The Nation Newspaper

Tag: World Food Programme (WFP).

  • PDP tasks Osinbajo on alleged N33bn corruption

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to address the allegation of corruption leveled against him by the House of Representatives.

    The lawmakers had, during the week, accused Osinbajo of complicity in a N33 billion scam allegedly perpetrated at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

    A statement on Saturday by the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, urged Osinbajo to respond to the allegation, instead of sermonizing and parading himself like a saint.

    The opposition party said the Vice President owed it as a personal moral burden, both as a preacher and Professor of law, to directly explain how the fund meant for the wellbeing of Nigerians suffering in the Northeast, was mismanaged under his supervision, instead of the lame attempts to dismiss the allegation and divert public attention from the scandal.

    “Nigerians were thoroughly appalled to learn, from the House of Representatives, how Prof. Osinbajo, as Acting President, in June 2017, unilaterally pulled N5.8 billion, from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, purportedly for emergency intervention on food in the North East, which has now turned scandalous.

    “Prof. Osinbajo should explain how, according to findings by the House of Representatives, all the six states of the Northeast failed to receive the emergency intervention for food security, for which a major part of the money was claimed to have been expended, under his direct supervision as Chairman of Board of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

    “What has Prof. Osinbajo to say on the revelation at the public hearing conducted by the House of Representatives that there was no evidence the World Food Programme (WFP) received the 5000 metric tons of rice, which NEMA claimed to have bought and donated to WFP for distribution to victims of insurgency in the region?

    “What has our Vice President to say to the report indicating that four of the companies that supplied food items to the region financed their projects through N2bn they each received as loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)?

    Read Also: Osinbajo: We have stopped ‘grand’ corruption

    “What is his answer to the huge allegations in the public domain that bulk of the money meant for suffering Nigerians in the Northeast was diverted to private pockets of key All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency cabal to finance their wasteful lifestyle?

    “The PDP is privy to the frantic effort by agents of the Presidency and the APC to arm-twist and intimidate the House of Representatives to abort its investigation and to ensure that the report does not see the light of day

    “If Prof. Osinbajo had no ulterior intentions, why did he pull the money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation without recourse to the statutory appropriation of the National Assembly?

    “The PDP holds that the action of the Vice President in unilaterally approving the release of the money to NEMA, where he also presides as the Chairman of Board is completely self-serving and ostensibly conceived and executed in corrupt intentions.

    “Instead of answering to the allegation, Prof. Osinbajo is employing rhetoric to divert attention, claiming that his actions are covered by his apparent abuse of Section 43 of the Procurement Act.

    “We invite the Vice President to note that Section 43 of the Procurement Act deals with the emergency duties of a procuring entity and  not the processes of drawing funds from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation which is covered by the Constitution. As such, there is no way he can justify his actions under any of our laws.

    “The Vice President should therefore advice himself properly by responding to the huge corruption questions and stop his unnecessary posturing”.

  • WFP chief calls for more efforts to overcome crisis in Northeast

    WFP chief calls for more efforts to overcome crisis in Northeast

    The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley has hailed the massive and joint push by Nigerian authorities and humanitarian workers to save lives in the Northeast part of the country.

    He gave the commendation after talks with top officials and people left destitute by the crisis in region but warned on Wednesday that the momentum must continue in the face of a complex and challenging emergency.

    “We are seeing the power of humanitarian assistance,” said Beasley, following a trip to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State that is hardest hit by the Boko Haram-driven crisis.

    “It has changed the lives of malnourished children whose mothers once worried about whether they would survive,” he said.  “It is giving hope to many displaced and hungry people, and to others who are now returning home. Together, we are making a difference, but we must build on these fragile successes.”

    Beasley who is on a  two-day visit to Nigeria — his first since being appointed to head WFP in March — held meetings with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Borno State Deputy Governor Usman Durkwa.

    He also spoke with community leaders and young mothers at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camp in Maiduguri, a city that shelters hundreds of thousands fleeing hunger and conflict.

     

    Beasley warned of the broader impact of the crisis that goes beyond Nigeria and spreads across the four-nation Lake Chad Basin region that also includes Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

    “This is a major crisis that needs a security, humanitarian and development component — these are key to resolving it in the short and long term,” he said. “The international community cannot afford to ignore this problem, or it risks getting much worse.”

    He also noted the Nigerian government’s significant hunger-fighting commitments, which include a recent donation of 5,000 mt of rice to WFP’s operations. Authorities have launched a separate relief initiative aimed to distribute 30,000 mt of rice to hungry people in six Nigerian states.

    Across Northeast Nigeria this year, WFP through its partners has been delivering monthly food and nutritional assistance to more than a million extremely vulnerable people. Thanks to generous donor contributions, our steady support helps to stabilize lives.

    But the overall situation remains extremely worrying. The June-September lean season has worsened malnutrition in many places.

    WFP has purchased nearly $95 million worth of locally grown food for its operations, and injected an overall US$212 million into the Nigerian economy if cash transfers, transport, local salaries and other expenditures are taken into account.

     

  • WFP appeals for $172m for North-East Nigeria

    WFP appeals for $172m for North-East Nigeria

    The World Food Programme (WFP) says it urgently needs 172 million dollars for its operations in north-east Nigeria to alleviate the impact of lean season in the area.

    The UN food agency said the lean season was driving up food prices and depleting the meagre resources of millions of people affected by conflict and intensifying hunger.

    The agency said the hardest-hit states were Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, when an estimated 5.2 million people were affected and urgently needed food assistance.

    WFP said there is need to avert famine from affecting more than one-third of the population, adding tens of thousands were already having difficulties to feed themselves.

    “A funding shortfall has forced WFP to suspend plans to ramp up assistance during the June-August lean season.

    “They now plan to reach only 1.36 million people monthly during this crucial period, down from previous target of 1.8 million.

    “Even those receiving food, nutrition and cash assistance are getting less of it. WFP is helping only the very hungriest and most vulnerable.

    “This is a brutal form of triage but the agency says that given adequate resources, it could do much more,” the UN food agency said.

    WFP also issued an urgent call for one billion dollars to help 20 million people needing food assistance in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

    “These funds, which would cover the next six months, must come now, as delays would result in needless suffering,” it said.

    WFP said Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen were entering the so-called hunger season, the annual period when food from the last harvest runs out and the death rate among children spikes.

    WFP also stressed that any blocking of aid by any group translated into the suffering and death of the innocent, adding that using food as a weapon of war was unacceptable.

  • UN agencies declare famine in parts of South Sudan

    UN agencies said on Monday declared famine in parts of South Sudan.

    According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN children’s fund UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) said no fewer than 100,000 people are facing starvation in parts of violence-plagued South Sudan.

    “Famine is currently affecting parts of Unity State in the northern-central part of the country.

    “A formal famine declaration means people have already started dying of hunger,” the three agencies said.

    An additional one million are on the brink of famine in several parts of the country, where farming has been hampered since a military conflict erupted between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, in December 2013.

  • IDPs: EFCC signs MoU with WFP

    IDPs: EFCC signs MoU with WFP

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday signed a MoU with the World Food Programme (WFP) to protect the distribution of food aids in the country against fraud.

    EFCC spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, who disclosed this in a statement, said the signing ceremony took place at the commission’s head office in Abuja.

    Under the MoU, EFCC officials are expected to closely monitor the implementation of WFP intervention programmes, including distribution of food aids to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the development is coming amid reports of diversion of relief materials meant for IDPs by government officials.

    In September, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the police to arrest officials accused of involvement in the act.

    The EFCC Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, pledged the commission’s support for WFP to ensure that its donations and those of the government reached their beneficiaries free of corruption.

    Magu stated that the EFCC-WFP partnership would greatly help in alleviating the sufferings of internally displaced people especially in the northern part of the country.

    “We assure you that we will follow you to every nook and cranny of the North Eastern states such as Yobe, Borno and Adamawa.

    “We will be with you whereever you need our attention. If there are no operatives where you are, we will send you operatives from here.

    “We will support and work with your intervention to reach its beneficiaries without any threat of corruption,’’ the statement quoted him as saying.

    Earlier, Mr Bernadin Assiene, the WFP Director of Inspections and Investigations, noted that that the MoU was an important aspect of WFP’s intervention in Nigeria.

    Its main objective, according to him, is to ensure that all the support mobilised by the programme does not only effectively reach the target beneficiaries but also corruption-free.

    Assiene described the MoU as first of its kind and a confirmation that the EFCC was the right partner to help WFP to establish specific assurance mechanisms in Nigeria.

    “EFCC’s expertise, reputation and track record of successful engagements in the fight against fraud and corruption in the utilisation of foreign assistance is well recognised, both nationally and internationally,’’ he said.

    Mr Sory Ouane, the WFP Representative and Country Director, explained how the WFP had provided intervention to the North-East through its intervention programme, assuring that it would continue.

    “The ongoing conflict in northeast Nigeria has the potential to cause further displacement and increase food insecurity.

    “Therefore, WFP is revising its emergency operations to implement a robust scale up and an integrated response to meet the overwhelming needs in northeast Nigeria.

    “We are targeting 1.8 milllion people in Borno and Yobe in 2017,’’ Ouane said, according to the statement.
    While Magu signed the MoU on behalf of the EFCC, Assiene signed for the WFP, the statement added.

  • 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.”

     

  • 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.

    aregbeThe 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.”