First Lady Remi Tinubu has called on development partners to assist in the country’s bid to roll out climate-friendly school meal programs.
She stated this at the Roundtable lunch organised by the Organization of African First Ladies for Development, OAFLAD, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, on the sidelines of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Acknowledging the potential of the school feeding programme to drive up school enrollment and promote nutrition among scholars, the First Lady, in a statement by her media aide, Busola Kukoyi, said the programme is under review in Nigeria.
While President Bola Tinubu has shown commitment by declaring a state of emergency on food security in the country, Senator Oluremi Tinubu noted that the launch of Young Farmers Club Nigeria and Every Home A Garden Competition promoted by her are clear indications of the priority attached to the provision of adequate nutritious meals to children and others in society.
Nigeria, with its surging population and climatic challenges, needs all the help it can get to ensure a sustainable rollout.
“Nigeria is open to assistance in that area. It is something that I believe we want to do so that we can have school enrollment up and then get most of the children, especially children from the North, that are going through desertification and, recently, flooding, as witnessed in Bornu State.
It is a hydra-headed problem that we are facing. But we are not scared but need all the assistance we can get, and you can believe in our administration that we are here to work for our people to get Nigeria back on its feet.”
The goal of the Roundtable lunch, which also had other members of OAFLAD in attendance, was to position the school meals agenda in the G20 engagement of the African Union.
