Expand School Feeding programme-Urges Amoako Tuffuor (September, 25, 2009

THE former National Co-ordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Dr Kwame Amoako Tuffuor, has stressed the need to expand the GSFP to benefit more children instead of wasting time to fight over who has the right or not to cook for the children.
He said there were about three times more schools and children to benefit under the programme, while all those involved stood to gain, if the programme was expanded.
Dr Amoako Tuffuor, who was reacting to the recent controversy surrounding the GSFP, condemned the politicisation of the GSFP and said the programme was about Ghanaian children who needed to be fed to enable them to concentrate on their education and not about politics.
He emphasised that attacking existing caterers or fighting with each other was not the solution, adding that the solution to the issue rested with Ghanaians and the efforts to expand the programme to take care of more schools without hurting the children.
Dr Amoako Tuffuor advised against the politicisation of the programme, stressing that “NDC and NPP children who go to school do not go to school in party colours. They are being fed because they are citizens of the country”.
He took the opportunity to appeal to President J.E.A. Mills to put together a team to solve the problems confronting the programme to ensure its sustenance.
Dr Tuffuor pointed out that it was unfortunate that some people were associating politics with the programme, which everybody agrees is good for the children, and said he was equally amazed about the hatred from people, stressing that the attacks and vilification were totally unacceptable.
He said the controversy was about people not recognising the role the school feeding programme was playing in the country’s socio-economic development.
Elaborating the importance of the programme, he said the GSFP was to provide the children with good nutrition and to help promote their health, increase school attendance and help poor parents to save some money.
He noted that with the programme in place, farmers benefited when their foodstuffs were bought for the meals, a situation Dr Tuffuor said could serve as incentive to the farmers to cultivate more crops.
Dr Tuffuor said it would be suicidal for the government to cancel the programme, for the children would be denied their alienable right to food.
“Why should politics divide us on important issues of nation building?” he queried. The former co-ordinator however complained that in spite of all the contributions he made in the programme, it was amazing that he had been publicly vilified and undermined for different reasons, especially for poor management and financial malfeasance.
“These were absolute lies and politically motivated”, he stressed, adding that he managed the GSFP so successfully that within two years the programme had become the best in Africa and the government audit service had fully exonerated and vindicated him from all financial malpractices.
He noted that he was personally committed to children and ready to fight against hunger and poverty, especially among children, and would, therefore, not do anyting to hurt them.