“Nigeria government remains complacent about malnutrition”- Experts

Nutrition experts on Friday, said that the Federal government has remained complacent and uncommitted to the fight against malnutrition in Nigeria.

Davis Bamidele Omotola, Nutrition Consultant said the government over the period has been lackadaisical in its intervention towards combating malnutrition in Nigeria especially in the North East.

He said “The government is not committed to controlling malnutrition in Nigeria, not all funds allocated for this course are released and the funds released often come late, and this hinders the effective usage and tracking of the funds”.

Bamidele, speaking at the 2-day media dialogue with the theme “child malnutrition in North East” organised by the child right information bureau (crib) of the Federal ministry of information in collaboration with the United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF), said that there is need for the government to commit more resources to nutrition, adding that adequate investment in nutrition fosters human and national development of any nation.

“The government need to reorder it’s priorities, development as we know is more about human beings hence they should be given the attention they deserve”.

Martin Jackson, Nutrition officer, UNICEF stressed on the need for more governmental intervention to encourage wider coverage of the affected population adding that there is a continuous rise in infant mortality arising from issues relating to malnutrition.

Jackson said that UNICEF has often time collaborated with several donors such Action against Hunger, world food program and the Federal government to address issues relating to health, Nutrition, child protection, food and security.

“The government should provide more support to ensure a wider coverage of states and local government affected. There is still poor coverage of programs targeting children with moderate acute malnutrition”.

According to him, the projected interventions in 2018 include; reaching out to 43,952 children affected by severe acute malnutrition with medical complications; strengthen 65 stabilization centre; reach out to 502,528 children affected by mild acute malnutrition in the North East amongst others.

Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja