Beyond Free School Meals

I have read several write ups about Free Schools meals in Osun State and a similar scheme being proposed by The Federal Government of Nigeri and I would therefore like to make some comments.

According to information in the newsppapers the meals served include yam, beans,eggs, fish beef and fruits which are sourced from osun farming communities I would like to add to that list, groundnuts, Fresh Milk and Chocolate Drink no only because these are found to be nutritious and part of a balanced diet but also because it could help to revitalize the cocoa trade and bring back the groundnut pyramids in Kano and throw a challenge to our Animal Scientists, Veterinary Doctors and Food Scientists

Soccer star George Weah in a Message to the World Food Summit then in Rome was to Say ”More Food in Africa would lead to better football in Europe.” Not only “better Football” but also better Mathematics, better Engineering and better Medicine because when African Children are well fed not only their bones are well developed for physical activity like sports but their brains are also well formed.

When the Americans realized that they had been beaten in the Space race with the launching of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, then in 1957 they began to take early Childhood Ideas seriously.

We have been beaten in many races by smaller African countries . Is it not time we began to take early childhood ideas seriously?

Besides free meals for Nigerian Children I would also like to propose , Play Grounds, Toys and Literature for Children as it has been variuoly put forward by the International Board of Books for Young Children , Nigeria Chapter and the Children” Literature Association of Nigeria.

On Play grounds, my Physics Teacher in The Secondary School, Mr. Ayangbayi, then at Loyola College Ibadan,used to Say”If you did not attend a Nursery School you could not hope to understand Physics’.This is an an important poinr he was making. What you find in a Playground in Nursery School including the Swing, See Saw Merry Go Round, Slide, , Rocking Horses and Rocking boats can be used to illustrate salient aspects of the foundation discipline of Physics known as Classical mechanics.Classical Mechanics is in a large part about Objects in Motion and it was Isaac Newton who Said” Ignorant o f Motion: Ignorant of Nature” Infact , I later on saw a Documentry produced by the Germans under the title, PHYSICS OF HE PLAY GROUND” It should be noted here that the Germans gave us the word KINDERGATEN meaning” Children”s Garden” So far no Nigerian President has passed through Kindergarten . They all stared from Primary one. Maybe Kindergaten Should be made compulsory. in Nigeria.

. One had to learn German in other to study Physics in its Lingua Franca.It was the German Rocket

Rocket Scientists, lead by Wernher Von Braun who helped to land the Americans on the Moon. Gottingen in Germany used to be the Mecca of Mathematicians and the German Soccer team is known as the "German machine" because of the prowess of the Germans in designing Machines. A great number of the Machines powering the Chinese economy were made in Germany.

.According to Professor Segun Sowunmi, a Mathematician , now late and then Nigeria”s leading exponent of creative thinking, Nigerian Children should be provided with Toys, toys that help them to think in three dimensions.; this ability to think in three dimensions comes very useful in solving certain Mathematics and Engineering problems like in the design of machines for instance .It was Obafemi Awolowo who Said” One of the badges of poverty is the inability of men to invent and maintain machines” The Europeans do not grow Cassava but Europeans export Cassava processing machines to Nigeria and as the Engineer and ex President Olusegun had observed, the Japanese do not eat pounded Yam but at one time they were exporting pounded Yam Machines to Nigeria

As regards Literature for children , a Study carried out in the United States showed there is a correlation between the achievement imagery in Children”s books and the quantity of Steel and Electricity produced in the U.S. over a given period. We need books with a Nigerian cum African flavor. Books that would fire the imagination of Nigerian Children .It was Albert Einstein, Physicist and the greatest scientist of the 20^th century who said” Imagination is a lot better than Knowledge”

With all that I have stated I hope the Early Childhood experts, Chid Right Advocates, Nutritionists, Educationists and scientists would step forward so that these Nigerian Children would grow up not only to win the World Cup but also to land Nigerian Space crafts On Planets and Comets