Nasarawa ‘Ghost School’ Feeding Fraud

Were ghosts to blame for the federal government’s school feeding program fraud in Nasarawa State? Worryingly, 349 non-existent public primary schools were included in the scheme, for which money was disbursed and pocketed by officials.

They’ve been dubbed “ghost schools.” However, the fraudsters have not been identified or prosecuted.

Governor Abdullahi Sule lamented recently when he hosted members of the newly constituted enumeration committee of the programme in Lafia, the state capital: “We have over 1,200 schools, but only 800 and something they actually presented – which are the ones you verified, and the others are the duplications. The duplications were the ones the criminals were making money from, but in reality, denying the other schools that would have been benefiting from it.”

Indeed, according to the special adviser to the minister of humanitarian affairs, Mallam Abdullahi Usman, top ministry officials in Abuja had called for the removal of Nasarawa State from the scheme following the discovery, but this was rejected in order not to punish the innocent children that would benefit from the scheme.

The National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), which is under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, is one of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) launched by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2016.

The aim of the intervention programme is to encourage school enrollment and improve pupils’ general wellbeing by providing one meal per pupil on school days in selected public primary schools.

According to reports, the governor urged officials involved in the program to be honest and God-fearing, warning that any official caught diverting funds intended for the scheme would be held accountable.

Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, was quoted in May as saying that over 10 million students received one free nutritious meal per day during the school year in over 53,000 schools. She stated that her ministry intended to reach an additional five million students by 2023. According to Dr. Umar Bindir, the National Coordinator of NSIP, the ministry spends N12 billion per month on school feeding.

Considering the fraud discovered in the implementation of the programme in Nasarawa State, there may well be other states where the programme is also marred by fraud. Curiously, in the case of Nasarawa State, the state programme officer and the consultant were said to have been suspended and replaced. Was that sufficient punishment?

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