Farouq challenged over claims of school feeding programme

Federal Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq has been slammed with a challenge by a petition by The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) to appear before Nigerians and answer questions regarding recent claims of how the nation’s N500m was frittered away on a school feeding programme which is yet to be scientifically proven.

The group’s challenge comes on the heels of foul cries by various quarters of the society that the logic of the school feeding programme does not add up. The group therefore urged the Minister to behave like a democrat to answer questions from Nigerians and clarify the grey areas surrounding the school feeding programme

“Given the current global crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the recent report that in Nigeria, five in 10 children under-five are malnourished (stunted, wasted or overweight); while three in 10 children aged six to 23 months live on poor diets; the SOCIAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME of the Federal Government under the coordination of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has left more to be desired of it. This fact was admitted when the minister reportedly met a joint meeting organized by the National Assembly in which both the Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila expressed disappointment that the implementation of the SOCIAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME has not met the targeted objectives and the minister accepted that she inherited some of the challenges bordering on questions of transparency and accountability“ the group said.

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HURIWA said in a statement, that the Ministry has not lived up to expectation, and has instead become a conduit through which the nation’s resources are being dishonestly frittered and funneled away

“Instead of positioning itself in the light of the prevailing humanitarian situation in the country through its vision, mission and core values to promote human dignity and integration of basic humane benevolence and compassion in the treatment of Nigerians, the Ministry has rather repositioned itself as a cash guzzling machine and a financial disaster.

“More worrisome is that this appalling and muddy feeding programme happened despite a groundswell of well-informed opposition to the disastrous idea only because the executioners had allegedly designed the primitive ways of allegedly siphoning public funds under the guise of feeding ghost school children. To prove us wrong, the Ministry should provide facts and figures for all to see and judge.

The group challenged the veracity of the Minister’s claims, and held that failure to respond to the petiton will underscore the criminality of her claims, which is a grave insult to the Nigerian people

“Failure to clarify this bogus claim that is attributed to her, which to all intents and purposes is not just false, but totally and substantially dubious, deceptive, criminally and deeply annoying, we assure her that Nigerians will never forget.”