The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Thursday said plans by the Federal Government to continue feeding school children during the COVID-19 lockdown is fraudulent.
According to the student body, the plan by government to spend N13.5billion on feeding school children when schools are not opened is only an avenue to deplete the scarce resources of the country.
Comrade Azeez Adeyemi made the NANS position known in a statement in Abeokuta on Thursday, declaring that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq’s announcement that the Federal Government would continue with the school feeding programme even as schools are shutdown is nothing but an attempt to ridicule Nigeria.
“The Federal Government’s insistence to go ahead with the school feeding programme despite criticism by Nigerians, especially stakeholders in the education sector has shown that the programme is another way of perpetrating a fraud on another large scale”, Adeyemi said.
NANS also questioned the government’s intentions in the continuation of the programme “when the priority of the government should be on finding a cure for the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.”
“We suspect that the continuation of feeding school children at their homes is another sham and a smokescreen hope at deceiving Nigerians.
“We are calling for the suspension of this structured daily looting and fraud under the guise of home feeding of pupils.
“Where is the money to execute this programme coming from given the fact that the government has always been crying of no money?” the student body asked.
NANS further queried the source of the proposed N697million to be spent daily, amounting to N13.5billion a month on the programme, describing the decision as not only “reckless spending, but also a misplaced priority.”
