Abuja spends N1b daily, N100 per child on school feeding

“When we started in 2016, that was before COVID-19, we had experienced difficulty with the implementation of the N70/child. We had made presentations as the [Humanitarian] Minister [Sadiya Farouq] passionately made submissions to Mr. President.

“And Mr. President has graciously approved that we should raise the feeding [cost] from N70 to N100 per child. And the implementation of this programme has now commenced,” National Social Investments Programme National Co-ordinator Umar Bindir disclosed in Abuja.

But, as is the case in all facets of the Nigerian society, the feeding programme is riddled with corruption and theft of funds.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2020 arraigned in court Ishaka Abdullahi, Education Secretary of Sabon Birni Council in Sokoto State, for illegal withdrawal of N429,000 primary school feeding fund.

Vendors have stopped supplying food to schools in Benue, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Enugu, Bauchi, and Kano because of non-payment of their funds.

In some states, teachers and pupils said even when the programme was in operation, food supply was not stable and only a few pupils were served.

Terry Orduen, a primary four pupil of LGEA Primary School, Idemekpe,  Makurdi said: “Since the inception of this second term [in 2022] we have yet to see the cooks in our school. In 2021, we were fed for three days a week.”

The primary school feeding programme is different from that of Federal Government Colleges in which N2.67 billion has been stolen, according to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)

“We discovered payments to some federal colleges (secondary schools) for school feeding in the sum of N2.67 billion during the lockdown when the children were not in school, and some of the money ended up in personal accounts.

“We have commenced investigations into these findings,” ICPC Chairman Bolaji Owasanoye announced in Abuja in September 2020.