The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has corruption in its DNA.
The party that has governed the country since the return of democracy in 1999 until in 2015 when it was booted out stated this while accessing the ongoing school feeding programme of the federal government, describing it as a scam.
In an interview with Punch Newspapers, the National Publicity Secretary of the opposition party, Kola Ologbondiyan, wondered how possible it is to feed school children who are at home due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Ologbondiyan also criticised the loans taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“We have always said the whole school feeding programme as being carried out by this administration is a monumental scam. This is a programme which the government and agencies handling it have refused to give adequate accounts about, especially to taxpayers,” the PDP spokesman told the national daily.
“It should beat anybody’s imagination that pupils are at home, in their parent’s houses, and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Faruq, is telling Nigerians that they are taking over the functions of parents by feeding school pupils right in their parents’ homes. We are also being told that they are spending unbelievable sums of money on this programme.
“It beats my imagination that such a thing is happening in the 21st century and no one is saying anything and people are not being held to account for the billions of naira being wasted in the name of this modified school feeding programme.
“This regime is taking billions of dollars as loans from all over the world and this is how they are spending. It is quite unfortunate.”
He said the PDP has made several request to the government to release details of its spending on the initiative but the APC administration refused and has adopted lies as one of its guiding principle.
“We have made several requests. We have demanded that they make public details of the budget for this programme because as of the time the 2020 budget was passed, there was no COVID-19 lockdown. We and other concerned members of the Nigerian public have demanded that this regime make public, details of beneficiaries of their Social Investment Programme. We have demanded for the details of beneficiaries of the school feeding programme.
“Nigerians will like to know those households benefiting from this so called programme and all we are getting are torrents of propaganda laced with unverifiable figures; we want real answers with verifiable facts. We want to be sure that just like the party made promises it has clearly failed to deliver on, Nigerians are not being taken for another ride.
“When the minister was asked about the school feeding programme recently, all she could mutter was that the Federal Government was providing the funds and that the state governments were driving the process. This is laughable for a regime that has left our educational and health systems in shambles. Everybody is looking helpless while our scarce resources are being frittered away under various guises. For how long will this regime continue to try to deceive Nigerians?
“It’s a shame. The lie that has been the guiding principle of this regime has always been laid bare by the discordant tunes being sung by ministers and appointees of the regime each time they are to speak about programmes being carried out. There is usually a lack of cohesion in answers given when asked to explain the regime’s actions.
“It is rather unfortunate that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has chosen to use innocent school children as cover to loot a whooping N679m daily. There can be no bigger crime against our innocent children and long-suffering parents who toil daily in search of a better life in the midst of plenty. The claim that children are being fed at home is clear evidence that corruption is in the DNA of the APC. We shall overcome sooner than later,” he added.
