Transparency Group tasks Humanitarian Minister on Transparency in School Feeding Initiative
– Suspend Nationwide Protests
Joe Johnson
The proposed nationwide rally by the Transparency Group, a Coalition of Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) to protest alleged non-transparent nature of the Out-of-School Feeding Programme by the Federal government has been put on hold.
Speaking after a scheduled meeting with the National Coordinator of National Social Safety-Nets Programme, Mr. Apera Iorwa who stood in for the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hon Sadiya Umar Farouq, the National Publicity Secretary of the Group, Comrade Segun Jones told journalists that the intention of the CSOs was to stage a nationwide rally commencing from Abuja coming week but a meeting with the ministers’ representative has brought out the need to put it on hold to enable the Ministry the opportunity to shed more light on the out of school feeding programme.
“We came on a fact finding mission about the out of school feeding programme which many Nigerians have condemned for lack of transparency. However, our engagement with the NASSCO boss was an eye opener”.
According to Apera, he said that the “people perish because of ignorance. We have facts and figures on this matter, it is only that the people have refused to learn by reading. Whatever anybody wants to know about the Out-of-School Feeding Programme can be sourced from our website. It will be wrong for any group to take to the streets without a constructive engagement with our department that handles the issue”, he advised.
The Transparency Group advised the minister, Hon. Farouq to open a strategic communications outpost to further enlist the confidence of the public in her activities.