Editorial: Let us allow Community Food Bank Fund be

The National Food Community Bank, the pet project of Her Excellency, Chief/Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, the wife of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria is breaking ground to get nutritional foods to the poorest of the children through the established food banks already in Borno, Jigawa, Kogi and the recently inaugurated one in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

The community food banks when established across all the states and local government of the Federation, will effectively be a pulling force to food productivity as free feeding vouchers will be given to the children qualified for free nutritious food. We see this effort as commendable and must be allowed to continue unhindered.

Speaking in Abeokuta, the First Lady of the Federation, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu encouraged all the states and local governments to replicate the bank in order to be able to impact the dividend of democracy to the vulnerable children through making constant food supplies available for the period of six years so as to allow other beneficiaries to benefit.

This project is also meant to address acute food challenges facing post-harvest losses by farmers as agricultural produce evacuations and other necessary logistics are provided to make food affordability, accessibility and availability very possible, especially to the most vulnerable children across the states and local governments.

The question here is the sustainability in view of many food programs that have come and gone into oblivion dues to inconsistencies and policy failure on the part of the government itself.

In our view and position, a project like this must be well structured to have a life hereafter for the purpose of its good intentions in a sustainable way across the nation through the trust fund pull strategy of the private and public sectors' intervention targeting most vulnerable children with nutritional foods.

We advised that both the states and local government must embrace this program with fund support for life sustainability beyond the power period of the office of the wife of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the subsequent first ladies must uphold the positive intentions of the program for the poor of the poorest children of the Federation.