Nigeria Primary School Pupils Will Soon Enjoy ‘A Meal Per Day’ From Federal Government

The Federal Government has raised the hope of primary school pupils in the country with a promise that they would soon enjoying what it called a meal per day programme.
The government said that the programme is one of the numerous measures aimed at creating massive job opportunities for the youth and other unemployed Nigerians.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo dropped this hint today when he addressed Nigerians in Diaspora at the 7th National Diaspora Conference held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the Vice President, the government would give the textile and garment factories a new lease of life in the shortest possible time, adding that there would also be investment in the area of infrastructure, agriculture and mining sectors which will absorb many of the qualified unemployed.
He emphasised that government’s job creation plan will include a one meal per day programme for primary school pupils expected to create several job opportunities.
Outlining some of the economic plans and policies of the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration based on the bottom-up approach, Professor Osinbajo said government’s intervention will come in the provision of physical, infrastructure, implementation of robust economic and social policies that will provide opportunities and succor for 110 million poor people in the country.
“in the power sector, the administration aims to consistently generate 5,000 megawatts of power going into first quarter of next year.” He made it clear that this would involve aggressively ensuring that all power related projects are speedily concluded.
In the hydro-carbon industry, he said that the administration is pursuing a long over-due reform, saying that in the short and medium term, the NNPC would be re-organized.
“In agriculture sector, government would pursue self-sustenance in the production of items such as rice, wheat, cotton and therefore considerably reduce foreign exchange requirement for importation of these items as rice importation alone consumes about $4 billion.
“I have gone to this length to underscore the important role that Nigerians in Diaspora can play in the new Nigeria which is now under construction. It is well known that several nations of the world have tapped into the wealth of knowledge and exposure of their Diaspora mixed with those at home to build a thriving economy. India has attained its present global status in part because of the contribution of its Diaspora.”
The Vice President insisted that now is the right time for Nigerians in Diaspora to make sacrifices towards contributing their quota to nation building, especially when the country is presently facing numerous obstacles and challenges.
“I propose that the impact the Diaspora of those nations have brought to bear would not have been possible if they were not prepared to make sacrifices. If many of them had waited for the home environment to be completely ideal, before they start to actively get involved and engaged in their home countries, they would probably still be waiting up till now.”
Professor Osinbajo assured the Diaspora community of the resolve of the Buhari administration to resolutely tackle some of the numerous challenges confronting the country, emphasizing that the Federal Government is poised to take the critical steps in repositioning Nigeria towards the path of greatness again. [myad]