Open Letter To:
His Excellency,
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
Aso Rock Villa,
Asokoro, Abuja, Nigeria
Subject: Urgent Need to Commence the Home Grown School Feeding Programme
Your Excellency,
With profound respect and patriotic concern, I write this 2nd open letter to Your Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a citizen deeply troubled by the current suspension of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP), a scheme that once stood as a beacon of hope for over 10 million children, 185,000 caterers, and countless farming households across the length and breath of Nigeria.
Mr. President, the suspension of this crucial programme has unleashed a chain of negative socio-economic consequences that are rapidly eroding the gains recorded in school enrollment, nutrition, rural livelihoods, and national food security. Today, we are witnessing a silent crisis created by the vacuum of the absence of the Programme.
1. 185,000 Nigerian Caterers mostly women Now Unemployed and Hopeless
These caterers, largely women, are breadwinners in their homes. Their displacement has not only thrown their entire families into hardship but has also disrupted small-scale food economies in rural and urban communities alike. The negative ripple effect is dire for want of a better adjective.
Local farmers who supplied food items to these Caterers are losing revenue.
Transporters and food vendors Who were busy round the clock while the program was on full swing have recorded sharp and massive drops in demand.
Women-led households are spiraling into poverty because the 185 , 000 women caterers that catered for their homes are now dependants. Surely, this is an affront on the audacious renewed hope Agenda of your administration which must be controlled.
These are not statistics on paper — these are real Nigerians, who had dignified income sources through this programme.
Children Are Becoming Malnourished Again
Your Excellency, it is heartbreaking to report that in communities across northern and southern Nigeria, children are now going to school on empty stomachs, and many have stopped going altogether.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) already warned that Nigeria is grappling with one of the highest burdens of child malnutrition in the world.
Before the suspension, the HGSFP served as a nutritional safety net, particularly for children in rural and conflict-prone areas. Now, this safety net is gone.
. School Enrollment is Dropping Rapidly
The direct link between school feeding and increased enrollment is well documented. In states like Kano, Katsina, Benue, Osun, Delta and Bayelsa, local reports confirm a sharp decline in pupil attendance since the programme was halted.
Parents in rural areas, who previously sent their children to school assured of at least one daily meal, are now withdrawing them — not out of disinterest, but out of survival necessity.
A generation is at risk of growing up uneducated, underfed, and unskilled.
Agriculture Value Chains Are Disrupted
The brilliance of the HGSFP was its design: it integrated school children’s meals with local agricultural value chains. Farmers produced more. Rural economies boomed. Local poultry, fish, yam, rice, and vegetable markets flourished.
The suspension has reversed these gains. Production has declined. Market confidence has waned. The entire ecosystem of local agriculture have reduced dramatically, small holder farming, and nutrition is collapsing at an alarming rate.
Food Insecurity and Youth Restiveness Loom Larger
Mr. President, the link between food insecurity and rising insecurity cannot be overstated. Hungry children drop out of school. Jobless youth fall prey to extremism. Idle caterers and farmers become frustrated.
The HGSFP was a strategic response not just to hunger but to insecurity, unemployment, and lack of education. By suspending it, we are inadvertently feeding the social vices Your Excellency renewed hope Agenda is fighting to eliminate.
Mr. President, Your Renewed Hope Agenda Needs The School Feeding Programme.
Your Excellency, your Renewed Hope Agenda is focused on inclusive development, poverty reduction, and improved human capital. Which of the social welfare programmes going on now embodies the scope of the renewed hope more more than the Home Grown School Feeding Programme? Since the Programme is at sync with the renewed hope Agenda there is every need to bring it back on board.
Reviving The Home Grown School Feeding Programme initiative will bring about the following:
Restore dignity and income to thousands of Nigerian caterers who are the engine room of the Programme
Improve children’s cognitive development and educational outcomes.
Stabilize rural economies and strengthen food systems.
Galvanize and increase economic activity.
Align with the SDGs, especially Goals 1, 2, and 4 (No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Quality Education).
Conclusion
Your Excellency, time is of the essence. Each day without the school feeding programme pushes more families into poverty, more children into hunger, and more communities into despair.
Your Excellency, with humility ,
I respectfully urge you to:
Direct the immediate commencement of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme nationwide.
Ensure its funding is guaranteed and ring-fenced under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the Presidency.
Set up an inter-agency committee to oversee transparency, efficiency, and local stakeholder engagement in its implementation.
The legacy of your administration will be measured by how it uplifted the most vulnerable. Fundamentally , we must also get it right that The HGSFP is not a luxury — but it is a lifeline.. Tampering with a life line will sure put the life of those on the line in danger.
With deep hope and patriotic trust in your leadership, l am convinced that you will be Compassionate about the appeal for the vulnerable fellow Nigerians who found this Programme very beneficial.
Thanks and God bless
CC:
The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation
The Hon. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation
The Hon. Minister of Education
The Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives
Governors of the 36 States
Yours faithfully,
Comrade Wilson Macaulay:
Development Advocate & Public Affairs Commentator
From Warri, Delta State Nigeria
April 8, 2025
