By Ejiro Thompson

So far, a total of 2,918,842 school children in the 14 pilot states have been fed so far under the Federal Government’s National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

That is worthy of commendation, not a litany of unverifiable claims and complaints by the writer of the article headlined above, which was published on September 11 in Vanguard newspaper.

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It is clear that by using one unnamed school teacher from Anambra State to summarise a litany of questionable complaints about a programme that has so far reached almost three million school children, Mr. Dele Sobowale had already decided his biased agenda before writing this surmise. In his bid to discredit what is a crucial part of the Buhari-led administration’s N500 billion Social Investment Programme, Sobowale tried to play politics with numbers.

However, the Federal Government’s Home Grown School Feeding Programme is not a game of numbers, but more about the impact. Owing to its attraction, in most of the communities that have been covered in almost all of the beneficiary states, there has been an increase in attendance by school pupils.

So far, over 2,900,000 children have been fed across the 14 states. In a country with about 10.5 million out-of-school children, this is a commendable feat. Readers can also get first-hand information on how the Social Investment Programmes have benefitted ordinary Nigerians on social media. On Facebook, one could check the  “Social Investment Programmes Ngr”  page.

Certainly, testimonies abound from schools across the 14 states. One feeble complaint out of a thousand testimonies is tantamount to making a mountain out of a mole hill.

There are also figures to back up the Federal Government’s summation about the total number of cooks employed, schoolchildren fed and the number of schools reached in the 14 states. For instance, in Bauchi, over 307,000 schoolchildren have been fed in 1,904 schools. Also, in Plateau, over 95,000 pupils have been fed in about 1,400 schools.

No doubt, the writer’s claim that the figures for each state were designed to confuse the readers is unsubstantiated.

Again, there is a list of school about 19,881 so far – that have already benefitted from the programme. I would advise that the writer should instead go to the state governments or visit any state of his choice to verify the impact of the programme, and not to sit down somewhere, quoting unnamed and unidentified sources. For instance, over 3,300 schools have so far benefitted from the programme in Kaduna alone.

Similarly, the writer claimed that Osun and Ogun States each collected more funds from the FG than the North-West and the South-South put together  –  with change to spare, while the South-West collected nearly half of the entire amount and approximately eleven times what the South-South received.   Where is the justice in this, he asked.

There is no injustice, here, Sobowale, just simple logistics.

Ogun and Osun states  commenced the programme in January ahead of every other state. Payment is made in tranches of 10 days per time for the number of pupils in the state at the cost of N70 per child per day. Also, Ogun started with 80 per cent of their cooks validated, while Osun commenced with 60 per cent, meaning more pupils were fed in Ogun and Osun; whereas most states commenced with 50 per cent, and much later than both states, with less pupil population.

Again, selecting both states as two among the 14 pilot states was not because the Vice President hails from there (another tribal sentiment wrongly raised here), it was simply because the conditions and modalities were already in place in these states for effective take-off. President Muhammadu Buhari had no personal input in choosing when any of the states enlisted in the programme; this is done strictly by professionals.

That Kaduna  “supposedly collected only N500 million or 8 per cent of the funds nevertheless fed 836,000 kids or 29.6 per cent of the kids”  is not  the tenth wonder of the world, like the writer claimed.

*Thompson is based in Abuja

The state commenced the feeding programme with 690,000 pupils in primary one to three alone a year ahead of the Federal Government. And with the commencement of the new session, enrolment had increased to 836,000, the feeding is still at the cost of N70 per child per day  for all the pupils in the country, whether North or South and Kaduna received one tranche. Simple mathematics means that the number of pupils (for Kaduna) translates to more costs than Osun.

Also, like many northern states, Kaduna has a large population. Feeding 836,000 schoolchildren under the programme should be seen a positive development by a large stretch rather than one for criticisms. Also, more cooks were engaged in Kaduna than other states, which ensured that more schoolchildren benefitted from the programme.

A major goal of the FG is to ensure Nigeria’s underprivileged schoolchildren not only get an education, but also an incentive to keep them in their classrooms and encourage the learning process, especially in the rural areas. If this can be achieved through the school feeding programme, then it is one in the right direction.

*Thompson is based in Abuja