By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The first Lady, Dr Mrs Aisha Buhari has lamented the exclusion of children’s nutritional needs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and called for an end to the scourge of malnutrition in Nigeria.
Buhari said that recently resources are being channel towards containment of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, while unconsciously excluding vulnerable children.
Buhari who was represented by wife of the Vice President Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo at a stakeholders conference impact on COVID-19 charged stakeholders in the nutrition sector to ensure that malnutrition ravaging Nigerian children is put to an end,
She said, “to ignore this is to morgage our future because tomorrow we would not have competent young adults to run our government, businesses or even the academia”
The First Lady noted that although malnutrition is an obvious situation in the country, the government in recent years have made progress especially in engaging stakeholders through advocacy for more nutrition budget lines at the Federal and state levels.
She however expressed hope that all stakeholders will strengthen commitment towards nutrition.
Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire in his speech emphasized that Nigeria has the highest rate of malnutrition in Africa and second highest in the world, adding that there is need for concerted effort to address the negative trend.
The conference which was attended by over 400 participants centered on the multi-sectoral plan of action, innovative financing, private sector engagement, and the impact of COVID-19.
