Ben Bruce to Buhari, pay teachers, don’t feed students

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, on Wednesday condemned the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to feed students under the recently introduced National School Feeding Programme.

A recent report said the FG, over the weekend, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NASCO Food Limited, Jos, Plateau State, on commercial production of high nutrient density biscuits to feed about 30 million school children below the age of 13.

Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology, who spoke at the ceremony, in Abuja, said that the MoU was to advance the implementing process of government’s desire to enhance a healthy development of its children through the programme.

Bruce reacted through his social media, Twitter account, saying feeding students was not the solution to the educational challenges in the country. He proposed that teachers should rather be paid.

“If we really want to improve education, Nigeria’s immediate priority should be to pay teachers well before giving Nasco biscuits to pupils,” he wrote.

He tweeted, besides, that when teachers were not paid good salaries, the whole essence of the national feeding programme would end in shambles, as the teachers would end up being beneficiaries of the feeding programme rather than the pupils.

“Even if you give students all the NASCO biscuits in the world and you don’t pay teachers well, you’ll still end up with biscuit illiterates.”

“If we don’t pay teachers well, and we give them Nasco biscuits to their students, guess whose belly the biscuits is going to end up in?,” he wrote.

Speaking further about the project, Onu said it would address the lack of vital vitamins in children’s food, and that the programme was conceived out of a need to tackle the increasing food challenges facing children in primary school between the ages of five and 13 years.

“This is surely the best way to go as the nation is giving serious attention to utilisation of indigenous technologies as a potent strategy to diversify the economy to provide alternative revenue sources.

“In this process, jobs will be created, wealth will be generated and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), will be enhanced through the productive sector of the economy,” he said.