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Fred Ezeh, Abuja
A Nigerian political party, African Action Congress (AAC), has demanded immediate stoppage of the proposed feeding of school children at home by Federal Government in collaboration with State Governments to cushion the impact of COVID-19 pandemic due to commence this week.
The Party described the programme as “scam, and a drain pipe to siphon tax payers money in order to enrich unscrupulous Nigerians” making reference to payment of purported N20,000.00 to vulnerable Nigerians.
AAC National Chairman, Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, in a statement released in Abuja, on Monday, expressed fear that the exercise, evidently, may be riddled with corruption, hence the insistence that the programme should be stopped forthwith.
He said: “It will be an uphill task to locate these children in their respective homes as most of them are resident in rural areas. We are shocked by this ill-conceived, irrational, undigested and not properly thought out programme that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, would incubate at this perilous time when there are better and creative ways to manage the concerns and needs of Nigerians amidst COVID-19 pandemic. It is outrageous, embarrassing and a mockery of our national intelligence.
“We are disheartened that Federal Government has refused to allow well patriotic Nigerians originate credible, high impact people-centered policies, but all they have gotten so far look more as ego enhancing and reactionary policies to suit their whims and caprices.
“We are still wondering if the proposed feeding effort is school feeding or home feeding of school pupils. We see it as feasting on the people than feeding Nigerian school pupils.”
Nzenwa who doubles as National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), was visibly unhappy that school feeding programme which has engulfed over N3 billion since the Buhari administration started has failed.
He added: “It’s inconceivable that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, who earlier described the programme as a disaster will now be so passionate about it and going the extra mile of extending it to school children at home.”
The Party, thus, called on the Federal Government to pay the funds allocated for the purported feeding of school children to Nigerians with bank BVN as proposed earlier by government .
He believe that the funds will make more impact if paid into bank accounts of Nigerians who are parents of these school children. “This way, the funds will be properly accounted for. To do otherwise is to further institutionalize corruption in the polity through phony programme.”
