Describing the proposed Federal Government’s counterpart funding for the programme as a fraud, the outspoken governor said the APC- led government was already looking for an excuse to hinge the impending failure of the programme on.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka on Sunday, Fayose said his state will not pay the counterpart fund because the scheme was purely a contract between the ruling party and Nigerians despite been interested.
He said, “Were the States consulted before the APC made the promise during the presidential campaign? How can you make a promise and win election on the basis of that promise and now expect States to help you to fulfil the promise? That to me is fraud.
“Apart from the fact that Ekiti State lacked the financial wherewithal to provide counterpart fund for such a programme, it is the duty of President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC that won election on the basis of their promise to give free meal to school pupils to fulfil the promise without placing any burden on other tiers of government.”
He berated the ruling party for not carrying out proper feasibility studies before promising the scheme to Nigerians.
“The federal government knows that 80 per cent of the states lack the financial will to be able to contribute the 40 per cent counterpart fund for the programme and the time the programme eventually fails, Nigerians will be told that it failed because States did not key in to it.
“As for us in Ekiti, we are interested in the programme because Nigeria belongs to all of us. But we won’t contribute any counterpart fund because the programme is solely an electoral promise of the APC and we were never consulted before the promise was made.
“We don’t even have the capability to make any financial contribution even if it is 10 per cent because our financial condition is such that we can’t even pay workers salary,” Fayose said.
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