By Ola Ajayi

Ibadan – Some food vendors and pupils in public primary schools in Oyo who are yet to benefit from the national home grown school feeding programme are not happy with both the Federal and State Governments over their exclusion from the programme.

While the food vendors in Ibadan North West and other councils who have been selling food to the pupils before the initiation of the programme kick against side lining them and choosing some politicians, the pupils, on the other hand are not happy watching their peers eat the sumptuous meal.

According to one of the vendors, Mrs Alimot Abubakar, rather than the organisers to consider the existing food vendors in various schools, they chose women politicians to replace them.

School feeding

Abubakar, who did not hide her displeasure said, “the government has cheated us. I mean food vendors in public primary schools in Ibadan North West Local Government. They did not pick any of us. What is painful in the whole episode is that they called us when schools were on holiday to get forms.

“But, to our disappointment, when they pasted the list of successful candidates, we could not find our names. It is vary unfair. It pained us to the extent that all food vendors staged a protest to the state Secretariat. But, nothing has been done,” she lamented.

Some vendors reportedly turned down the offer because to them, the N70 per plate of food is not realistic.

A teacher in Ido Local Government said most of the food vendors hired by the government were complaining that they were not given money as promised noting that they used their money in the first two days to prepare the food.

As for the pupils in school one at Saviour African Church School, Ekotedo, it is not a pleasant story as the food could not get to them.

While their peers in School two keep getting food since the programme started, they have made to watch helplessly.

The same thing happened at Hope Central School one, Omi Adio, IDC Primary School, Tola, IDC primary school, Araromi Iyana Ideere, Baptist Primary School, Ateere all in Ido Local Government. In fact, a head teacher who preferred anonymity told Vanguard that only 47 out of 76 schools the local government were able to get food.

Also, at Ebenezer Anglican Church Primary School, Ekotedo, Kehinde Ojo who is in primary five is not happy with the government saying he did not understand why pupils in primaries 4,5 and 6 are not being served.

The senior boy of the school, Timilehin Lawal, said the arrangement is not okay also wondering why they should be left out.

Reacting to all the allegations, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela said contrary to the claims of the vendors, they used both existing food vendors in schools and hired new ones to complement them.

He added that none of the vendors spent their money as claimed but admitted that some of them had issues with their bank verification numbers.

He was optimistic that few noticeable hitches notwithstanding, they would meet the 100 per cent target.

Olowofela said, “No vendor can say they use their personal money. It is true there are issues but we believe within the next few days, we will achieve 100 percent success.

The commissioner who said the programme has multiplier effects, noted that it served as empowerment for some people and would boost agricultural produce.

On allegation of employing politicians as food vendors, he said, “it is an exaggeration. We harmonised the lists. We use some existing vendors and hired new ones. They are all residents of Oyo. Some of the hired vendors have issues with their BVN.”

The feeding programme which has the contribution of the Oyo State Government will cater for about 158,450 pupils in the public schools in the state.

The feeding programme was flagged off by the Federal Government had in September, last year.

Ajimobi who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo, said, “This programme is aimed at attracting out-of-school children to schools and keep them to improve their level of education, as well as their mental and physical development. It will also benefit local farmers, as our food items will be locally sourced to enhance the sustainability of the project”.

He added that 2,408 public primary schools would benefit from the project, while 2,578 for vendors had been trained and certified medically fit to provide the food to the 158,450 pupils across the 33 local government councils of the state.

Speaking at the event, the South West Regional Head of the Heritage Bank, Akinola, said that the bank had validated the accounts of all the vendors across the eight zones of the 33 local governments of the state.

“Heritage Bank is happy to partner with the Oyo State Government. The vendors can start to access their money immediately they leave this place and start work as from Monday. That Oyo State has been mobilised by the Federal Government and this flag off shows the government’s tenacity of purpose and the commitment of the Heritage Bank.

We had been partner with the State Government before and we are equal to the task because we have all it takes to deliver. We are happy we did not disappoint the State Government as well as the Federal Government”, Akinola said.