By Ogenyi Ogenyi,Uyo
A civil society organization, CS-SUNN, has said that more than 800 children under the age of five die of malnutrition annually in Nigeria and has therefore called for increased budgetary allocation for nutrition by state governments to address the problem.
The Chairman Steering Committee of the organization for nutrition, Mallam Sodangi Chindo Adam disclosed this yesterday in Uyo at a two-day retreat for legislators and executives from Niger, Kano, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Lagos states.
The retreat has as its theme, “Improved Malnutrition Funding: The Role of Legislators and Executives”.
“What is currently happening is very worrisome because the statistics from the World Health Organization and United Nations Children Educational Fund and even the World Bank is showing that one million of our children are dying annually before age five.
“And what UNICEF did was to identify malnutrition as the underlying cause of the infant mortality and morbidity for over 80% of these children which means that over 800 of these children that die is as a result of malnutrition.
“This calls for action. That is why you see the legislators and state executives here for them to look at the statistics from world leading institutions like the WHO, UNICEF and World Bank for them to take appropriate action in their various states.
“I think we have the right mix of legislators including speakers, government agencies, permanent secretaries and other stakeholders. This is very apt and I think they will come out with solution to address this challenge.” Adams said.
On interventions by the state governments, he said that, “most of the states are battling with the challenges of budgeting. Appropriations are not made for nutrition and even they are made the issue of releases becomes a problem.
“That is why we have the legislators and principal officers of state assemblies. What we are trying to change is the budgeting so that improved amounts will be budgeted for nutrition.”
Speaking earlier, the organization’s Board of Trustees Chairman, Dr Mbang Ada explained that the aim of the retreat was to ensure food security for Nigerian children.
Ada urged legislators to make legislations that would support good and safe nutrition, adding that such foods should be free from contaminants.
