The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, on Wednesday said he would engage spies among students to monitor the quality of meals being served at dining halls in 78 secondary schools in the state.
The governor’s spokesman, Isa Gusau, said in a statement that Mr Shettima intended to engage the student spies to send him text messages and contact him through social media platforms to give hint him on the quality of meals being served at their dining halls.
He said the move was necessitated due to the drop in the quality of food served to boarding students, adding that special committee was set up to handle improved feeding in the schools.
The governor said that the state government had raised the monthly allocation of boarding students’ feeding from N20million to N100million to improve the quality of food in schools.
Mr Gusau said the governor was disappointed when he paid an unscheduled visit to a secondary school and discovered that meals being served fell short of the standard he had raised since 2012.
“Following his discovery, Shettima decided to reconstitute a 17-member feeding committee, responsible for procurement of food stuff, distribution to schools, monitoring of cooks and quality of food being served to students,” he said.
He said the committee comprised government and NGOs officials, adding that Mr Shettima had promised to assist the committee to accomplish its aims and objectives.
“Apart from approving funds, I will also help you to do your job. Do not feel that I am being suspicious.
“I do visit schools but this time around, I will give some students my phone numbers to communicate directly with me.
“They will give me updates on the quality of meals they are being served, henceforth.
“As committee members, you should address the principals and call them to order. I urge you to directly procure the foodstuff and give it to the principals of our respective boarding secondary schools.
“It is within your mandate to hire and pay the salaries of cooks where there are shortage of kitchen personnel. I want all of you to work hard.
“I want you to deal with two or three principals who short-changed students in their feeding.
“Education is very important to the development of any society and we owe an obligation to humanity and posterity to fix public schools in Borno.
“With the way we are building schools, some people feel we are crazy, because they forget that Boko Haram has taken our education backward and created thousands of school aged out of school children.
“We are buying lands, we are buying premises and building schools on them and we will make these schools function effectively,” he added.
