Stories by Ajuma Edwina Ogiri Abuja
Nigeria needs N 2.87 trillion, an equivalent of $912 million, to tackle the scourge of child malnutrition presently ravaging the country. Th is comes as the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), says about half a million children die annually as a result of malnutrition in the country. Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu, of the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, disclosed this while speaking at a twoday Media Dialogue on “Leveraging Resources for Child Malnutrition in Nigeria” recently in Enugu. Dr. Isokpunwu, who spoke on “Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria: What Will It Cost?”, described child malnutrition as a major challenge in the country, lamenting that there are currently about 2.5 million severely malnourished children in the country.
According to him, “those who survive often become stunted; stunting is the major indicator used to measure childhood malnutrition. He said aside diseases and inadequate dietary intake, other major factors responsible for the high level of malnutrition in the country include religious beliefs, culture and ignorance. Dr. Isokpunwu and UNICEF advocated six months exclusive breastfeeding by mothers and acknowledged that the practice is on the decline due to several factors, adding that the National Food and Nutrition Policy seek to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates in the fi rst six months to at least 50 per cent by 2019. Th e medical expert quoted Federal Ministry of Health fi gures as showing that not less than $912 million (N 2.87 trillion), is required to tackle child malnutrition in Nigeria over the next fi ve years if the problem does to get worse. Painting a graphic picture of the crisis, he pointed out that the national budget provided only N2.4 million for child nutrition in 2016, while nothing was provided in the 2015 budget and N30 million was provided in 2014 but was not released.
Th e Nutrition Specialist at the Port Harcourt offi ce of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Ngozi Onuora, In her paper entitled “Child Nutrition Situation in South-East and SouthSouth Zones of Nigeria”, lamented that every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-fi ve-year-old and 145 women of child bearing age to malnutrition. Th is, she said, makes the country the second largest contributor to the under-fi ve and maternal mortality rate in the world. According to Onuora, there are multiple dimensions of child malnutrition which can co-exist in individuals, households and populations, including stunting, wasting, micronutrients defi ciencies, overweight and obesity, adding that “Th ese are all manifestation of under-nutrition.”
Statistics provided at the Media Dialogue by nutrition experts showed that malnutrition, though a national problem, is much worse in the North. Th e statistics showed that the total number of children aff ected by malnutrition in the South-East in 2016 was 34,889 while 6,700 deaths were recorded; in the South-South, 86,304 children were aff ected, out of which 16,700 died; the South-West had 84,417 cases and 16,300 deaths; North-West 1,594,462 cases and 308,000 deaths; North-Central 43,635 cases with 8,400 deaths; and North-East 695,998 cases and 134,000 deaths. Malnutrition not only contributes to close to 50 percent of deaths in children under fi ve, but Nigeria also loses over $1.5 billion in GDP annually to vitamin and mineral defi ciencies, according to the World Bank.
