Lockdown School Feeding Programme: When A Humanitarian Service Stirs Controversy
“FURTHERMORE,
although schools are closed, I have instructed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to work with State Governments in developing a strategy on how to sustain the school feeding programme during this period without compromising our social distancing policies.”
That was President Muhammadu Buhari’s pronouncement during his broadcast to the nation on March 29, this year; the day he ordered the lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.
To cushion the effect of the lockdown, the president had announced some palliatives, which included the sustenance of the school feeding programme even though the schools remain closed, immediate payment of the conditional cash transfers for the next two months to the beneficiaries, deployment of relief materials to residents of satellite and commuter towns/ communities around Lagos and Abuja, and a three- month moratorium on loans to all Tradermoni, Marketmoni and Farmermoni beneficiaries. He also directed that a similar moratorium be given to all Federal Government funded loans issued by the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and the Nigeria Export Import Bank.
Of all the palliatives the President announced, none has raised more doubts as the continuation of the School Feeding Programme while the schools remain shut. Many Nigerians don’t just understand how it will work.
“How is the policy made to work during the lockdown and schools closure? Are the children being fed at home when under the care of their parents and guardians? How do the vendors move about during lockdown in most parts of the country? Who assesses the supposed food quality? And who monitors the distribution?” queried Prof. Oyesoji Aremu of the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, recently. Others have also queried how the data of the pupils to be fed and their geographical locations would be generated, who the contractors are and details of their locations.
But the Federal Government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has repeatedly justified the sustenance of the programme during this period, saying it would ensure the nourishment of school children at home.
According to the ministry in a statement, the programme, presently nicknamed ‘ Lockdown School Feeding Programme’, would begin in Abuja and subsequently in Lagos and Ogun states before it would be extended to other states.
It stated that after consultations with the state governments, it identified the distribution of Take- Home Rations to the households of children in the programme as a feasible method of achieving the presidential directive after exploring several options.
“This is a globally accepted means of supporting children to continue to have access to nutrient- rich foods despite disruptions to the traditional channels of school feeding,” the statement noted.
The ministry disclosed that it had requested states to carry out mapping exercises in order to trace the households of the children using all available data sources, some of which include the school- based management boards, community focal persons, cooks on the programme and, most importantly, existing school registers in the local councils where the schools are domiciled.
While flagging off the programme on May 14 at Kuje Primary School in Abuja, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq, maintained that despite the skepticisms surrounding the programme, the ministry was working with state governments to ensure that 3.1 million households nationwide benefit from the scheme.
“As we have stated consistently, this programme is funded by the Federal Government, but implemented by the states. Hunger is a serious by- product of this pandemic, which is why, from the outset, the ministry has been evolving strategies to facilitate humanitarian interventions,” she said.
The Programme Manager in the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Mrs. Victoria Anieoghena, stated last Monday that about 29,600 households would benefit from the programme in Abuja.
According to her, the “Lockdown School Feeding Programme,” was different from the school feeding programme of the Federal Government.
“The difference is obvious. This very programme, described as lockdown school feeding programme, is special because food is not cooked for the school children except that the various households captured with their vouchers simply come forward to receive their items at designated primary schools, unlike the 2019 school feeding programme where food was cooked and served the pupils directly in their various schools,” she explained.
Anieoghena said the distribution of food items to households under the supervision of Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development was in line with the presidential directive.
“As we speak, 62 wards in the FCT have been captured as household beneficiaries, we ensure that they come up to a designated primary school, show their vouchers and pick up their wallets containing the food items, which simply includes, 5kg bag of beans, 5kg bag of rice, salt, palm oil, groundnut oil, tin tomatoes and a crate of eggs,” she said. The above explanations notwithstanding, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) and some Civil Society Organisations ( CSOS) see the programme as a ploy to fritter away public resources.
The party, in a recent statement, alleged that the “school feeding claims by the Federal Government, when schools are shut due to COVID- 19 pandemic, are a huge scam and a scheme by corrupt All Progressives Congress ( APC) leaders and some officials in the Buhari Presidency to siphon a targeted N13.5 billion public funds to finance their wasteful lifestyles.
It described as sacrilegious, wicked and completely unpardonable “the use of innocent school children as cover to steal and funnel not less than N679 million daily to private purses.”
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola
Ologbondiyan, PDP regretted that “while it is clear that the APC- led administration’s school feeding programme had always been a scam, the claims to feed school children even when schools are closed are colossal racketeering taken too far.”
The main opposition said it “rejects the ongoing fraud in which school children, who are in their respective homes bearing the brunt of the failures of the APC administration, are being used as metaphors to divert public funds to a few corrupt individuals in the Buhari presidency.”
The Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution ( CHRCR) and Centre for Democracy and Development ( CDD) also expressed a similar view, saying the modified home grown school feeding programme being reintroduced even when the pupils are on forced holiday on account of the coronavirus pandemic was deceit and a monumental fraud.
The school feeding programme was introduced in 2016 as part of the N500 billionfunded Social Investment Programme of the Buhari administration. The projection was that it would provide 1.14 million jobs across the country, including community women, who would be engaged as cooks.
The programme, with the support of state governments, aims to support states to collectively feed over 24 million school children, which will make it the largest school feeding programme of its kind in Africa.
The goals include tackling poverty and improving the health and education of children and other vulnerable groups.
As at February this year, 35 states have benefited from the programme, with Kwara State being the last to join. With the decision of the FG to sustain the programme now mired in controversy, The Guardian reports on the state of the programme pre- COVID- 19 pandemic lockdown and presently.