*Urges governments to prioritize nutrition
Despite efforts put in by the federal government to prioritise nutrition, Nigeria has the second highest number of stunted children in the world, First lady, federal republic of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari has said.
Speaking during her remarks at the virtual national nutrition summit, Mrs Buhari lamented that these stunted children may never be able to have an optimally productive adult life.
The virtual conference was convened by the wife of the President through her pet project, Aisha Buhari Foundation, in collaboration with the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH).
She lamented that the current global pandemic and shrinking fiscal space has further worsened the situation by moving all attention and resources towards the containment of COVID -19 virus.
While calling on governments at all level to ensure that nutrition is prioritise, the first lady added that until that is done, Nigeria will unconsciously exclude the vulnerable children in the process, thereby leaving them vulnerable to COVID 19 infection and other diseases.
She said, ‘’by now we are certain that the Government and people of Nigeria are not oblivious of the nutrition situation in the country. We have the Federal and state councils on nutrition chaired by key government officials who ensure that decisions on nutrition related issues are not delayed.
‘’The National Council for Food and Nutrition chaired by His Excellency the Vice President of the Federal republic of Nigeria, is one of such platforms that demonstrates the Government’s commitment to prioritise nutrition. We have Policies at federal and state levels addressing various aspects of Nutrition as well.
‘’However, it is sad that despite these efforts, Nigeria still records millions of children suffering from one form of malnutrition or the other, some even die from the most severe form of malnutrition. Nigeria has the second highest number of children in the world who are too short for their age, and these stunted children may never be able to have an optimally productive adult life.
‘’To ignore this, is to mortgage our future, because tomorrow, we would not have competent young adults to run government, businesses or even the academia.
‘’Looking beyond the figures you will see actual children who are practically unsure of their next breath. Yet we all live in the community with them, as parents, neighbours, community leaders, business owners, Civil society groups and government.
‘’Although we do not physically isolate these children, we isolate them emotionally each time we have a chance to take any decision in favour of them and fail to do so.
‘’The current global pandemic and shrinking fiscal space has further worsened the situation by moving all attention and resources towards the containment of COVID -19 virus.
‘’We may have unconsciously excluded these vulnerable children in this process, thereby leaving the already vulnerable children affected by severe acute malnutrition in extra jeopardy without a fighting chance against the COVID 19 infection. We should realize that their lives are equally as important’’.
Also, Nutrition experts while lending their voices appealed to the federal government to immediately return the N800 million budgetary allocation for Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) it removed from the 2020 budget.
They said that malnutrition in Nigeria is basically caused by the federal government’s lack of specific budget for nutrition and strategic plan of action.
They lamented that the removal of the fund has led to zero allocation for nutrition and would hamper the war against malnutrition, saying the country has over the years depended largely on donors for nutrition funding.
One of the nutrition experts, Beatrice Eluaka, the Executive Secretary of Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), said Nigeria has the second highest number of stunted children in the world with two million children battling with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
She explained that only two out of every 10 children currently suffering from SAM are reached for treatment and with the Covid-19 pandemic, cases of malnutrition have risen in the country.
“We call on government to return the N800 million RUTF allocation removed from the 2020 budget of the federation as Nigeria runs the risk of increased burden of malnutrition if government allows the emergency situation of Covid-19 to stop them from funding and implementing nutrition programmes and interventions in the country.”
