By Farooq Kperogi
Sadiya Umar Farouq, Buhari’s minister of humanitarian affairs, said today that she spent more than N500 million to feed non-existent schoolkids in their homes in Lagos, Ogun, and the FCT while schools are shut!
This woman embodies the audacity of fraud. While past and present government officials steal on the sly, she is explicit and unapologetic about hers. I call this governmental theft by outrageousness.
Well, anyone who can steal date palms (worth millions of naira) donated to poor, endangered IDPs by Saudi Arabia is capable of anything. This regime is the greatest boon to corruption with impunity.
Recall that the Minister was reported to have stated that she used N13.5 billion to feed school children during the lockdown.
The Minister then went ahead to explain the rationale behind the modified home-grown school feeding programme, the process of engagement and how it was funded.
“The provision of taking Home rations under the modified Home Grown School Feeding Programme was not a SOLE initiative of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The ministry in obeying the Presidential directive went into consultations with state governments through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum following which it was resolved that Take Home Rations remained the most viable option for feeding children during the lockdown. So, it was a joint resolution of the ministry and the state governments to give out Take Home Rations and the stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states as pilot cases.
Each Take-Home Ration is valued at N4,200 and that figure was not arrived at without proper consultation. It was not invented. According to statistics from the NBS and CBN, a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to 6 members in its household, with 3 to 4 regarded as dependent and so each household is assumed to have 3 children. Now based on the original design of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme long before it was domiciled in the ministry, every child on the programme receives a meal a day. The meal costs N70 per child. When you take 20 school days per month it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month. 3 children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month. That was how we arrived at the cost of the Take Home Ration.”
Speaking further through the SA, Strategic Communications, Halima Oyelade, Sadiya Umar Farouq, noted that the programme has launched in only two states; Lagos and Ogun plus the FCT.
“In the FCT 29,609 households were impacted; Lagos recorded 37,589 households while Ogun state was 60,391 households making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14, 2020, and July 6, 2020. If 124,589 households received Take Home Rations valued at N4,200 the total figure will be N523,273,800. And note this was not spent daily. The FCT commenced first, followed by Lagos before Ogun state. It was not DAILY.”
The Honourable Minister also clarified that she never said: “every Nigerian has received palliatives.” “What I said is that every state government in Nigeria has received palliatives for onward distribution to the poorest of the poor in their states.”
While noting that her ministry will not be deterred from fulfilling its mandate also pointed out that very few government programmes have received “such high level of self-imposed scrutiny” with the EFCC, CCB, ICPC, DSS and a host of NGOs invited to monitor the homegrown school feeding programme.”
