Meet Sadiya Umar Farouk. The first person in the world to feed 11 million people in 48 hours, a social media influencer and political analyst, Adetutu Balogun MBA tweet
OBSERVERS TIMES previously reported on how the Federal Government says it spent N523.3m to feed pupils during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouk, revealed this during the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.
She explained that the clarification became necessary following widespread criticism and speculations around the Home Grown School Feeding programme of the Federal Government
“It is critical at this juncture to provide details that will help puncture the tissue of lies being peddled in the public space,” the minister said, adding “The provision of ‘Take Home Rations’, under the modified Home Grown School Feeding Programme, was not a sole initiative of the MHADMSD.
“The ministry, in obeying the presidential directive, went into consultations with state governments through the state Governor’s 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.
“The stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states, as pilot cases.”
Umar-Farouk said according to statistics from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Nigeria, a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to six members, with three to four dependents, adding, “So, each household is assumed to have three children.”
“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 received 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.
“Three children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month and that was how we arrived at the cost of the take-home ration.
“The agreement was that the Federal Government will provide the funding while the states will implement.
“To ensure transparency in the process, we partnered with the World Food Programme as technical partners, while TrackaNG monitored and gave daily updates validating the programme.
“In the FCT, 29,609 households were impacted; 37,589 households in Lagos, and 60,391 in Ogun, making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14 and July 6.
“If 124,589 households received take-home rations valued at N4,200, the amount will be N523,273,800,” the minister explained.
The meals were made up of: one pack of rice (5kg), one pack of beans (5kg), vegetable oil (500ml), palm oil (750ml), salt (500mg), eggs (15pcs) and tomato paste (140gm).
The FMHADMSD commenced the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme on Thursday, May 14, 2020.
It explained then that the programme, which meant to ensure the provision of food ration to schoolchildren at home, was to start in Abuja and subsequently in Lagos and Ogun states before it would be extended to other states.
The move was, however, widely criticised by experts in the education sector, and some public analysts.
You recalled that OBSERVERS TIMES had reported that despite the huge amount of money spent on the school feeding programme, many under-five children in the country remained malnourished, with COVID-19 pandemic compounding the problem.
As at then, N679m [$1,739,881.82] was said to have been spent daily, but the amount was denied by Umar-Farouk at the 32nd joint national briefing of the PTF.
In 2018, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said the Home Grown School Feeding Programme was aimed at increasing school enrollment and tackling malnutrition in children.
He disclosed that the Federal Government spends more than $1.8m every day on the National School Feeding Programme, adding that $183m had so far been invested in the programme.
Osinbajo was quoted as saying more than nine million primary school pupils were benefitting from the scheme across 26 states where the programme had taken effect.