Why we suspended school feeding programme in some states — FG

The Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs
Maryam Uwais, has explained why the Homegrown School Feeding
Programme of the Federal Government was suspended in some
states.

There had been reports of poor quality food, insufficient and
irregular supply of food, as well as late disbursement of funds by
the government in states, such as Akwa Ibom and Niger.

But reacting to the development, in an exclusive interview with
our correspondent, Uwais said the Federal Government had started
conducting a headcount of pupils being fed under the programme.

She explained that the National Social Investment Office had
engaged the National Bureau of Statistics to conduct a headcount of
pupils and those cooking the food under the intervention
programme.

Uwais said the outcome of the data in the affected states was
being reconciled, adding that it became necessary to do this due to
the discovery of a disagreement between the figures provided by
officials of the State Universal Basic Education Board and what the
monitors on the field actually reported.

She also noted that pupils had not been fed since April due to
reconciliation efforts. “We have been reconciling the data in the
states after engaging the NBS to conduct a headcount of pupils and
cooks for us.

“Essentially, we found conflicting reports of the figures
between official SUBEB figures and reports from monitors in the
field.

“We mobilised the NBS to venture into all government-owned
primary schools where we are feeding to confirm the numbers and
those actually feeding.

“So yes, we haven’t fed the pupils since April due to
reconciliation efforts, as some of the states are contesting the
figures.

“We (will) start feeding on June 24 for the states that have
been feeding, irrespective of their protests. That is the
cut-off-date for all protests.”

The Federal Government had in 2015 designed the social safety
programme to improve the lives of all Nigerians, irrespective of
religion, political affiliation and social class.

The Muhammadu Buhari administration had structured the programme
to be impact-oriented, specifically catering to the needs of the
poor, the vulnerable and those at the bottom of the social ladder
without access to finance.

Uwais had last month said the thrust from inception had been to
provide a nourishing and balanced meal for 200 school days in a
year to pupils in classes one to three in public primary schools so
as to boost enrolment, increase the cognitive function in children
and battle malnutrition.

She added, “Nigeria is fast on its way to becoming the leader in
Africa by feeding over 9.7 million pupils and still counting.”

To implement the programme, she said the government required 94
metric tons of fish, 7,260,862 eggs and 767 cattle slaughtered for
the pupils being fed.

She added that fruits, vegetables and grains were part of the
carefully thought-out balanced diet for all of the pupils.