Immediately after he came to power, Buhari was determined to bring his long-time vision for children in Nigeria to manifestation. He had long believed that if anybody was going to make young children desire to come to school, provisions to provide food for them must be made, particularly in the north, where young children run the risk of becoming street beggars because of the endemic poverty in the land, of which children were the major victims.
His desire to attract children back to school gave birth to the National home-grown school feeding program, and he didn't mind the amount of money that was wasted on the program.
The two-time head of state knew the risk he took, but he didn't mind the consequences that the program might bring to his integrity, as many of the program's facilitators fed fat on the program to the point that the next President didn't want to touch the program with a long pole. What is the desired result of the laudable program? Bring as many children to public schools as possible.
The first challenge the program faced was a lack of data for the school children. At least the number of pupils should be made known for each state, then the endemic challenge of corruption reared its ugly head.
The number of pupils to be catered for was grossly misappropriated then the unavailability of funds. Mohamed Buhari pushed on all the same until the end of his tenure. Today, one of the reasons the Tinubu government is being accused of lacking a human face is the abandonment of the school feeding program.
The position of the President is a thankless one in Nigeria since the number of out-of-school children has greatly increased when the government stopped the program. Over seventy-seven thousand cooks will be rendered jobless until the government decides to go back to the program. This program was the only genuine attempt to seriously keep primary school students off the streets because many come to school on an empty stomach.