The Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose has stated that he would not be supporting the Federal Government’s school feeding programme.
The government had stated that for the school feeding scheme to succeed, a 40% contribution would be required from all states.
Fayose has stated that Ekiti cannot afford it and that the APC-led government was just looking for an excuse if the scheme fails.
Fayose in a statement stressed that the scheme was a contract purely between the Federal government and the people and he would not be getting in the middle of it.
“Were the States consulted before the APC made the promise during the presidential campaign? How can you make a promise and win election on the basis of that promise and now expect States to help you to fulfil the promise? That to me is fraud!” He said.
The governor continued “Apart from the fact that Ekiti State lacked the financial wherewithal to provide counterpart fund for such a programme, it is the duty of President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC that won election on the basis of their promise to give free meal to school pupils to fulfil the promise without placing any burden on other tiers of government.”
Fayose is of the opinion that the Federal government take responsibility and find a way to make the scheme work rather than burdening states and using them as potential fall guys if the scheme fails.
“The federal government knows that 80 per cent of the states lack the financial will to be able to contribute the 40 per cent counterpart fund for the programme and the time the programme eventually fails, Nigerians will be told that it failed because States did not key in to it.
“As for us in Ekiti, we are interested in the programme because Nigeria belongs to all of us. But we won’t contribute any counterpart fund because the programme is solely an electoral promise of the APC and we were never consulted before the promise was made.
“We don’t even have the capability to make any financial contribution even if it is 10 per cent because our financial condition is such that we can’t even pay workers salary,” He concluded.