Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has insisted that the School
Feeding Programme of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal
Government must be done without the proposed 40 per cent counterpart
funding from the States, saying;
“The Federal Government is already looking for excuse for the impending
failure of the programme by asking States to contribute 40 per cent to
the scheme.”
The governor, who said the school feeding programme was purely a
contract between the APC-led Federal Government and Nigerians, asked;
“Were the States consulted before the APC made the promise during the
presidential campaign? How can you make a promise and win election on
the basis of that promise and now expect States to help you to fulfil
the promise? That to me is fraud!”
Governor Fayose said in a statement issued on Sunday, by his Special
Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka that
Ekiti State and other States in the country deserved to benefit from the
programme without assisting the federal government with any 40 percent
counterpart funding.
The governor said the APC-led Federal Government should rather blame
itself for failing to do proper study on the practicability of the
scheme before promising Nigerians instead of looking for who to blame
for not fulfilling the school feeding promise.
He said;
“apart from the fact that Ekiti State lacked the financial wherewithal
to provide counterpart fund for such a programme, it is the duty of
President Mohammed Buhari and his APC that won election on the basis of
their promise to give free meal to school pupils to fulfil the promise
without placing any burden on other tiers of government.”
“Nigerians should come to term with the reality that the federal
government is already looking for a ready alibi for the impending
failure of the school feeding programme.
“The federal government knowns that 80 per cent of the States lack the
financial will to be able to contribute the 40 per cent counterpart fund
for the programme and the time the programme eventually fails,
Nigerians will be told that it failed because States did not key in to
it.
“As for us in Ekiti, we are interested in the programme because Nigeria
belongs to all of us. But we won’t contribute any counterpart fund
because the programme is solely an electoral promise of the APC and we
were never consulted before the promise was made. We don’t even have the
capability to make any financial contribution even if it is 10 per cent
because our financial condition is such that we can’t even pay workers
salary,” Governor Fayose said.