…give knocks, kudos to FG’ initiative
By Juliana Uche-Okobi
During his election campaign in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari made a number of promises to Nigerians, including the pledge to introduce a school feeding programme in primary schools across the country. Having won the election, President Buhari acted on his words with the launch of the national home-grown school feeding programme in June 2016.
At inception, the school feeding programme, said to be part of the N500 billion Social Investment Programme announced by the Buhari administration to tackle poverty and improve the health and education of children and other vulnerable groups, was operated in only 18 states, including Osun, which, before then, had already introduced the scheme in its schools. But since then the programme has spread across more states.
Speaking on the scheme at the closing ceremony of the 20th Annual Global Child Nutrition Forum in Tunis, Tunisia, last October, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that the school feeding programme was in operation in 26 states of the federation, adding that over nine million children were benefiting from it. The vice president stressed that the increase in number also had a corresponding increase in the amount spent, as he disclosed that government had spent over $183 million in running the programme. The amount has since increased as more states, including Edo and Ekiti, came on board. He said that by the end of 2018, with more states in the country joining the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, it was set to become the largest school-feeding programme in Africa. The Vice President said the federal government planned to expand the programme to all the 36 states, and when fully realised, about 24 million children would be fed.
While the Buhari administration’s major objective is aimed at ensuring more enrollment of children in primary schools, it is also intended to improve child nutrition and health. As a United Nations report showed, Nigeria currently has the third largest population of chronically undernourished children in the world. But the authorities have stated that the school feeding programme also hopes to strengthen local agricultural economies by providing a market in which farmers can sell their produce, as well as create jobs for caterers and those involved in the processing of farm produce.
ACHIEVING ITS OBJECTIVES
To an extent, the programme could be said to have achieved some of the targets. Public schools where the programme is run are said to have witnessed increased enrollment to the point that facilities in such schools are now overstretched.
At the Okwuani Central School Nnewi, Anambra State, the programme has reportedly resulted in increase in enrollment from less than 200 to over 451 pupils in the junior primary section as disclosed by the head teacher, Mrs. Ezeonyeka Stella.
In Akwa Ibom State, the headmistress of Christ the King Primary School, Wellington Bassey Road, Uyo, Mrs. Inyang Udo, was also reported to have admitted that the school feeding programme had helped to boost enrollment in the school, adding that children aged two to three in Early Child Care 1, 2, 3 and Primary 1, 2, 3 benefited from the scheme.
During the launch of the programme in Ekiti State in May, the Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, disclosed that about 2,000 people were already employed to meet the feeding requirements of over 905 public primary schools in the state. In addition, it would create employment opportunities along the value chain of the economy, as well as boost the income of peasant farmers by creating a viable and ready market.
In his speech in Tunis last October, the Vice President also said, “The programme employs 95,422 cooks, and over 100,000 smallholder farmers linked to the programme, supplying locally sourced ingredients.”
CHALLENGES
However, the initiative has encountered a number of challenges in some places. At a media briefing in Abuja in March, the Special Adviser to the President on National Social Investment Programme, Mrs. Mariam Uwais, disclosed that some officials of the programme in Niger and Benue states had been suspended for fraudulent practices, including taking money without the knowledge of government and opening personal accounts, where they had directed that money for the programme be deposited. For allegedly stealing from government, Mrs. Uwais said the officials had been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for investigation.
“The National Social Investment Office is ably empowered to suspend the programme in any state, where the prescribed standard is reported to have fallen below expectation until a redesigned realignment is achieved,” she said.
Niger and Benue are not the only states where there are hitches. Reports from some other states have shown inconsistency, either in the supply of food by vendors or the bi-weekly payment to vendors, resulting in poor quality of food served to children or non-availability of it for some days or weeks. In some places, too, certain components that should be available in the food such as beef, chicken and eggs are missing or inadequate, defeating the Federal Government’s projection of providing nutritionally balanced meals for the children.
At the Okwuani Central School, Nnewi, the challenge facing the food vendors, according to them, was that of the increase in the number of children now enrolled, making the demand to outstrip supply. For instance, a vendor who cooked for about 100 pupils at the beginning of the programme now has about 150 to provide food for. But even of more concern to them was that their argument that they were running at a loss as government pays them N50 per plate, which costs them N100 to cook.
The same complaint was re-echoed by some vendors in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The vendors reportedly complained that out of the N50 paid to them for a plate by the Federal Government, N35 goes into providing the food while they make a profit of N15 per plate. Their grouse is that N35 is inadequate to produce a plate of quality food. To raise the quality to the desired standard, the vendors had appealed to government to increase the price to N100 per plate.
PARENTS, OTHERS’ DIVERGENT VIEWS
In the meantime, some Nigerians have expressed divergent views on the national school feeding programme. While some argue that the programme is worth the while, especially as it has increased enrolment in primary schools across the country, others are of the opinion that it is just a political gimmick to shore up propaganda and a misplaced priority.
A civil servant, Fabian Bamgboye, who said the programme was well intended, maintained that it came at the right time to remedy the bad record of Nigeria in school dropouts. The UN record shows that Nigeria currently has a primary school dropout rate of around 30 per cent. With the increase in the number of children who enroll and complete primary education, following the school feeding programme, Bamgboye is optimistic that the 30 per cent out-of-school kids report would soon dwindle.
Similarly, Grace Iwuchukwu, an Ebonyi State-based lawyer, said, in addition to boosting school enrolment, the school feeding programme has relieved some parents of the burden of providing food when their wards go to school.
“Seriously, it is a laudable project that government must hold tenaciously to. It has the potency to alleviate poverty and as you can see, it has made school attractive to children,” she said.
On her part, Betty Abah, founder of the Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection, stated that the school feeding initiative was a potent weapon to fight the school dropout syndrome in Nigeria. Mrs. Abah, who stressed that the programme was one of the viable ways to entice children to go to school, said that the scheme had been successful in other parts of the world.
“One major way of encouraging school enrollment and retention, and successfully reducing school dropout rate is to ‘entice’ the children. One of such methods that have recorded global success is the school feeding programme,” she said.
Her worry, however, was that the programme was already having challenges with complaints of inadequate food or non-payment of vendors, all of which she said had affected the quality and quantity of food made available to the children.
However, Geoffrey Udom, a social critic, was of the opinion that, since the programme covers only Primary 1 to 3, those children, who are attracted by free food, might leave once they move up the rungs to classes not accommodated in the programme. Rather than give pupils free food, he said, government should invest in providing facilities that are missing in public schools and which, according to him, could also entice children.
“Provide good libraries, laboratories, potable water and good toilets, enough recreational facilities, and you will see children going to school so as to enjoy the facilities,” Udom said.
In his submission, the school feeding programme is a “misplaced priority, a white elephant” that may not be sustained for long as a result of change of government.
