The school feeding rogramme proposed by the Federal Government should be done without any financial contribution from the states, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose said yesterday.
He said it was wrong for the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to ask state governments for a 40 per cent counterpart funding for the project.
“The Federal Government is already looking for excuses for the impending failure of the programme by asking states to contribute 40 per cent to the scheme,” Fayose said in a statement.
He said the school feeding programme was purely a contract between the APC-led Federal Government and Nigerians.
“Were the states consulted before the APC made the promise during the presidential campaign?” the governor queried.
“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,” he added.
According to Fayose, Ekiti State and other states in the country deserve to benefit from the programme without assisting the Federal Government with any 40 per cent 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.
“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 Muhammed 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 terms 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 knows 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.
