[dropcap]I[/dropcap] hear N500 billion has been budgeted for free meals for pupils of public schools. My personal take on this is that it is discriminatory.
The money belongs to all Nigerians, and the Nigerian Constitution forbids the discrimination of any Nigerian in whatever guise, whatsoever. If the implementation of the free school meals will be truly restricted to pupils of public schools, it means there’s a problem with it already.
Secondly, half a trillion spent on feeding kids would have been better spent on empowering their parents, especially their mothers to be self-reliant and able to afford to feed their children at home.
What needs to be fixed is the economy.
Feeding the children without enabling their parents to be self-sufficient doesn’t address the issue of poverty. It celebrates and escalates it. Such socialist programmes doesn’t encourage productivity and that is where the problem is. Children growing up to free meals are being programmed to see the world through that perspective and that is not the reality as even in Freetown there are no free meals.
What our children need to learn is the virtue of good work. We need to teach them the right values and reward them when they reciprocate in re-creating the values. As long as we do not promote and reward excellence, there’s no impetus for the reformation and development of our society, which, itself, ought to be the priority at this time.
I am not an economist. I don’t have all the facts. I am only examining the issue based on my present commonsensical knowledge of it and against the backdrop of global best practices. I do not believe this initiative is well thought out.
Oraye St. Franklyn is senior special assistant to Governor Nyesom Wike on Social Media. He is a strategic communicator and good governance advocate, writes from Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He tweets from @RealOraye. He is also on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
