There was a mild drama on Thursday as Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle of Zamfara State, forced school principals to eat the unpalatable food cooked for students in Government Science Secondary school, Gusau and Government Girls Secondary school, Gusau.
The directive elicited cheers and claps from the boarding students in the schools.
Governor Matawalle had directed all schools principals and feeding officers in the state to provide better food for students.
He asked them to eat the same food they serve the students or face dismissal.
The governor, who supervised the compulsory meal session by Principals and staff of Government Science Secondary School Gusau and Government Girls Secondary School Gusau, was dismayed seeing the students eat what he termed sub- standard food.
He said he was not happy with the quality of food he met in the two schools and directed that “henceforth, the principals and the feeding officers throughout the state must eat the same food they cook for their students or be dismissed”.
He warned that his administration would deal decisively with such negative attitude by those entrusted with the responsibility.
“You must henceforth eat your food with your students and I will keep you on watch so that those who violate the order would be dismissed,” Matawalle said.
He noted that the state government has been providing all necessary food items for the students and must therefore be delivered to them appropriately.
A couple of weeks ago, the state Project Verification Committee under the leadership of Alhaji Ahmad Abubakar Gusau discovered that the state government was being shortchanged millions of Naira in the school feeding programme.
“The number of the students being fed were over inflated thus allowing the fraudulent officials to illegally siphoned N7 bn every year. This is because, in the affairs of students feeding in the state, professionals and God- fearing individuals were removed and the program was handed to a cabal and they were grossly over inflating the number of students they claimed were being fed,” the committee’s report claimed.
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