaba should not be part of public transportation in a modern city such as Kaduna. When the 2003 elections approached however, I was amazed when I entered Sir Kashim Ibrahim House and saw 10,000 brand new motorcycles ready for distribution.

That's only the first problem with Ramadan feeding programs, their cascading and steam rolling effect. Another issue is the involvement of contractors in the procurement of foodstuff and of vendors in the preparation and serving of the food. While government may be in it to help the needy and vulnerable, vendors and contractors are in it for the profit, in fact for the kill. No wonder that at the weekend there was this video of Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf visiting a Ramadan feeding centre and tasting the food. Disappointment was all over his face; he asked the pupils if this was all they got, and said it was far short of what the government budgeted.

That's the vendors. Contractors make even bigger kills, often with the collaboration of some government officials. It happens in any sphere where contractors are involved, such as school feeding programs and procurement of emergency food items for refugees and Internally

Displaced Persons, IDPs. The fact that this is food for Ramadan charity or the feeding of refugees or school pupils does not in any way deter many contractors from making a kill out of it, by persons who ordinarily think of themselves as humane and religious.

Recall that early in his tenure as Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru el-Rufa'i started a primary school feeding program which he stopped after some weeks. I was not surprised because years earlier, I heard from former Kano State Governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, a veteran educationist, why the school feeding program was unwieldy and counterproductive and highly prone to corruption.

Next in the matter of Ramadan feeding, there is what in Hausaland is called mutuwar zuciya. The literal translation is “death of the heart” or probably more accurately, death of the spirit. Around the year 2010, I arrived in Sokoto during Ramadan and in my hotel room, I watched television reports of the Ramadan feeding program started by then state governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko. Two scenes shocked me. One was of some motorists who parked their cars near a feeding centre, alighted from the vehicles and joined the queue to collect pap and akara. One of them even came out of a Mercedes, an old model one to be sure, but anyone who drives around in a Mercedes could surely afford food in his house?

The Sokoto feeding program was also segmented into different lanes in city wards. The TV report showed one inner city street near Yelwa Garden. All the elderly home owners came out and sat in front of their houses. The food vendor went to them one by one, filled their cups with pap and dropped several balls of akara alongside it. At that point I pitied Alu, as Sokoto people fondly called the governor. Could he feed virtually everybody, instead of the down and out as initially envisaged in the program?

I mentally compared that to the Salvation Army soup kitchens that I once saw in the United States. Very good food, well prepared, and a passer-by could see it through the glass windows. All you had to do was to go inside and eat for free, but only the really down and out, homeless and drug addicts sauntered in. Anyone with any pride in him, however hungry, will not go in there. I believe such a widespread social attitude is necessary before we can make a success of the feeding programs, when it is the really needy that will be catered for. But when nearly everybody is scrambling to get free food, even the N10 billion voted by Katsina will sink without much effect.

Then there is the small matter of what happens in the eleven months before the next Ramadan. There is no indication that hunger will disappear from these lands anytime soon. When for one month a man is used to going to a feeding centre and collecting free food, are you not setting a dangerous precedent of what could happen the day the program ends? I am not by any means opposed to charity work and assistance for the needy, but there is sure a need for streamlining and some reform of social attitudes in order to make it effective.

Okay, what happens to the old saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”? At the same time as the Ramadan feeding programs were unfolding, the Tony Elumelu Foundation announced last Friday that 1,104 “promising entrepreneurs” from 54 African countries will receive a nonrefundable $5,000 grant each under its Entrepreneurship Programme. It is seed capital for them to pursue an enterprise. The rationale, program sponsor and UBA chairman Tony Elumelu said, is “We believe in spreading luck, we believe in democratising luck, we believe in prosperity, and we think that the easiest way to spread prosperity in Africa is by identifying our young ones, encouraging them and helping them to start their own businesses.” Oga Tony, are you saying the feeding programs in the North believe in spreading ill-luck, democratising poverty and spreading a dependence syndrome? I know you didn't say that but with the two programs with completely opposing rationales and modus operandi coming at the same time, some contrasts are inevitable.

Many down and out Nigerians will look at the Elumelu program and salivate, that if only they can get $5,000, all their problems will be solved. Well, not so fast. Every young Nigerian you listen to will say that “lack of capital” is the only thing stopping him from launching a successful business. That is not true. Many of those people in Ramadan feeding queues, if you were to give them $5,000 each, they will be back in the same queues this time next year. At the weekend I saw TV reports of former President Olusegun Obasanjo telling Abia State governor Alex Otti in Umuahia that he should provide infrastructure and skills and his people will find their way. Could we kindly do the same in the North so that fewer people will need Ramadan feeding next year?