The Nation Newspaper

Tag: meal

  • Keeping children in school with a meal

    If you are the most populated country in Africa, also with the largest economy on the continent but with the dark stain of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, how do you go about changing that?

    That was the situation Nigeria found herself in a few years ago, with as many as 10 million children of school age deprived of seeing the four corners of a classroom. The conundrum was further compounded by malnutrition pervasive in children from low-income backgrounds, ultimately affecting their ability to stay in school when enrolled.

    A bouquet of policies fashioned to rectify that alarming reality included an effective and yet often overlooked input – food. Food is one of the most basic of human needs, and even more important for children, especially during school hours. According to experts in child development, in order to achieve satisfactory physical and mental growth, school children require larger amounts of nutrients per unit of body weight than adults. Therefore, when children are fed foods which contain inadequate amounts of nutrients, they may fail to grow and develop adequately.

    Research also showed that 42 percent of school children and 2.5 million Nigerian children under age five suffer from malnutrition and about half a million dying from it. This informed the decision of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to implement the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme as a way of killing many birds with one stone – increase primary school enrollment, combat malnutrition in school children, and stimulate economic productivity and growth, especially in our rural communities. Because healthy and nourished children learn and perform better, the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is indirectly building human capacity that is bound to have a ripple effect in the economy.

    The main objective of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is to provide one nutritious, balanced meal each school day to 5.5 million pupils in classes 1 to 3 in public primary schools. The end goal of this is to increase enrolment rates by mopping up the huge numbers of out-of-school children in Nigeria while tackling early year malnutrition. In addition, this programme develops a value chain by creating jobs for the cooks and ensuring a sustainable income for small holder farmers, thereby engendering a ripple effect in the rural economy.

    By all standards the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme has been a huge success. Initially designed to target 5.5 million school children, the programme has exceeded its target by 50 percent as of June. Currently 8,596,340 are being fed in 24 states of the federation, covering 47,299 schools. The impact on school enrolment is also clear. Public school enrolment has increased considerably across the country since the school feeding programme started. Stakeholders in education have affirmed an influx of school children from private schools into the public schools as the improved public-school system boosts parents’ confidence.  A continuous improvement in school enrollment has been recorded in Oyo, Ogun, Osun, with southeastern states recording an 18.3 percent increase in the first quarter of 2018. This increase in public school enrolment has led to an increase in teacher employment.

    Not only are children being enrolled in school like never before, the promise of delicious, nutritious meals as guaranteed under the school feeding programme is keeping them there. Available data shows that the rate of completion of primary school nationwide increased from 36 percent in 2007 to 63 percent last year. In addition, the programme creates jobs and profits for the wide range of stakeholders involved in getting the food from farm to the children’s table. For example, 90,670 cooks have been gainfully employed with the attendant positive ripple effect on farmers supplying farm produce to the cooks.

    This trend cuts across all the 24 states where the tentacles of the programme have so far reached. In Akwa Ibom, 80 percent of primary schools are benefitting from the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme with over 2,700 food vendors engaged. Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State recently testified of how no fewer than 122,000 children are feeding daily under the school feeding programme, with 1,040 caterers deployed to 1,060 schools across the 21 local government areas of the state.

    Central to the success of this programme is the multi-layer and inclusive implementation strategy adopted by the federal government through the National Social Investment Programme office. Under the arrangement, state governments are tasked with the responsibility of identifying the local meals, cooks, and other aggregators while funding is provided by the federal government. This way, state governments play an active role and are eager to guarantee the success of the programme in their respective domains.

    Additionally, the programme is monitored by a coalition of government agencies, civil society organizations and the public. The nutritional content of meals served to the schoolchildren all across the country is monitored by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. The public is also encouraged to give feedback to the office in charge of the programme implementation via mobile phones and social media. This has ensured that all stakeholders under the programme are kept on their toes for efficient service delivery.

    In a bid to ensure transparency and growth, the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme introduced the #TrackWithUs where well-meaning citizens can report any malpractice going on in the system. The #TrackWithUs campaign has helped monitor and supervise school feeding programme activities on schools. Recently several cooks were laid off in River State for serving biscuits in the place of proper meals to the school kids.

    Ultimately, testimonies abound from the pupils who are direct beneficiaries of the school feeding programme, to their parents whose burdens have become lighter, to cooks who have been gainfully engaged, to farmers who now have consistent income from sale of their produce and many others involved in the value chain of the programme. The success of this programme has once again proved that local solutions abound to the myriad of problems facing Nigeria especially when all hands are on deck with a sense of unity to achieve a common purpose.

     

    • Rabiu wrote from Abuja.

  • Physician warns against nap after meal

    Dr Zayad Ahmed, a family physician at the National hospital, Abuja, has advised people to avoid lying down immediately after a meal as such practice could be responsible for common abdominal pains.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja that such practice could lead to indigestion and abdominal pains.

    He explained that the body was made to digest food upright after meal and everything should be done to support such process.

    “People should try to avoid anything that can trigger off stomach upset and abdominal pains,’’ he said.

    Ahmed emphasised that the common experience of discomfort in the stomach and abdominal pain is either indigestion, gastric or wind, which is the breath of normal breathing and talking.

    The medical expert also explained that eating too much at one go could also be a predisposing factor to abdominal pains, adding that one should eat moderately at all times.

    He added that gas-generating foods like beans whether dried beans, soya beans, baked beans when consumed, may cause might also cause changes in digestion and can cause abdominal pain.

    He also said that people should avoid eating too much spicy and oily foods as they could cause diarrhoea or constipation that can lead to cramps in the stomach and cause abdominal pains.

    The physician said that stress also increases the production of gastric acid in the stomach that could lead to pains in the abdomen.

    He advised people to exercise regularly and engage in relaxation activities to keep your stress in check and the body functional.

    “But there are some abdominal pains that are severe and life threatening like gastro-intestinal diseases such as stomach ulcers, gallstones or cancer, it is important to go for a check-up.

    “See the doctor immediately if you feel severe pain in your abdomen or you has serious abdominal discomfort for days.

    “You should be able to describe what you are experiencing so it can easily be diagnosed and the right treatment given,” he said.

    He however explained that the normal abdominal pains were less dangerous conditions that can be managed without the need for any major interventions.

  • Bone marrow meal life line for chemo devastation

    An acquaintance of mine who has just had the seventh of 16 shots of chemotherapy for cancer has desperately searched for bone marrow meal in the last three weeks. Chemotherapy is a wasting medical war on cancer. It poisons and devitalises the whole body, not just the cancer. This challenged person is kept alive from pains by powerful, pain killers. The seventh chemo, as chemotherapy is also called, battered bone marrow so badly that the blood count crashed to about three percent. The white blood cells, too, were close to zero percent count. So were the platelets which prevent us from bleeding to death whenever we have a cut. The white blood cells defend us against disease, germs and illnesses. In other words, this cancer challenged and chemo-treated person became something like a walking corpse.

    But there is something always going well for this person…the conviction that, through the grace of the Most High, this condition will be overcome. Equally helpful is the army of friends who solidly stick around in spirit and, indeed, expressing love always.

    Given the medical profile of this person, it has been surprising to doctors who manage this person’s condition that the first six chemos were overcome without much ado. How I wish they knew of the nutrition which undergirded this survival story so that they may help their other patients on chemo with them. Maybe one day this person will share the stories of Astragalus, Asparagus, Wheatgrass, Chlorella, Shark liver oil and, lately, bone marrow meal.

    I got this person into bone marrow meal. I stumbled into it while researching more traditional medicines for cancer and chemotherapy side effects. This person, who had become so weak as to be unable to hold a cell phone in the hand, let alone dial it, attempted to get out of bed and stand on the feet, mightily crashed and knocked the forehead on the ground, fracturing it. Doctors saved more troubles with stitches.

    What may help the bone marrow bounce back to health in double quick-time, I wondered, wishing to discover frontiers beyond traditional herbs and foods for bone marrow health which adorn this person’s medicine cabinet.

    I found an answer in the work of Dr. ASTRID BROHULT and her husband, a biochemist. Dr. Brohult was a Swedish cancer doctor (oncologist) who worked in a children’s leukemia (bone marrow cancer) ward. When she discovered how chemotherapy traumatised children, she thought of nutritional ways of easing their travails. In 1952, she found that the white blood count rose in children whose diet was supplemented with fresh bone marrow from cow bones. Her husband discovered that the active compound in the bone marrow were alkylglycerols, but he could not, even with the help of a pharmaceutical company, extract enough alkylglycerols for commercial uses. For the pharmaceutical company, the best sources of Alkylglycerol in this regard would be the Greenland shark, the liver oil of which was composed of about 50 percent of Alkylglycerols. By the late 1956s, Dr. Astrid Brohult prescribed Alkylglycerol to many cancer patients. By the 1970s, she and her husband published the results of a study in which they gave Alkylglycerol to women with invasive cancer of the cervix who were treated with radiation therapy. Their findings showed that Alkylglycerol supplementation of the diet at 200mg three times daily for one to three month made toxic cancer therapies less toxic, and that the higher the dosage the longer the patient could live after radiation therapy, especially if Alkylglycerol therapy was begun before radiation therapy. This study showed that more than two times post radiation deaths within three years occurred in patients who were not treated with Alkylglycerol than in patients who took Alkylglycerol before or during radiation therapy. The subjects in this study numbered about 3,000.

    The study found, also, that it was better to begin Alkylglycerol therapy before radiation therapy. Another interesting finding was that Alkylglycerol taken before radiation therapy may have begun to shrink the cancer. Another finding on injury rate showed that the Alkylglycerol group suffered half the injury rate of the placebo group. White blood count had a tendency to rise, sometimes, by as high as 100 percent when Alkylglycerol protected the bone marrow against radiation side effects.

    By 1994, the findings had been reviewed positively by other studies. And this led pharmaceutical companies to produce either natural Alkylglycerols from shark liver oil or synthetic brands which had varying anti-cancer potential.

     

    Bone Marrow Meal

    Interestingly, my generation of children enjoyed eating the bone marrow without knowing what it was or what it did. We struggled for the thigh bones of the chicken. We sucked that soft tissue in the bone hollow, the marrow, which the Yorubas of Southwestern Nigeria call mudunmudun. The Hausas call it tsaki keshi. The Efiks call it Ndia esit okop. Many Nigerian adults enjoy the bone marrow in their diets without realising the nutritional and anti-disease benefits it is conferring on their health. Mrs. Adebisi Kekereekun, a travel agent executive with BUDGET TRAVELS of Lagos, consumed bone marrow any time she was pregnant. During her last pregnancy, she consumed lots of what the Yoruba call Bogo (m:m) or biscuit bone, which also appears to have some bone marrow stuff. For eating bone marrow pulp or biscuit bone almost everyday, Mrs Kekereekun’s husband nicknamed her Bingo.

    As I said earlier, I combed many parts of Lagos for bone marrow pulp for this acquaintance of mine who seriously needs it to overcome the side effects of chemotherapy and for the prospect of living beyond the average life expectancy of between three and five years after chemotherapy. This medical life expectancy should not dampen the fighting spirit of cancer patients who have been through chemotherapy. For there are many, many patients who have proven their doctors wrong through acts of will. My prayer is that the case in reference will be one of such success stories. So, what is bone marrow meal?

     

    Bone marrow meal

    In the hollow of a bone resides a power house of nutrients which is crucial for radiant health and even helps to fight cancer. It is called the marrow, a fat-like substance. WESTON PRICE opened my eyes to it in his book NUTRITION AND PHYSICAL DEGENERATION. The book is partly about how indians in the rocky mountains of northern Canada feed themselves. In the winter months, says Weston Price, they keep going on leafy green vegetables, barks and buds of trees. They ate organ meat, including “the wall of parts of the digestive tract” and gave the muscles to animals. Says Weston Price:

    “It is important that skeletons are rarely found where large game animals have been slaughtered by the Indians of the north. The skeletal remains are found as piles of finely broken bone chips or splinters that have been cracked up to obtain as much as possible of the marrow and nutritive qualities of the bones. These Indians obtained their fat-soluble Vitamins and also most of their minerals from the organs of the animals. An important part of the nutrition of the children consisted in various preparations of bone marrows, both as a substitute for milk or as a special dietary ration.”

    Bone marrow research literature offer us the following information and more.

     

    Adiponectine

    This hormone is produced in fat cells. The more of it one has, the less likely to be obese is such a person. Lean people have more adiponectine than fat people. Adiponectine makes the sugar-burning hormone, insulin, more effective and, therefore, keeps at bay diabetes and other diseases associated with it.

    A recent University of Michigan study shows that the bone marrow is a good source of Adiponectine. Hitherto, bone marrow was thought to cause osteoporosis and fracture risks. The University of Michigan study involved subjects with anorexia, chemotherapy patients, rabbits and mice and suggests that adiponectine may not only be protective but also encourage adaptive mechanisms outside the bone structure. The findings were released by Dr. Ormond MacDougald, Ph.D., “Faulkner professor in the department of Molecular and Intergrative Physiology, a Professor of internal medicine, a member of U-M’s Brehm center for Diabetes Research, and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cambridge in the U.K”.

     

    Alkylglycerol

    This fatty substance is present in the bone marrow at about 0.2 percent, in the spleen at 0.5 percent and in mother’s milk at 0.5 percent. In the bone marrow, Alkylglycerol, present also in Shark Liver Oil, has been found to support the production of white blood cells, hence its value in the health of cancer patients whose white blood cell count is depleted by Chemotherapy. Even in a cancer cell, the level of Alkylglycerol has been found to rise beyond its level in the healthy cell, as it is thought, to help the ravaged tissue control cell division. Alkylglycerol is thus, seen as an immune booster. In this regard, a healthy bone marrow protects the body not only against infectious diseases but also, cancers.

     

    Collagen

    This is the basis of the body’s structure. Proteins called collagen form the structural framework into which other molecules (fat, glucose, et.c) are filled to make a form such as the skeletal system of bones, the stomach or the skin. When the collagen structure collapses, as it often does in the eye ball, an entire structure goes down with it. This is why dietary supplements of collagen are often prescribed for the reconstitution of damaged or failed structures. The bone marrow is a rich source of collagen. It is well recommended, for example, for troubles in the intestinal lining which may cause diseases such as Celiac disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Colitis. In Celiac disease, an allergic reaction prevents the absorption of digested food. The patient is famished irrespective of how well or of how much he or she eats. In Irritable Bowel Syndrome, there is alternation between diarrhoea and constipation. A patient may rush to the rest room about 10 times in one hour only to emit watery discharge no more than five tablespoonfuls. In colitis, the colon is inflamed. In ulcerative colitis, the inflamed colon suffers from ulcers and bleedings as well, setting the stage for colon cancer. Collagen protects the lining of the intestine. For this reason, Bone Marrow Meal is recommended for consumption where intestinal health is compromised.

     

    Vitamin A

    This fat-soluble vitamin has many important functions in the body, especially in respect of healthy vision, mucous membrane lining, the skin and immune boosting and bones health. It is most well known to prevent night blindness and macular degeneration, that is the loss of fine vision. A remarkable health turn-around may be achieved, therefore, when bone marrow is consumed with vitamin A-rich foods such as carrots and herbs such as Kale, Spirulina and Marigold flowers.

     

    Minerals

    A wonderful array of minerals exists in the bone marrow: Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Selenium, Phosphorus, Iron, Manganese et.c. They help to make the body function properly, prevent fatigue, boost immunity, heal injuries, maintain the electrolyte and fluid balance, support heart and brain health. The presence of Potassium and Glycine offers support for detoxification in the liver.

     

    Amino acids

    The building blocks of proteins, amino acids are abundant in the bone marrow. About 100 grammes of bone marrow consumed everyday is believed to supply as high as 14 percent of the daily recommended requirement of proteins. Proteins build cells and repair damage in cells. They build muscles and help children to grow. As immune cells and organs are made of proteins, it should be easy to understand why the consumption of bone marrow should help to boost immune function.

     

    Iron

    It is believed that consumption of 100 grammes of bone marrow will provide about 25 percent of the daily requirement of iron. This should support the manufacture of haemoglobin and red blood cells and prevent and cure anaemia.

     

    Omega-3 fats

    An essential fatty acid, Omega-3 fat improves memory, protects the brain, helps out in depression, improves cell membrane function, supports healthy immune function, is anti-inflammatory and, therefore, good for resolving such questions as headaches, joint, pains or period pains, in so far as they are caused by an imbalance in the ratio of Omega-3 fats to those of Omega-6 and Omega-9, the other essential fatty acids. Omega-3 also helps as a blood thinner, in fact better than Aspirin and without its side effects, making this oil indispensable in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

     

    Bone meals

    Around the world, bone marrow meals are popular. The red bone marrow is more nutritious than the yellow. In the Philippines, bone marrow dish is called KANSI. The Indonesians call theirs SUM SUM. Indians and Pakistanis make bone marrow the main feature of the dish called NALLI. The Chinese scoop out the marrow after the bone has been boiled. Hungarians spread beef bone marrow on toast. Iranians suck out the marrow from the bone. Lebanese do the same. In Nigeria, the brooth appears the most popular way to enjoy bone marrow. That is the Bogo meal. I should enjoy the brooth, drinking it or using it in place of water to make my corn pap or eba. For those who still consume corn flakes or Quaker oats, marrow brooth may not only add to the nutrition but also improve the taste.

    As my acquaintance in reference has been unable to source sizeable amounts of bone marrow in Lagos on a sustainable basis everyday, there may be a call for help overseas. In the interim Bogo may come to the rescue. Bogo is biscuit bone. It is a rave of Tolulope Christiana Arogundade, a final year National Diploma Student of Mass communications at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, especially when it comes in pepper soup. I am well advised that we can obtain large amounts of bone marrow from Bokoto, or cow’s leg bone.

    The lesson we all should learn from the bone marrow is that we need to eat well, always. Eating well is not about loading up on any junk to fill the stomach. The bone marrow has large amounts of Vitamin A. Do we eat Vitamin A-rich foods? The bone marrow has large amounts of Vitamins and Minerals. Do we deliberately consume them in the diet? Do we pay attention to the counsel, always, in this column to add to the daily diet for this and other purpose Vitamin and mineral-rich greens such as Barley grass, Wheatgrass, Spirulina, Kale, Chlorella, Alfalfa et.c? The bone marrow contents feature 0.2 percent concentration of Alkylglycerols. Do we consume food supplements rich in them such as Shark Liver Oil? What about iron? What about the other nutrients in bone marrow? The standard Nigerian breakfast of bread, Margarine and boiled or fried egg lacks these features. Bread is devitalised carbohydrate from which such nutrients as Vitamin B-complex, Vitamin E and Lecithin, to mention a few, have been removed and sold as food supplements. Margarine is nothing but a trans fatty acid which blocks blood vessels, increasing in some people the risks of atherosclerosis, heart attack and stroke. The egg of free range chicken is good. But the standard, cheap and easily available egg is loaded with dyes to make the yolk appear yellow. Dyes are chemical poisons which may cause cancer. In contrast, the yolk of the egg of the free range chicken is made yellow by the beta carotene in the grass which these chickens eat. The poultry farmer cannot afford natural beta carotene and, so, to be competitive, goes for chemical dyes in the chicken feed. The feed comes, also, (and the egg does, too) with loads of hormones, especially estrogen, to stimulate the reproductive system of the hen so it can lay egg almost everyday, an unnatural event. Too much estrogen  may cause breast cancer, uterine fibroids and infertility in men and women. Milk, too, is in this standard breakfast of bread, margarine, egg and tea. It is loaded, like the egg, with estrogen to make the cow produce milk almost everyday, again, an unnatural event.

    We need to eat well for our bone marrows. The bone marrow seems to me to be, like the liver, a pantry or nutrient store, where nutrients are released from time to time for its protection, empowerment and support for other parts of the body. When this store falls low, troubles may brew in the bone marrow and in other parts of the body. Chemotherapy wipes this store or pantry and may even damage delicate structures in the bone hollow. There is hope, however, for the possibility of an upbuilding.

    So, my friend, get up in that march, jubilantly, in the recognition that neither drugs nor injections, but the right kinds of foods and drinks bring lasting health.

  • Presidency: three million pupils enjoying free meal

    •14 states participating    •Over 33,000 cooks hired

    The Presidency said yesterday that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is close to its target of feeding three million primary school pupils under the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, which is one of the four on-going Social Investment Programmes (SIP).

    According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, N6,204,912,889 has been paid to 14 states during the school year ending August 2017.

    He listed the 14 states covered under the school feeding programme as Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba and Kaduna.

    He said: “So far, a total of 2,827,501 school children are currently benefiting from the school feeding programme, which is well on course to achieve the Federal Government’s projection to feed over three million pupils this year.

    “In total, 33,895 cooks have been engaged in the communities where the schools are located across the 14 states.

    “Anambra State received N693,013,300, while a total of 103,742 children have been fed thus far, with 1,009 cooks paid.

    “Enugu State got N 571,877, 400 and 108,898 children have been fed so far, with 1,276 cooks paid.

    “In Oyo State, N490,296,800  was released by the Federal Government for the feeding of 107,983 children, with 1,372 cooks engaged.

    “Osun State received N1,000,394,888 for the feeding of 151,438 children. A total of 2,863 cooks were engaged in the state.

    “Similarly, Ogun State received N1,042,217,400 for the feeding of 231,660 school children, while a total of 2,205 cooks were paid.

    “For Ebonyi State, N344, 633,100 has been released for the feeding of 163,137 pupils so far, with 1,453 cooks paid.”

    Akande said: “In the same vein, Zamfara State received N402,295,600 for the feeding of 107,347 schoolchildren and 1,127 cooks were engaged.

    “Delta State received N225,896,300 for the feeding of 141,663 pupils. A total of 1,364 cooks were engaged.”

    He added: “Abia and Benue states received N128,763,600 and N337,157,800 respectively to feed 61,316 and 240,827 pupils respectively. In Abia State, 750 cooks were engaged, while 3,344 cooks were paid in Benue State.

    “Similarly, Plateau and Bauchi states received N133,187,600 and N214,909, 101 for the feeding of 95,134 and 307,013 pupils respectively in the states. Also, 1,418 cooks have so far been engaged in Plateau State, with 3,261 in Bauchi State.

    “For Taraba State, N120,284, 500 was paid and 171,835 pupils have thus far been fed, with a total of 2,596 cooks paid.

    “Kaduna State received N499,985,500 while 835,508 pupils have been fed so far. Also, 9,857 cooks were paid under the programme in the state.”

    According to him, more states and primary school pupils are expected to benefit from the programme when schools reopen next month.

  •  A meal for Mediterranean fishes

    SIR: There is a pervading and nauseating culture of deafening silence on the part of African leaders on what

    could be called a weekly report from Mediterranean Sea –where many African youths in quest for greener pastures in Europe ignorantly make themselves a perfect meal for sea lives.

    Why are African youths so desperate to leave Africa?  It shows how politics and government have degenerated on the continent.

    If governments are working, that is ‘doing for the people what they cannot do for themselves,’ no African youths will fancy leaving their country, let alone through the Sahara desert and with a derelict ship over the Mediterranean. What this is telling us is simple: leadership failure!

    Africans are fleeing Africa because of the vicious circle of poverty ravaging the continent. They are fleeing because of the staggering level of unemployment hitting their countries. They are fleeing because their governments lack the vision needed to transform Africa into a better place.

    The environment is configured to suit and serve the needs of the elite class and their cronies. The ordinary man in Africa is just a mere pawn on the political chess board. So tell me why there won’t be migration spike?

    Africa is no longer conducive for youths. Everything -virtually everything- is in a state of disarray.  No African youths will ever decline any opportunity to leave this continent that our leaders have associated with backwater.

    What do you expect from a youth from Burundi –where Pierre Nkurunziza is running an illegitimate government – when he hears that he could make it to Spain if he makes it to Algeria through the Sahara?  What do you expect from a youth from Zimbabwe –where god Mugabe reigns – when he hears that a ship can take him to Italy only if he could make it to Libya?  Or a Nigerian youth – a country in which 90% of youths are potential migrants – who is so convinced of making it to  Italy if he enters Libya? Or a youth from the Failed State of Libya who does not need to cross the Sahara desert? What do you expect of them?

    Each month –nowadays weeks–able and energized African youths leave their families, friends and relations and embark on a perilous journey to Europe through the Sahara desert and Mediterranean. Many die or are killed by traffickers in the Sahara; dozens drown in the Mediterranean and a few make it to Europe –some even got deported. That’s the plight of an African youth.

    According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2011, 61,000 people fled to   Italy from North Africa and the figure  skyrocketed to 130,000 in 2014.

    African leaders are uninterested in these reports because they are suffering from what Barbara Tuchman dubbed ‘woodheadedness.’  Is not scary that no emergency meeting has been called by AU to consider the matter? Is not appalling that no campaign has been started by AU to deescalate this spike? Seriously, Africa needs regeneration.

    Having said this, African youths should understand that only a fool finds solution in running away from his problem. Africa’s problem centres squarely on leadership and it can only be solved by African youths –so why run away?

    Also, wearing the cloaks of hard work and contentment will do. You must not travel to Europe or Americas to make it –if Dangote made it in Nigeria, you too can make it here!

    • Asikason Jonathan,

    Lapai , Niger state.

     

  • Aregbesola fights poverty with O’Meal

    Aregbesola fights poverty with O’Meal

    There were grim statistics for Nigeria from the recently released “State of School Feeding Worldwide Report”, compiled by the World Food Programme (WFP).

    The report, launched at the United Nations headquarters in New York, indicated that only one out of five school children get a healthy school meal in developing countries. The report also presented a gloomy picture of Nigeria’s school feeding programme highlighting that less than 500,000 school children get a decent meal in school. In that report, Nigeria and Cameroon shared the ignoble position of coming last.

    In 2004, Nigeria began a pilot project of Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFHP) which was part of the Universal Basic Education Programme. It was designed to feed pupils in elementary public schools. But out of the 13 states that participated in the programme, only one state remained committed to the continued implementation and improvement of the project: The state is Osun.

    The state governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been developing a simple theory with his re-organised school feeding programme in the state. For him, providing nutritious and healthy meals in schools has a direct link to mental development and the eradication of poverty.

    Therefore when in April 2012, he decided to review the school feeding programme with a bigger and better menu, he targeted not just the children but also the farmers in the state. The Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O’Meals), which was the result of the new thinking in the state has since surpassed most of its main objectives.

    One of the cardinal points of O’Meals is to increase enrollment and retention of school children in state primary schools. Within four weeks of the commencement of the programme however, school enrollment has jumped about 25 per cent in government primary schools. By June 30, 2012, enrollment increased from 155,318,000 to 194,253 from primaries 1-3.

    Basking in the euphoria of this success, the state government promptly widened the scope and included primary 4 in the scheme. The state now feeds a total of 252,793,000 students daily at the annual cost of N3billion. From the report of the WFP, Osun State accounts for more than half of the total number of children getting healthy and nutritious school meals in Nigeria.

    The operation officer of O’meal, Mrs. Bunmi Ayoola, said the programme has achieved and surpassed its objectives of increasing school enrollment in the state. She said the government also ensures that the food is prepared in a healthy and neat environment.

    “Balanced diet helps in developing the brain’s capacity as well as cognitive response index of each child and it plays a major role in ensuring that children assimilate learning instructions fast and well,’’ she said.

    Fighting poverty and increasing enterprise

    But increased enrollment was not the only intention of the Osun State government; reduction of poverty and boosting small and medium scale enterprise were also key points in the school feeding programme. According to the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, the rebirth of the school feeding programme has had a positive impact on farmers.

    “As part of six points integral action plan of the state government to banish hunger, create employment and education for all; the school feeding programme has increased the enrollment of the pupils by 25 per cent within the two weeks of re-introduction, allowed farmers to engage in massive food production and encouraged learning in primary schools. Let me tell you that 80 per cent of food production by the farmers in the State will be used for feeding of our kids in the programme”.

    The deputy governor revealed that over 900 cocoyam farmers have been empowered by the government.

    “In order to ensure that the programme is sustained, we have encouraged our farmers to go into massive production of fish and chicken with which to feed the pupils. We have also directed our farmers to go into massive production of plantain, banana and very soon we are thinking on the possibility of going into massive production of rice and establish rice mills across the state to encourage our farmers,” she said.

    More than 3,000 women in the state have also been empowered to serve as the food vendors. The vendors are well kitted with modern cooking utensils and bowls at the cost of N152 million to the state government. One of the vendors, Mrs. Esther Ogundipe said the programme has empowered her family. “Aregbesola has added value to my life; I am no more a housewife,’’ she said.

    Today, according to the state government, 15,000 whole chickens are sourced weekly from local poultry farmers; 254,000 eggs sourced weekly; 35 heads of cattle purchased weekly from local cattle farmers and 400 tonnes of catfish purchased weekly from local fish farmers.

    Even though some have criticised the enormous cost of the programme, the WFP said even in developed country, the amount spent by government on school meals is a worthy investment for the future.

    “This will help raise healthy adults for the future, it is a worthy investment by any government,” the world body said.

    At mid-day on any school day, the bell rang; food vendors immaculately dressed began to make preparations for the feeding of their wards. All across the state, the same process is repeated at every primary school. Meals like Yam Porridge, bread soaked in a steaming red stew with chicken to garnish, beans porridge and vegetables, all complemented with fruits were handed over to 250,000 children. In Osun schools, time for break means time for “Ounje Aregbe.”