In the light of the biting inflation, poverty and high cost of food items, the House of Representatives is making moves to encourage the government of President Bola Tinubu to re-introduce the school feeding programme started by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. It has, therefore , made a call to the President Tinubu to reconsider bringing back the programme to primary schools in the country. The call was made after a motion titled “Urgent Call to Revisit School Feeding Policy” moved by Hon. Muktar Umar Zakari. The House has directed its committees on special duties and finance to invite the ministers of special duties and inter-governmental affairs, education, and finance. The committees are to deliberate with the yet to be invited officials how what to do to make that happen and propose ways of ensuring the success of the programme, going forward.
The House of Representatives is worried that the cancellation of the program is causing an upsurge in the number of out-of-school children, posing a threat to the country’s future and leading to a high rate of crimes, insecurity, and unemployment. The legislators believe that bringing back the programme will motivate children and their parents to listen to calls for them to embrace education.
It said “Nigeria’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) was a pilot programme launched in 2004 targeting 12 States to provide a nutritious midday meal to public primary school pupils in the country, in 2016, the programme was relaunched nationally, targeting public primary school children using locally sourced ingredients to improve health, stimulate agricultural production, and boost smallholder farmers’ income.”
The house also furious about the suspension of the programme by the current administration is unsettling for several reasons, namely reduced school enrollment and attendance, compromised health and cognitive development of the children, and disruption of the income of smallholder farmers. It took cognisance of the fact that addressing the programme’s challenges is crucial, but a complete suspension may cause more harm. That is why the House wants the government to find alternative solutions or efficient implementation of the NHGSFP to ensure Nigerian children continue to benefit from this important initiative.
