OUT OF THE 19 NORTHERN STATES ONLY KADUNA STATE WILL GET 60% REFUND BEING THE COST OF SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
OUT OF THE 19 NORTHERN STATES ONLY KADUNA STATE WILL GET 60% REFUND BEING THE COST OF SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
June 13, 2016
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School Feeding programme being one of the Federal Government’s programmes under president Buhari as well as being one of the programme in the APC’s manifesto was launched on the 9th of June, 2016 by the Vice president Professor Yemi Osinbanjo. All states that adopt the programme will only pay 40% of its cost while the Federal Government will refund 60% to them. As a product of ideas Kaduna state government might even make profit from the school feeding programme. I find it very difficult to believe that the programme is a waste! The programme gives over 85,000 people direct jobs. Creating jobs will never be a waste! Please have the patience and come with me! In my humble opinion leadership requires: Ideas, vision, courage, exposure and experience. With governor El-rufa’i Kaduna state is lucky! There was a report by the Unite Nations International Children Emergency Fund(UNICEF) which stated that majority of the children of the Sub Sahara African are suffering from acute Malnutrition which directly affects both their learning and retention capacities. Children are the future of every society! Going by this report if uncheck we have no future! Also the report of Out of School Children (OOSC) in Nigeria stated that there are 15million OOSC out of which 10million are in Northern Nigeria. These embarrassing figures if not deliberately tackled might be the next sets of recruits to Boko Haram insurgent.
The government of Kaduna state is driven by ideas among others. information would have informed one that there are “Development partners”, “Donor agencies”, and United Nations agencies like UNICEF& UNESCO etc who are readily available with funds in order to assist the course of education but their funds is usually with conditions being a counterpart funding. WORLD BANK’S DONATION OF N6.7BILLION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF KADUNA STATE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A BRAIN CHILD OF GOVERNOR NASIR EL RUFA’I’S SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME. Global Partnership for Education (GPE) a World Bank Project has donated about N6.7billion ($21million) to the government of Kaduna State. Governor Nasir El-Rufa’I while speaking at government House during the announcement of the donation by the World Bank representative said the 4,269 primary schools in the state are at varying states of collapse, he therefore, said he would use the “grant” for the rehabilitation/renovation of educational institutions in the state. However, the representative of the World Bank, Dr Olatunde Adekola said: “Kaduna will benefit $21million out of the $100 million available for education
A simple but a well thought out policy or programme is capable of create millions of “Jobs” to people just as an ill conceived policy or programme will throw millions of people out of their “Jobs”. School Feeding programme is part of the APC’s party manifesto .More so, it is also in the year 2016 budget of the Federal Government which means that every state that implements the programme will be refunded about 60% of it “cost”. Some of the objectives of the progamme are: (1) to increase School “enrolment”,(2) School “retention” ratio,(3) “and, “Nutrition for Health benefits” in order to stop mal-nutrition among children. The programme had led to increase in School enrolment ratio from 1.1million pupils to 1.5million pupils.
About 85,000 people were engaged for the programme which includes: Food Vendors, their staff, supervisors and 17,000 thousands women for cooking. One would easily agree with the figures if he takes into cognizance of the 4,269 thousand primary schools in Kaduna State. If two (2) women were at least employed from each of the schools about 8,538 would have been employed. The 17,000 women “cooks” would have each at least employed one (1) “cook helper” which led to about another 17,000 women. How can a programme that creates about 85,000 direct Jobs and thousands of “Indirect Jobs” be called a waste? The government spends N300million weekly for the feeding of 1.5million children of the poor at N50 per plate which is about N1.2billion monthly.
Every Monday about 1.5million children of the poor people eat “Yam” and “Egg Sauce”. The question is how many “tubers” of Yams are being consumed every Monday? Of course, thousands of Yam tubers are being sold by “Yam sellers”. As for Eggs, if at least one (1) egg is shared for three (3) kinds it then means about 500,000 thousand eggs (which is 17,500 thousand crates of eggs) are being eaten every Monday by 1.5million children of the poor. Who earns the money for the eggs being sold? Of course, Poultry farmers and eggs suppliers! How many drums of Palm oil or groundnut oil are being sold by businessmen for the cooking programme daily? What about the sellers of “Firewood”, “Maggi”, “Salt”, “Tomatoes”, and “bell”& “Chili peppers” etc? Will it not increase business activities in the state?
Every Tuesday the children of the poor eat “Rice” and “Fish” and “Fresh Orange”! How many bags of “Rice”, basket of Oranges and Cartons of “fresh Fish” are being sold by businessmen for the consumption of 1.5million pupils every week? Every Wednesday the children of the poor eat “Beans porridge” which is highly nutritional to them. How many bags of beans are being cooked for 1.5million kinds every week? What is the value to businessmen, farmers, transporters of Kaduna state? The children of the poor hardly eat an egg or a fish in Month before now! How about the value of “balance diet” to their health?
Every Thursday the children of the poor are fed with “Moi-Moi”. How many bags of beans and packets of Santana leather and drums of “Palm oil” are being sold by businessmen every week? Every Friday 1.5 million children of the poor are being given “Orange Juice” or “Yoghurt” and Biscuit. One would imagine the cartons of Biscuit and Yoghurts to be used every Friday! How about the value to the “cattle” rearing and “Maize farmers” as well as “Wheat” farmers?
All the cooks were asked to open Bank accounts with commercial banks for weekly disbursement of their funds. How about the benefits to the commercial banks? Every child was asked to buy a “food plates” which meant that all things being equal about 1.5million “food plates” were sold by their sellers. How many “cooking pots” were sold by their sellers for the programme?
Dangote and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations announced a combined commitment of $ 100 million towards ending under nutrition in Nigeria. They hope to improve the lives of at least five million families by 2020. A World Bank Agency has announced the donation of about N6.7billion ($21million) which the government of Kaduna State has promised all to the rehabilitation of Schools.
May God Bless Kaduna State!