AN OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU ON THE
#100B SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME
By Sunday Menukuro Esq.
I write in my capacity as a father, by the grace of God, to react to your announcement of budgeting a whooping amount of #100b for students feeding for the year 2024.
Your Excellency, I humbly say sir, that is not needed at this point in time. It Is not our immediate problem and I can assure you sir, that this is the position of most parents in Nigeria.
We remember that your immediate predecessor also practiced this and it failed in its entirety even when alot of money were said to have been spent on it.
Alot of students never benefitted from it while some who benefited were only fed with what their dogs could not be fed with. Most of the time, for the few students who benefited, it was a slice of bread with few grains of beans with alot of water in it that was always served on them. Ask them to give such to their dogs, they would not. But they could give such to human beings on the claim that they are feeding school children while they smiled to the banks on daily basis.
Sir, I reiterate that this is not our problem in Nigeria. It is just a waste of our resources and time.
WHAT TO DO
1. It is my sincerest opinion to advise your Excellency to make food available and cheap in Nigeria instead of providing food that cannot go round which some people would be lining their pockets up with while the vast majority of the students the programme is meant to support, suffer.
2. Use the money to pay for the waec fees of the secondary school students and reduce drastically the tuition fees of the higher institutions.
3. Provisions of shuttle buses. It is no more news that the standard concerning the school children and distance to school has not been met in Nigeria, as many students trek or travel far from home on daily basis to get to their respective schools.
It is on this note, that I suggest provision of shuttle buses that would be picking these students to and fro the schools. This has been tested in Ondo state under the administration of Dr Olusegun Mimiko, and it was a huge success as over fifty thousand students were picked to and fro the schools every week to the comfort and the happiness of their parents.
These will go along way to reduce the pressure on the parents which will in turn have positive effects on the nursery and primary school pupils.
I am not unmindful of your Excellency’s two major reasons for embarking on the programme which are; (1) to serve as a stimulant to encourage attendance in schools and reduce the problem of out-of-school children.
(2) to also address malnutrition among school children.
Sir, I wish to say unequivocally, that all these would be addressed if you can consider my submissions above. We have many burning issues that are calling for urgent attentions, this instant case of feeding school children is not one of them. It can only make some organizers and operators richer while the parents suffer.
Sunday Menukuro writes from Lagos.
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