Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government said it would commence the feeding of 3.1 million school children at home from Monday, starting with those in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Lagos, Ogun and Kano states.
Recall that in March, government shut down schools, churches and other businesses as a measure to contain the spread of Coronavirus.
But Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who announced this yesterday while distributing palliatives to people with special needs, at Karamajiji community in Abuja, said the pandemic would not obstruct the feeding programme.
Explaining the procedure for implementation, Sadiya said: “By this week we are going to start off in the FCT, Lagos, Ogun and Kano states. We have done all the processes and by early next week we are going to start. The model is to give dry food ration to households where these children reside. We are reaching out to 3.2 million households.”
On the items distributed such as rice, wrappers, salt, seasoning cubes groundnut oil and macaroni, she said: “They should bear with us based on what we have given to them. They should use it judiciously and also look forward to how we are going to support them. These items are going to 450 households numbering over 1800 individuals. We will make sure that all the palliatives we will take to the states are distributed to this particular group of persons,” she said.
However, Secretary to the Chief of Karamajiji community, Mohammed Dan Tani, decried the constant demolition threat they face by officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority.
Aside appreciating the minister for the items, he also appealed to the government to provide building materials to enable them construct temporary homes especially during the rainy season.