TACKLING MALNUTRITION IN NIGERIA
Government must do more to alleviate poverty
The disclosure by the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Country Representative, Ahmed Aldikhari, that the highest number of children affected by acute malnutrition are in Nigeria should worry health authorities and other stakeholders. In 2024 alone, according to the MSF (Doctors Without Borders), nearly 300,000 children with severe acute malnutrition were admitted in outpatient units across northern Nigeria—more than half of its global caseload. Unfortunately, this is a recurring challenge that health authorities in the country seem not to be paying a serious attention to. As far back as 2008, the report of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) had indicated that one out of every three children under the age of five in the country is stunted and suffering from chronic malnutrition.
Stunted growth implies a marked increase in the child’s susceptibility to infections and contributes to child mortality. Invariably, pregnant women who are not adequately nourished eventually give birth to babies with low weight thus putting their survival at risk. “Behind every number is a real child, a real family struggling to survive,” said the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, who also admitted that malnutrition remains one of Nigeria’s most pressing health challenges, especially in the Northwest.
Political commitment is thus necessary to ensure advocacy on the adverse implications of malnutrition and how to avoid its devastating consequences. Partnership with civil society and academic institutions with a focus on food and nutrition is also an imperative. Such commitment could come by way of mapping out clear strategies for up-scaling nutrition in the public sphere. This should consist of clear roles and responsibilities for the various stakeholders, with milestones for mainstreaming nutrition into agriculture, fortifying basic foods with essential minerals or vitamins, mobilising communities for action on growing more beneficial foods, and the perils of malnutrition, and of not meeting any of the enumerated indicators.
Indeed, the situation is dire with the confirmation by Vice President Kashim Shettima that Nigeria loses an estimated $56 billion in human capital every year due to malnutrition, equivalent to 12.2 per cent of the nation’s income. “When a nation’s child suffers from stunted growth, his future becomes stunted. When a mother lacks the nutrition to sustain herself and her unborn child, it is a collective indictment of our social system,” Shettima said at a conference on ‘Mobilizing Against Malnutrition in Northwest Nigeria,’ organised by the MSF in Abuja. Beyond rhetoric, what is needed is an urgent action to protect the most vulnerable affected by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.
In a country blessed with arable land and natural resources, Nigerians deserve a life free from hunger. But today, hunger is both a cause and consequence of poverty, as people on low incomes tend to have worse diets, while people who lack adequate nutrition struggle harder to extricate themselves from poverty. For effective health and social protection, mothers must be encouraged to adopt exclusive breastfeeding habits for their babies in the initial six months of their lives. Thereafter, complementary feeding can be introduced for 24 months, and the consumption of various nutrients such as Vitamin A, Iodised salt and zinc, amongst others.
Our governments, at all levels, need to sit up and confront malnutrition with resolute decisiveness if the future of our children is to be secure. They must address the crushing indices and causes of malnutrition that have continued to deprive over half of our children (and mothers) of a healthy and productive life span. They have an obligation in ensuring that the future of Nigerian children is secured by tackling those things inhibiting their proper upbringing and social welfare.
