Essential Ndubuisi
The Federal Government’s school feeding programme is collapsing with food vendors no more turning up in schools, according to sources.
Findings by our correspondents in Benue, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Enugu, Bauchi and Kano states showed that vendors because of non-payment of their funds had stopped providing food in the schools.
In some states, teachers and pupils told one of our correspondence that when the programme was in operation, it was epileptic with few of the schoolchildren getting food when the vendors turned up.
Our correspondent, who visited some schools in Makurdi, the Benue State capital city, gathered that since the beginning of second term in January, the programme had not resumed.
A primary four pupil of the LGEA Primary School at Idemekpe, Makurdi, Terry Orduen said that throughout 2021, the schoolchildren were fed for three days. “Since the inception of this second term we have yet to see the cooks in our school. In 2021, we were fed for three days,” he added.
Corroborating the pupil, a teacher at the LGEA Primary School at Wuruku, who spoke on condition of anonmity, asked if the programme still existed.
“Is the programme still on? For the past few months, I have not seen the cooks in this school. I cannot remember if our children were fed last term, “the teacher said.
But some of the food vendors said that they had yet to be paid for second term.
