Former President Olusegun
Obasanjo says the national home-grown school feeding programme initiated by the
administration of President Muhammadu Buhari should be run by state governments
and only assisted by the federal government.
Obasanjo said this in an interview
with Punch, at Iowa, USA, when Akinwumi Adesina, president of African
Development Bank (AfDB), won the World Food Prize award.
Asked to rate the feeding scheme,
Obasanjo said: “I don’t even know how many states are participating in it. Any
programme that has not been covered in at least 50 percent of the country, I
don’t know how you will rate it; whether you would rate that as a success or a
failure.”
The federal government had said four
million children would benefit from the programme.
It also said the programme would
create 1.14 million jobs – 290,000 jobs from community caterers, 580,000, jobs
from support caterers; and 274,000 for smallholder farmers.
But Obasanjo, who lauded the
initiative, said it must have been implemented in at least 50 percent of
the country before being considered successful.
“Any programme that will enhance
food intake, particularly of the youth, and we help them in their growth,
vitality, and in giving them better nutrition, I would regard as a good
programme. (As president) I encouraged it,” Obasanjo said.
“It’s not a federal government
programme; it shouldn’t be. Any state that wants to go into it must be ready to
go into it and any state that goes into it must make it a success, otherwise,
it’s not useful.
“If I remember correctly, I think
Nasarawa state had a similar programme which was good; Kano state had one which
was good. I think one of the states in the south-west also had one. But it was
not a federal programme. It was initially a state programme that was encouraged
and assisted (by the federal government) as much as possible in the past.
“I went to a mission school and
in my third year, we had what they called ‘midday meal,’ which was tremendously
appreciated and, I believe, helped because some of the children didn’t even
have what they could call one square meal a day.
“The school provided one good
meal, which was good for them. And that was only at the school level, not even
at the community level. It was not at the city level, not to talk of district
level. So, I would say that any state that wants to undertake such a programme
should be encouraged.”
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l dont even support it either. It is a waste of resources.
ReplyDeleteAPC is only trying to fulfill all righteousness in fulfilling their campaign promises by commencing this program.
If such money is channel to loan for small scale business with lower interest rate, it would have been better. At least, the parent benefiting from it can feed their children conveniently