2-IN-1 STORY: How Kaduna’s School Feeding Programme Helps The Poor, Returns Kids To Schools; El-Rufai Using ₦1.8bn Free School Feeding Programme To Score Cheap Political Point — Laah

Free feeding programmes for 1.8 million primary school pupils of Kaduna state at ₦50 per meal was introduced January 18th, 2016

Parents in Kaduna have been reacting to the free school feeding recently introduced by the state government. The feeding program for primary school pupils in the state was launched on January 19 by the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai.

From Left: Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State; District Head of Barnawa, Alhaji Ibrahim Sambo, and Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr Shehu Adamu, at the Inauguration of the Free Feeding Prgramme In Public Primary Schools, in Kaduna Monday (18/1/16). 0266/18/1/2016/Sp/Bjo/NAN

Media report continues:

A cobbler, Kabiru Abu, said the free feeding program for primary school children has taken off the burden of providing school meal for his three children.

Mr. Abu, who works at the popular Sati market, Badarawa area of Kaduna, said his three children attend LGEA primary school in Badarawa.

“Let me tell you that this feeding program is not for the children only, it is also for us who are parents in the state,” he told correspondents.

“I’m a cobbler who barely makes between ₦1,000 and ₦1,500 a day and I have three school children.

“Before now they will come to me every day in the market to collect money for break during school hours.

“Sometimes I do borrow to give them ₦20 each, but now that has been taking care of by the state government through the school feeding program.”

Mr. Abu also spoke of his children’s joy for the program.

“For me, it is like taking care of one big responsibility for five days. Every morning they do not wait for their mother to give them food anymore because they know that at 10 a.m. they will be fed in the school.

“One amazing thing that is happening now is how the children are getting more committed to learning. Any time I return home from the market, they are always in a rush to show me something they learnt from school which has never been so.

“Apart from taking off the burden of breakfast for me, my wife no longer wakes up in a rush every morning to prepare something for the children to eat or drink before they leave for school,” he said.

When asked if the government also provides school uniform and books for his children, he said, “Not yet but I have trust in this government and I am sure they will soon do that.”

“You can see that virtually all the schools in Kaduna are witnessing massive transformation. More classroom blocks are being built and renovations is taking place all over the state and the feeding of course, books is not going to be a problem, I am sure about that.

One of Mr. Abu’s wards said he is happy he does not need to go to his father’s work place to get money to buy food in school anymore.

“We do not come to Baba again because we eat well in the school and we are happy about that. They serve us with rice and beans, moi-moi, yam and egg,” the primary four pupil said.

Another parent, Zainab Sani, said she does not believe any program could benefit the poor in Kaduna better than the feeding program.

“This program came at the right time,” the widow, who resides in Kakuri area of Kaduna, said.

“I have two children who are all in primary two and my problem has always been how to provide feeding at break time.

“I am a tailor and have been struggling to provide for my orphans. My two children, Hafsat and Balki, will always return home during classes to say its break time that they need food. Sometimes they will not return to school that day again.”

She said the situation has changed since the Kaduna government began the feeding program.

“They are always in school now and will only return during closing time. It is a great initiative by the government,” she said.

Another mother, Rebecca Bitrus, shed tears while speaking about the program. Her only child, Usman, who attends LGEA School on Aliyu Makama road, Barnawa, has been returning home happy since the program began; talking about the food they are given in school.

“And for me I have no reason to worry for what to give him every morning to take to school again,” she said.

The free feeding program also seems to be achieving one of its aims of returning out of school children to schools. Nigeria has over 10 million out of school children, the largest in the world, according to the United Nations; with many of them in Northern Nigeria including Kaduna.

While speaking on the increased enrolment since the program began, a teacher said it was already leading to over congestion of schools.

Adama Mohammed, the headmistress of one of the benefitting public primary schools, said the feeding program was a success so far but the state government needed to hasten the renovation and building of new classroom blocks to reduce the number of children in the classes.

“With the increased enrolment, student population in some classes doubled and feeding in such over-populated classes could be unhygienic,” she told correspondents.

While launching the programme in January, Governor El-Rufai said the programme would feed1.5 million pupils in the state’s public primary schools

“We are conscious that it would save parents break-time money, empower the women within the community who have been selected as the catering vendors and expand the market for farm products”.

He also said that the school feeding programme is directly creating 17,000 jobs for catering vendors, each of whom will need to employ workers to help them deliver.

“In seeking to take care of our children, we are creating jobs, boosting demand and exposing our people to new skills and hygiene standards and providing extra income.

Also responding to the issue of renovating the schools and building more classrooms blocks the governor said, “We inherited a baleful legacy of dilapidated schools, inadequate classrooms, and no furniture for 50 per cent of the pupils. The schools also often lacked water and toilet facilities.

“It is a massive commitment to fix the more than 4,000 public primary schools in the state and transform them into conducive places for the delivery of quality education. We will strive to complete the rehabilitation within our term of office.”

El-Rufai Using ₦1.8bn Free School Feeding Programme To Score Cheap Political Point — Laah

In January 2016, Vanguard reported that Senator Danjuma Laah, faulted the recent free feeding programmes introduced for the 1.8 million primary school pupils of Kaduna state at ₦50 per meal by the Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led government.

Laah is a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator representing Kaduna South Senatorial Zone.

On January 18th, 2016, Governor El Rufai had flagged off a free, one-meal feeding programme for the 1.8 million Kaduna State primary pupils and enthused that the programme would increase school enrolment and assist children to learn better.

Each meal would cost N50 Naira, he had said.

Laah, who is the only member of the senate elected on the platform of the PDP in North West Zone described the project as a deliberate attempt by Governor Nasir El-Rufai to score curious political point.

In a statement he signed in Kaduna, he argued that the sum of ₦90 million per day or ₦450 million per week gulped to feed pupils could have been used to improve the quality and quantity of school infrastructure and teaching aids in the state.

He said: “I believe that is time we tell ourselves the truth irrespective of party, if elected leaders like me really mean well for Kaduna state. I am sticking to the interest of the state and I stand against how our common wealth is being used wrongly in the state in the name of feeding 1.8 million primary school children every day.

“If Kaduna State government claims that it is using ₦50 to feed every child, that means that each day the state spends ₦90 million per day, ₦450 million per week and ₦1.8 billion will be spend in a month.
“Though the government is claiming that it going to get assistance from the Federal government on the programme, it does not make sense that a state that gets a mere ₦3.5 billion from the Federation account each month and, has a wage bill about ₦2.2 billion per month could use ₦1.8 billion to feed kids that should be fed by their parents.”