Nigerians have taken a swipe at the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, questioning the N500million spent on school feeding programme during COVID-19 lockdown by her ministry.
Ms Farouq had revealed that N523.3 million was spent on school feeding programmes during the lockdown.
According to her, each take home ration was valued at N4,200 and that the figure was arrived at with proper consultation.
The minister said the figure was generated from statistics provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, and the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, that a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to six members in its household, with three to four dependents.
“So, each household is assumed to have three children,” she said.
However, Nigerians, in their reactions on social media, disagreed with the minister, wondering how pupils who were all at home during the lockdown could enjoy the “sumptuous meal” provided by the government.
A Twitter user, Bobofemmo, said: “How did you achieve this? When the kids were at home during the lockdown.
“In Nigeria we are not up to 500million, assuming the government instructed CBN to send money to Nigerians during the lockdown & if you said with this you shared 500m to Nigerians, honestly we might believe you.”
Another user, Osim Victor, tweeted: “This country is finished, with all this massive stealing of public funds. The only discussion you hear among the youths is BBNaija Dorothy breast. I am ashamed eh, we for don the plan how to burn down the national assembly.”
One UZkingsley also shared: “We should start using the word ‘thieves’ once again. Labeling them as corrupt appears to divert attention from the stealing. These are thieves.”
However, Ms Farouq on Tuesday came out to explain how the said amount of money was expended during the lockdown.
She said based on the original design of the programme long before it was domiciled in the ministry, every child on the programme receives a meal a day.
According to her, the meal, therefore, costs N70 per child.
She said: “When you take 20 school days per month it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month. 3 children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month. That was how we arrived at the cost of the Take Home Ration.”
