Maureen Okpe The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemn the plan by the Humanitarian Affairs ministry to proceed with the school feeding programme despite the emergency vacation of schools due to the lockdown placed to curb the COVID 19 pandemic. HURIWA believes that there are no valid school children to be fed…
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Maureen Okpe
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemn the plan by the Humanitarian Affairs ministry to proceed with the school feeding programme despite the emergency vacation of schools due to the lockdown placed to curb the COVID 19 pandemic.
HURIWA believes that there are no valid school children to be fed now but the announced intention to proceed with feeding school children who are not in school is a systematic and well choreographed plots to steal public fund by officials of government going by the fact that the Minister reportedly admitted that the system is not transparent enough during her meeting with the national parliament.
In a statement signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko calls on the National Assembly to stop the process as it is allegedly manned soley to mischannel state resources under the pretence of feeding Children when obviously Pupils are not in Schools and millions of these school children may have been relocated from their original residences as a result of the circumstances and inevitable movements thrown up by the health emergency.
“HURIWA is calling on the President of the Senate and Chairman of the national legislative assembly Dr. Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives Mr Femi Gbajabiamila to halt the sinister to misapply public funds under the guise of feeding school children.”
“From where do they want to get the pupils to feed whilst the lockdown is in place? Are they going to bring up displaced almajiris as the bonafide pupils or will they as usual manufacture ghosts as pupils? the statement poses in rhetorics.
the statement further disclosed that “School children have all gone to their homes and millions of these kids may have been relocated to towns other than where they reside with their Parents or guardians.
“Why is this government so incorrigible and resistant to the truth? Why can’t the government do first things first but would press on with a muddled up plot to divert public funds under the guise of feeding school children and by the way school children who are not in Schools are not school children
“The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences commission and the EFCC if they are patriotic enough should question the Federal Minister of Humanitarian Affairs for pretending to feed school children when there is no school in session.
“Assuming without conceding that there are children to be arranged and fed, those are not school children because school children are found in schools and not from all corners of the streets when the schools are understandably on vacation.”
Recalling, The minister was quoted as saying that talks with state governors to ensure the continuation of the programme as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari has commenced while responding to questions at the joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force in Abuja few weeks before she honoured the invitation to the executive session of the national legislature during which both leaders of the two chambers of the parliament lambasted her office for not been able to check the corruption that has delegitimised the implementation of the School Feeding Programme of the federal government, adding that she admitted inheriting the allegedly corrupt bureaucracy running the programmes under the Social investment programme which started in 2016 long before she became a minister.
“We are completely shocked that this same person who only few weeks back admitted that she was unaware of how to proceed with the School Feeding Programme surprisingly told the bewildered nation that the School Feeding programme that is ravaged by administrative and operational corruption of a monumental proportions would go on.
The group expressed disappointment as the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs is pressing ahead with the programme, a component of the Social investment programme which she reportedly admitted is fraught with corruption even without first and foremost eradicating the corruption in the system and drawing up a believable and credible data of the genuine beneficiaries of all the segments of the programmes embedded in the within the Social investment programme.
” We strongly believes that if this school feeding programme goes ahead now that school children are scattered all over the place and are not In schools, it is a perfect alibi for massive scale of theft and diversion of public fund by these officials who will simply feed ghost pupil and thereafter siphon the funds.
“Bearing in mind the fact that even the pliant Speaker of the All Progressives Congress dominated National Assembly confessed that the relevant Committees in the House have been complaining bitterly even before the Minister took over the scheme about inability to access information about the scheme just as he said Nigeria’s SIP is similar to the Unemployment Insurance Act in the UK and the Social Security Act in the US.There is a lot of take away from this COVID-19. One of them is the International Best Practices.”
“My point is that these things are backed by law. They are codified by the legislature”.
HURIWA recalled that in his last recorded broadcast on COVID-19 President Muhammadu Buhari had stated thus:
“Furthermore, although schools are closed, I have instructed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to work with State Governments in developing a strategy on how to sustain the school feeding program during this period without compromising our social distancing policies’.
“The last encounter between the National Assembly and the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs there were unanimity of positions that the implementation is marred by large scale corruption with the Senate President Dr. Ahmed Lawan stating, ‘When for example, some conditions are set that those who will benefit will have to go online, through the internet or BVN and the rest of it’.
“I want to tell you that the majority of those who are supposed to benefit have no access to power. They have no access to Internet. They have no bank account, so no BVN. Now with Coronavirus, they need our attention more than ever before. The time has come that we review the ways and manner we deliver the services under the SIP to Nigerians.”
Corroborating the President of the Senate, the Parliamentary Speaker Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, addressed the minister, revealing that she was right now in the eye of the storm because all eyes are on her.
He said, “Your job right now, is probably the most important as we speak, because you are saddled with the responsibility of alleviating ‘poverty’ or the hardship, due to no fault of anyone, being thrust upon Nigerians, and I know that you came into a system, or you met a system that has nothing to do with you, but what we will be asking you to do is for you to change that system.”
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