A group styling itself the Peoples Support Group, has passed a vote of confidence on the minister of National Emergency and Disaster management, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq.
Rising from its quarterly meeting in Abuja, the group, against the grain of public opinion, said that they were satisfied with the handling of the activities under the supervision of the minister in the area of providing care and support to victims of natural disasters, insurgency and banditry, scattered in various refugee camps across the country.
The members also applauded the expansion of the list of beneficiaries of the social and economic welfare scheme under the ministry to cover more vulnerable Nigerians.
The seven point communique issued at the end of their meeting also appeals to all stakeholders from different sectors of the economy to support the minister in her efforts to implement government programmes on poverty reduction and eradication among the people.
The group dismissed allegations of mismanagement of resources against the minister by some groups and civil society organisations, saying that such claims were baseless and ill-motivated.
According to the group, what the minister required from well-meaning Nigerians were suggestions on how to consolidate and improve on the successes already achieved in the execution of her mandate, and not unnecessary distraction.
The statement also called for increased funding of the ministry’s activities to enabling it expand its scope as a new ministry that serves as an important link between the government and the people.
Recall that on Monday, Sadiya Umar Farouq announced that the Federal Government expended about N523.3 million on school feeding programme during the lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Minister announced this at the Presidential Taskforce briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.
She made the revelation against the rumours and speculations going around one of our key interventions of the government – the Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
She said that the programmed was modified and implemented in three states following a March 29th, Presidential directive.
“It is critical at this juncture to provide details that will help puncture the tissue of lies being peddled in the public space.
“The provision of ‘Take Home Rations’, under the modified Home Grown School Feeding programme, was not a sole initiative of the MHADMSD.
“The ministry, in obeying the Presidential directive, went into consultations with state governments through the state Governor’s Forum, following which it was resolved that ‘take-home rations’, remained the most viable option for feeding children during the lockdown.
“So, it was a joint resolution of the ministry and the state governments to give out take-home rations.
“The stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states, as pilot cases,’’ the minister said.
According to her, each takes home ration was valued at N4,200 and that the figure was arrived at with proper consultation.
The minister said that the figure generated from statistics provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN)
“According to statistics from the NBS and CBN, 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.
“Based on the original design of the Home Grown School Feeding programme, long before it was domiciled in the ministry, every child on the programme receives a meal a day.
“The meal costs N70 per child.
“When you take 20 school days per month, it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month.
“Three children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month and that was how we arrived at the cost of the ‘take-home ration’.
“The agreement was that the federal government will provide the funding while the states will implement.
“To ensure transparency in the process, we partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) as technical partners.’’
She said that her ministry invited government agencies like the EFCC, CCB, ICPC, DSS and some NGOs to monitor the process.
“TrackaNG monitored and gave daily updates validating the programme.
“In the FCT, 29,609 households were impacted, 37,589 households in Lagos and 60,391 in Ogun, making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14, and July 6.
“If 124,589 households received take-home rations valued at N4,200, the amount will be N523,273,800.”