The Ekiti state Governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Sunday, condemned the decision of the federal government to task state governors with 40 percent counterpart funding for the proposed School Feeding Programme, saying the federal government is already looking for excuse for the impending failure of the programme.
The governor’s position was made known in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.
He said the feeding programme was a campaign agreement between the All Progressive Congress and Nigerians even as he noted that it was unfair for federal government to task state government with the burden of fulfilling their campaign promises.
“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 Muhammadu Buhari and his APC that won election on the basis of their promise to give free meal to school pupils to fulfill the promise without placing any burden on other tiers of government.”
“Nigerians should come to term 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.”
“As for us in Ekiti, we are interested in the programme because Nigeria belongs to all of us. But we won’t contribute any counterpart fund because the programme is solely an electoral promise of the APC and we were never consulted before the promise was made. We don’t even have the capability to make any financial contribution even if it is 10 per cent because our financial condition is such that we can’t even pay workers salary.”
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