Poor environment delays FG’s feeding programme in Lagos

The Lagos State Government has justified the continued delay in the commencement of National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in the State, seven months after the Federal Government kicked off the programme in other listed states.


Speaking with newsmen on the programme execution, the State Deputy Governor, Dr. Idiat Adebule, who doubles as Education Commissioner, said that the atmosphere in the state’s public schools is not conducive for the programme to commence.

According to her, we have 497,318 pupils in our primary schools. And for us to feed these children scattered in 1, 010 public primary schools, we must do proper preparation to ensure that no school is excluded from the programme.

“We have embarked on renovation and construction of new classes to ensure that the atmosphere in which the students will be fed is right for the exercise.

“We have embarked on the provision of benches and chairs in the school to assist the programme when it is launched. Things will be done in phases. Aside these, we are collaborating with the office of the Vice President, to see the project to fruition in Lagos State.

“We have strategies and methodology of dealing with issues like that. And this is to ensure that when the programme commences in the state, it would be a sustainable programme,” she added.

Meanwhile, the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, yesterday, decried low number of researchers in the country, saying, we need more Nigerians to embark on research to address the challenges facing the country.

Ambode, who decried the low number of researchers in the country at the Commissioning of Isolo Public library, argued that all discoveries were product of rigorous reading.

The Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Olufemi Odubiyi, lamented that many Nigerians are not reading and researching promptly.