By Itunuoluwa Adeboye
In 2016, the Federal Government rolled out its National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) which comprises Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), N-Power Programme (NPP), Government Enterprises Entrepreneurship Programme (GEEP) and National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme and other components of the National Social Investment Programme were under the office of the Vice-President. The programme aims to deliver a government-led, cost-effective school feeding programme with a specific focus on the development of smallholder farmers and local procurement to spur growth in the local economy.
It is a programme that seeks to provide food for primary one to three pupils in all public primary schools in Nigeria using farm produce from Nigerian farmers. The direct beneficiaries of this programme are the pupils, the farmers and food vendors. The food contractors and the food vendors are paid directly by the Federal Government.
After the inauguration of the State Working Committee (SWC) by FGN in 2016, the NHGSFP kicked off in Oyo State on January 30, 2017. At this point, just 7 States were benefiting from the programme. OYSG proposed a total of 158,450 pupils in 2,408 public primary schools in the 33 local government areas of Oyo State as potential beneficiaries of the programme. At the commencement of the programme, FG promised to disburse N72.2million to 2,578 vendors who would cater for 158,450 pupils.
A detailed monitoring exercise of the program between January 2017 and March 2018 by the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All, CSACEFA (a national coalition of Civil Society Organization working on Education issues in Nigeria) showed that the programme had started in quite a large number of schools in the 33 local government areas in the state. However, the starting dates varied from school to school. The dates varied from January to October 2017.
Also, ALL the food vendors in charge of the food were NEWLY RECRUITED. This means they were not the vendors selling food to the pupils before the commencement of the programme. They were obviously recruited for the programme by the State Government.
Further monitoring by CSACEFA showed that out of the schools monitored in the 33 LGAs, low quality of food served was recorded in 46% of the schools while High-quality food served was recorded in 27% of the schools. The meal served was enough in 33% of schools visited while the meal was not enough in 60% of the schools visited.
Food was served every school day of the week in 73% of schools while the meal was not served every school day of the week in 27%of the schools monitored.
Also, there were complaints about the contractors supplying meat and some other things to the schools. There were claims that spoilt foods were being given to the pupils.
Armed with the result from this monitoring exercise and many other monitoring exercises, Governor Seyi Makinde, after his appointment in 2019 embarked on a total overhaul of the program in Oyo State. The governor sacked the three contractors employed by the previous administration and employed new ones in their place.
Then, the pandemic happened and schools were closed. Schools resumed fully in Oyo State in September 2020 by which time the NHGSFP had been transferred from the office of the Vice-President to the Ministry of Humanitarian affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, and the struggle for a better outcome from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in Oyo state continued.
Findings showed that when the Federal Government resumed payment of the contractors in charge of NHGSFP nationwide, the contractors sacked by Governor Seyi Makinde were paid instead of the new ones whose names and bank details had been forwarded to the Federal Government.
A source said, “since the FG had disregarded the Governor’s order that the new contractors he employed should be paid, the Oyo State Government was left with no choice but to feed the pupils using the old contractors so as not to affect the innocent pupils and the farmers, cooks and vendors whose livelihoods depend on the program.
“After that episode, the State government wrote a letter to the contractors telling them that that would be the last time their services would be employed in feeding the pupils as their appointment had been terminated and new contractors employed in their place.
“This resulted in a lot of back and forth between the Oyo State Government and the Federal Government with the latter insisting on the old contractors for the program and the former saying it could not work with them as a result of complaints from many quarters”.
According to findings, in 2021, the Federal Government made direct payment to the food vendors and food contractors to feed the children for only 20 days in 2021.
Also, in 2022, the Federal Government is yet to pay anybody operating under the NHGSFP and this will be the third consecutive term that the FG has refused to pay Oyo State vendors for the NHGSFP despite paying other states.
In total, under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, pupils in Oyo State were fed 3 times in 2019; in January, May and December, once in 2020 and once in 2021.
In recent times, January to be precise, I gathered from reliable sources that the FG conceded a bit by saying that the payment should be shared between the new contractors and the old contractors; meaning that the old contractors would still be paid (half of their usual fees) and the new contractors employed by Governor Seyi Makinde would be paid half of their fees and they would share the job. This brings the question of accountability and monitoring. How will they be able to split the job in equal halves? Why do they have to split? Why not let these old contractors go since the Governor they are to work with said he is not satisfied with their services?
Noteworthy is the fact that other states have changed their contractors in the past and heaven did not fall. Also, in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU signed between the states and the FG during the inception of the NHGSFP, states were given the full authority to choose the food contractors without interference from the Federal Government. In fact, many Governors upon appointment changed all the contractors they met and there was no countermeasure from the Federal Government as is being witnessed in Oyo State.
This makes it important to ask exactly what is going on with the Oyo State National Home Grown School Feeding Programme. Is this a power play? Is there more to this than a School Feeding Programme that should benefit pupils, farmers, food vendors in Oyo State?
To make matters worse, on the 25th of March 2022, the Federal Government sent almost 70,000 feeding utensils to the Oyo State Government despite not paying a dime to the vendors and the ongoing issue as to which contractors to use. As usual, pictures were taken and plastered over the social media. Is this to cover up the fact that the School Feeding Programme is almost non-existent despite the billions of naira allocated to it in the 2022 budget?
What are the pupils supposed to use these bowls for when food is not provided? What exactly is going on with the Oyo State Home Grown School Feeding Programme? What is going on with the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme?