Nigeria under-funds fight against malnutrition, needs $912m - Experts

NaijaAgroNet:

Nigeria is currently under-funding its fight against malnutrition as the nation needs $912 million to tackle the scourge, especially of child malnutrition which is presently pillaging the country, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Revealing this to NaijaAgroNet at a two-day Media Dialogue on “Leveraging Resources for Child Malnutrition in Nigeria” held weekend in Enugu, South-East Nigeria, Director of Nutrition at the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu, described the situation as a major challenge in the country fight against child malnutrition.

Isokpunwu, who delivered paper on “Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria: What Will It Cost?” lamented that there are currently about 2.5 million severely malnourished children in Nigeria.

The medical expert quoted Federal Ministry of Health figures as showing that not less than $912 million is required to tackle child malnutrition in the country over the next five years if the problem is not to get worse.

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.

Also, he noted that the budget for child nutrition was created for the first time in Nigeria in 2014, describing child malnutrition as “a silent killer which has to be stopped” in view of its devastating consequences.

In her paper entitled “Child Nutrition Situation in South-East and South-South Zones of Nigeria”, Ngozi Onuora, Nutrition Specialist at the Port Harcourt office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), decried that every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing age as a result of malnutrition.

According to her, this makes the country the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal mortality rate in the world.

Onuora equally said, there are multiple dimensions of child malnutrition which could co-exist in individuals, households and populations, including stunting, wasting, micronutrients deficiencies, overweight and obesity. “These are all manifestation of under-nutrition,” she said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered from statistics provided at the Media Dialogue by nutrition experts that malnutrition, though a national problem is much worse in the North.

As said by the experts at the dialogue held on Thursday and Friday, April 28 and 29, 2017, in Enugu, the statistics showed that the total number of children affected by malnutrition in the South-East in 2016 was 34,889 while 6,700 deaths were recorded.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that  in the South-South, 86,304 children were affected, out of which 16,700 died, while 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, experts say, not only contributes to close to 50 per cent of deaths in children under five, but also results in a massive cost for the nation.

The Media Dialogue attracted print, electronic and online journalists from Enugu, Lagos and Abuja. Moderated by Geoffrey Njoku, UNICEF Communication Specialist, and Mrs. Ibiba H. Bello, Head, Child Rights Information Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information, Abuja, the event featured a broad spectrum of experts who explored various relevant themes. They included Dr. Bamidele Omotola, Nutrition Specialist at UNICEF Abuja; Dr. Ken Ozoemena, Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Enugu Office; and Onche Odeh, a Communication Consultant among others.

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Malnutrition poses ‘silent threat’ to children, UNICEF, partners send 2017 appeal

NaijaAgroNet:

An estimated 48 million children living through some of the world’s worst conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies will benefit from UNICEF’s 2017 appeal, which was launched on January 31, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Chief of Communication, UNICEF, Doune Porter, made this disclosure to NaijaAgroNet, saying that from Syria to Yemen and Iraq, from South Sudan to Nigeria, children are under direct attack, their homes, schools and communities in ruins, their hopes and futures hanging in the balance.

“In total, almost one in four of the world’s children lives in a country affected by conflict or disaster,” she said.

Buttressing this position, she quoted the UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, as saying that “In country after country, war, natural disaster and climate change are driving ever more children from their homes, exposing them to violence, disease and exploitation.”

UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children, Porter pointed out had set out the agency’s 2017 appeal totaling $3.3 billion, and its goals in providing children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 48 countries across the globe. Stressing that an estimated 7.5 million children will face severe acute malnutrition across the majority of appeal countries, including almost half a million each in northeast Nigeria and Yemen.

“Malnutrition is a silent threat to millions of children. The damage it does can be irreversible, robbing children of their mental and physical potential. In its worst form, severe malnutrition can be deadly,” said Fontaine.   

UNICEF pointed out that the largest single component of the appeal is for children and families caught up in the Syria conflict, soon to enter its seventh year. UNICEF is seeking a total of $1.4 billion to support Syrian children inside Syria and those living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

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Aisha Buhari leads walk on malnutrition @IDP camps

NaijaAgroNet:

Nigeria's First Lady, Aisha Buhari has led many Nigerians to a walk to draw attention to the increasing rate of malnutrition in Internally Displaced Persons camps in the North East, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The event, NaijaAgroNet gathered was attended by some victims from selected IDPs camps in Abuja, with the theme: "Charity Walk Against Malnutrition: Serve a meal to save a soul", was jointly organised by Victims of Violence Charity Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation; World Medical Relief, Detroit, USA; Society of Petroleum Engineers and supported by SUNTrust Bank.

Apart from Aisha Buhari, other personalities who participated in the walk include the Managing Director of SUNTrust Bank, Muhammad Jibrin; wife of Governor of Zamfara State, Hajia Asmau Abdullaziz Yari; chairman/CEO of Victims of Violence Charity Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Sulaiman Gumi; West Africa Coordinator, World Medical Relief, Detroit, USA, Dr. Isa Abubakar Saddiq and FCT section chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Salau Tahir. 

The First Lady who was represented by wife of Nasarawa State governor, Hajia Miriam Al-Makura, said the walk would have a great impact on the fight against malnutrition in the country, particularly in the North East.

She said, "This is an awareness walk; for people who don’t know, when they see us walking, they will ask what is happening. And people will tell them this is an awareness walk for people with malnutrition in the IDP camps. I think it  will go a long way in uplifting the life of people living in the IDP camps.

"The First Lady has asked me to represent her in this very laudable project. Like you know she (Aisha Buhari) has a passion for women, children and the youths of this country and her program “Future Assured”, has done a lot in collaboration with other organisations to uplift the living standard of people living in the IDP camps in Maiduguri, Yola and other places. 

"That is why she has asked me personally to be here to represent her and she has asked me to call on well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of the people living in the IDP camps. That is why we have an organization like this, the Federal Government cannot do it alone. We need people and philanthropists to come out and assist in whichever way they can."

The wife of Governor of Zamfara State, Hajia Asmau Abdullaziz Yari, said anything that has to do with malnutrition campaign for children and the less-privileged would be interesting to wives of Governors.

"Wives of Governors will play a passionate role in that and I think we are all aware of what the First Lady Hajia Aisha Buhari has done about malnutrition and we have all keyed into this programme. As wives of governors, this is something like creating awareness for Nigerians to see where the problem is, how to tackle it and how to go about it. So, really this is charity walk and it is really worth coming out, it is really worth doing. I am proud of the organisers of this walk", she stressed.

According to her, although Zamfara State "is a very conservative state", she would convene a women's forum and other stakeholders that would show them the extent of malnutrition, adding "but not necessary a walk."        

Gumi recalled that before he went to Bama it was between five to six children dying of malnutrition almost everyday, adding that after about two months with intervention from VoVCF and other INGOs, "we stopped seeing death rates and people started recovering."

He said, "The malnutrition is there but it only gets exposed when diseases like cholera and diarrhoea comes into play and start claiming children. At that time, dysentery and was claiming the children but after sometime, it got better. The beauty of what we are trying to advocate for is that we have the local ingredient that was used to solve the issue of malnutrition. 

"We have sava meal which is produced locally, we have been giving the IDPs, we keep it as part of the drugs in all our mobile clinics, we give the child what to eat so the drugs can work and that work wonders. The next step is to teach the IDPs what to use to make the sava meal. It is very easy, you can source it from local ingredients: sorghum, soya beans and groundnut which is readily available instead of feeding the children with rice and spaghetti being donated to them to help the children grow better and survive any kind of disease."

Also speaking, Saddiq suggested the use of local nutrition to check malnutrition in the IDPs camps.

"We can replicate the effects like soya beans. It is not expensive; we have given the formula to victims of violence and they are handling it. When victims of violence went to Bama, the death rate was 40 children per day. But within two to three weeks when they started using local diet as food nutrition, the death rate reduced to zero per cent."

The Vice chairman of Majiji IDPs camp in Abuja, Bello Mohammaed, said VoVCF have been providing all the medical facilities, food items and schools for the camp.

He said, "We have people from Adamawa, Yobe and Borno stated in our camp, I am from Borno state. We are very much eager to go, we are not comfortable, its only NGOs that help us, government does not even recognise us as a camp.

"We are about 250 in Karon Majiji IDPs camp along Airport Road. Apart from malnutrition, we still have issues of food security, beddings, clothing and toiletries. We have about two critical cases of malnutrition but they were able to rescue them. We did not witness food diversion in our camp but there are others who have been complaining of this but things are In order now."

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Taking concrete actions on malnutrition in Africa

Features@NaijaAgroNet:

As African continent expressed determination to tackle malnutrition with zero hunger initiatives, it must be seen to be in deed and in words by following through all implementation programmes capable of making this dream a reality, writes REMMY NWEKE.

Introduction:
How to drum relevant supports required for the under-five children and their mothers to eventually tackle the hunger surrounding the subject of malnutrition in children cannot be over-emphasised, especially if the Zero Hunger for the continent of Africa will be achieved, then, there is need for the 54 member nation of African Union to take required actionable steps towards making this possible.

This also formed the focus of the recent study by the joint efforts of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and Pardee Center for International Futures in Pretoria, South Africa, outlined some conditions that must be met in order for Africa to realise this goal. 

According to the Senior Advisor on Programme Development to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) NEPAD, Mr. Martin Bwalya, which noted that support for under-5 children and mothers as one of the dynamics of achieving zero hunger on the continent by 2025. He stressed at the formal launch of the Zero Hunger Report 2025 that, the demand side on agriculture produce is increasing access, including incomes, consumer subsidies, prices, school feeding programmes, are some of the support to under-5 children and mothers, as well as pregnant women. This, he said will not happen without the supply side which is productivity and production by way of expansion of cropland, yield increase, livestock heads and reduction of post-harvest losses.

Increase in cropland:
Bwalya pointed out that overall, the food availability needs to be increased by 437 million metric tonnes by 2025 or 47 per cent of current demand. 

“To do this requires cropland to increase by 1.5 per cent; crop yields need to increase by 3.2 per cent, and livestock head size needs to increase by 5.8 per cent year,” he said.

Insisting that in order for Africa to attain its goal by 2025, a wide range of actions by different actors to bring about the necessary substantial change in the dynamics of demand and supply is requisite, just as any efforts to eliminate hunger will have to factor in robust risk assessments, including climate change.

Corroborating Bwalya, the Regional Director for World Food Programme in Johannesburg, Chris Nikoi, emphasized that “If we continue on the current trajectory, we will not be able to achieve the Malabo Declaration target of ending hunger by 2025 and eliminating child stunting. Conditions for success include political will, as well as addressing the challenges of the impact of climate change and weather shocks.”

Zero Hunger in Africa by 2025 is possible:
The determination by NEPAD on the possibility of having zero hunger in the next nine years in the continent, re-echoed when the at Pretoria launch, when the chief executive of NEPAD, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, took the stage, indicating that on the premise of the goals set in the 2014 Malabo Declaration through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), would end hunger in Africa by 2025.

He noted that nearly one in five people is hungry, even as hunger has decreased steadily since the mid-1990’s, due to population growth, but has actually increased in absolute numbers. In addition, Mayaki said, net food imports since the early 1990s have grown to about 14 per cent of the total demand, maintaining that one of the goals set in the 2014 Malabo Declaration through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), is ending hunger in Africa by 2025.

He emphasised that success in Africa will therefore be through regional integration, be it in ending hunger, agriculture or infrastructure, highlighting the major levers in policies, investments, technologies as well as human and institutional capacities necessary to sustain desired levels of supply and demand-access to food.

Improving capacity to intervention implementations:
“We cannot continue doing business as we are doing it today, since growth in Africa has not been inclusive enough. We need improved capacity to implement various interventions to do things differently if we are to deliver on Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the goal of eliminating hunger by 2025,” Dr. Mayaki underscored.

Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), noted that hunger affects women and children disproportionately, while women are the backbone of agriculture in Africa.

“The face of hunger in Africa is that 32 per cent of under-5 children are stunted – the numbers have stagnated instead of going down. If the cognitive capacity of children in Africa is reduced for life, who are the future leaders for the continent? Agriculture needs to be more nutrition sensitive. Hidden hunger challenges are therefore critical and need to be addressed,” Dr. Sibanda said.

Speaking at the same event, Lynette Chen, CEO of the NEPAD Business Foundation also maintained that food security and the trajectory of economic growth need to be balanced with nutrition sensitive agriculture.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that during the launch of the report on ending hunger in Africa, it was recognised that while the goal of eliminating hunger by 2025 might be very ambitious, it is not impossible. Steve Hedden, Research System Developer from Pardee Center maintained that “how we define hunger will dictate how we get there and how we reach our targets.”

UN member states must take concrete action on malnutrition:
In drumming support against malnutrition and hunger globally, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), an agency of the United Nations (UN) called on the government across the world to take concrete actions on malnutrition in all its forms. NaijaAgroNet also gathered that as at the time of going to the press, there are 193 UN member states in five regional groups, namely, the African Group with 54 member states; the Asia-Pacific Group with 53 member states; the Eastern European Group with 23 member states.

Looking at the aforementioned statistics, Africa seems to have a greater hand when it comes to voting in the United Nations, but the question remains whether this strength is being optimised to improve the well-being of the continent let alone ensuring that subject of malnutrition is erased.

It was not surprising that FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva insisted that the United Nations (UN) Decade of Nutrition offers a critical window for advances, pointing out that the 10 years running until 2025, will be a critical time for action to build healthy and sustainable food systems and end malnutrition in all its forms. He stressed at the just ended United Nations General Assembly which celebrated the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, that “The purpose of the Decade of Action on Nutrition is to continue to draw the world`s attention to the importance of combatting malnutrition.”

Exploring ICN2 for Africa malnourished:
He reminded governments of their commitments made at the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in 2014 and called on them to transform those commitments into actions through national policies and programmes. He argued that a better governance on nutrition globally, “starts at country level” emphasizing that nowadays, one in three people worldwide is malnourished, pointing out that nearly 2.5 billion people suffer from at least one form of malnutrition, ranging from hunger to obesity to a lack of critical nutrients. 

“FAO has maintained a great synergy with WHO in leading the efforts in the fight against all forms of malnutrition. WHO is the lead in nutrition and FAO is here to complement that work. FAO has developed a work plan focused on the promotion of healthy food and healthy diets through nutritional education and the transformation of food systems,” said Graziano da Silva.

Submission:

With the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) since 2014, African countries dream of making hunger and precisely malnutrition a thing of the past in the next nine years, mostly if requisite councils are taken and adhered to, will be a reality.

Therefore, we urge African countries to beef up their country level engagement both in terms of policies and commitment to continuity of programmes as within this period, most Africa countries will have the cause to have at least two general elections and powers are likely to change hands, but then the fear of continuity in policy and its attendant implementation becomes a nightmare that must be allayed whilst the opportunity still last.

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Action on malnutrition is critical – da Silva

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mr. José Graziano da Silva has explained why a global action is paramount on malnutrition, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He gave this explanation at the recently held United Nations General Assembly in the New York city, noting that some 159 million children under the age of five are stunted, which means they have a low height for their age.

“Another 50 million children in that age bracket are wasted in other words, they have low weight compared to their height,” he said.

The FAO boss also pointed out that some 1.9 billion people are overweight of whom 600 million are obese.

“And there is a gender dimension to this, too. Malnutrition continues to disproportionately affect women and girls, who often forgo food for male family members or lack the income to secure adequate nutrition for themselves,” he said.

This estimate, NaijaAgroNet gathered, suggested that maternal and child undernutrition alone cost up to 11 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as malnutrition in early life often results in ill health in adulthood.

Well-nourished children, inversely, are 33 percent more likely to escape poverty as adults. This means that investing in nutrition has significant potential to break endemic poverty cycles and boost economic development by allowing people to live healthy, productive lives.

As with ICN2, stewardship of the Decade of Action lies with FAO and WHO, who together will focus their efforts on two main objectives.

One is assisting governments in building national policies and programs that advance nutrition. The other is to align the efforts of existing global initiatives and social movements towards common goals.

To support concrete action on nutrition programs, both agencies will further organize special meetings to strengthen countries' technical capacities to tackle new nutrition challenges.

One example of this is a symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition to be held in Rome December 1-2.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that both agencies had agreed to put in place a solid system for reporting and monitor achievements.

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Pix: Mr. José Graziano da Silva

FAO wants UN member states to take concrete action on malnutrition

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has called on the government across the world to take concrete action on malnutrition in all its forms, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva also said that the United Nations (UN) Decade of Nutrition offers a critical window for advances.

He also pointed out that the 10 years running until 2025, will be a critical time for action to build healthy and sustainable food systems and end malnutrition in all its forms, stressed at the just ended United Nations General Assembly celebrating the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition.

"The purpose of the Decade of Action on Nutrition is to continue to draw the world`s attention to the importance of combatting malnutrition," he said, reminding governments of their commitments made at the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in 2014 and called on them to transform those commitments into action through national policies and programmes.

Better governance on nutrition globally, he said, "starts at country level" emphasizing that nowadays, one in three people worldwide, pointing out that nearly 2.5 billion people suffer from at least one form of malnutrition, ranging from hunger to obesity to a lack of critical nutrients.

"FAO has maintained a great synergy with WHO in leading the efforts in the fight against all forms of malnutrition. WHO is the lead in nutrition and FAO is here to complement that work. FAO has developed a work plan focused on the promotion of healthy food and healthy diets through nutritional education and the transformation of food systems," said Graziano da Silva.

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Malnutrition: Why Aisha Buhari got involved?

NaijaAgroNet:

Indications have emerged on why the wife of President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari recently got involved in issues surrounding malnutrition in the country, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that on Thursday, July 21, 2016, she launched an advocacy campaign ‘Get Involved’ under her Future Assured project, aimed at contributing to the acceleration of efforts to end preventable maternal, new born and child deaths.

This, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was to strengthen the accountability mechanisms in order to enhance the peace and development of the country.

The “Get Involved” NaijaAgroNet noted serves as quick interventionist programme which focuses on preventing annual death of thousands of malnourished Nigerian children living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the country.

The project, NaijaAgroNet learnt, envisaged the active participation of civil society, private sector and non-governmental organizations in response to the alarming outbreak of malnutrition in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, believing that jointly there will be a better Nigeria.

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Malnutrition: NEMA commences feeding of 1.6m IDPs in Borno State

NaijaAgroNet:

The North-East zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Maiduguri, has commenced direct responsibility of daily feeding of estimated 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), reports NaijaAgroNet.

This present activity, NaijaAgroNet learnt has taken off at various resettlement camps and other satellite centres across Borno State, in effort to address malnutrition and other related humanitarian issues currently being faced by IDP camps.

The North East Coordinator of the agency, Mallam Mohammed Kanar, made this disclosure at the flag-off of the distribution and presentation of relief items to officials of State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, for onward delivery to IDPs in the state.

“The decision to resume 100% feeding of IDPs by NEMA is to complement effort of the state government and other humanitarian agencies. With sustained effort by the military in liberating many communities, more IDPs are now willing to go back to their communities to continue their normal lives” he said.

He pointed out, NEMA was solely feeding the IDPs, but it stopped doing so in the last two to three months following coordinated effort by the federal and the state government and other international donor agencies in managing the crisis.

He noted that with concerted efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari towards the plight of IDPs and victims of insurgency, NEMA had been mandated to resume and take care of feeding of IDPs.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that recently, officials of Medicine San Frontiers, known as Doctors without Borders, reported that there was acute malnutrition and food crisis at various camps in Borno State, leading to deaths, but the state government through Governor Kashim Shettima denied the report.

The governor insisted that those that suffered severe malnutrition in Bama and other camps were some hostages freed from insurgency, who spent over two years in captivity without enough food and access to health care delivery before they were taken to IDP camps.

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Save the Children report highlights unequal progress in tackling malnutrition

NaijaAgroNet:

A new report recently launched by Save the Children has revealed the results of what makes some children more vulnerable to malnutrition than others, tagged ‘Unequal Portions: Ending malnutrition for every child’ reports NaijaAgroNet.

The report, NaijaAgroNet gathered is part of a new campaign, Every Last Child, aiming at ensuring that every last child survives and thrives.

Good nutrition, the report revealed centres on a healthy, balanced, adequate diet which is a matter of life or death, stressing on the difference between surviving or thriving.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that it is essential for a healthy immune system, to protect against disease throughout life, which is crucial for a country’s inclusive and sustainable development.

The report further showed that although progress in tackling malnutrition is far too slow, millions of children are missing out on adequate nutrition because of who they are and where they live.

“They are discriminated against because of their ethnicity or disability; they are excluded because of their parents’ lack of income or after being forced from their homes,” part of the report read.

The report analyses data from a range of sources to show how a deadly combination of poverty and discrimination is robbing certain groups of children – girls, children from ethnic minorities, those in disadvantaged regions of their country, disabled children, and children affected by war – of the healthy, balanced diet they need to survive and thrive.

Drawing on new findings and analysis, this report went on to identify a series of measures to ensure no child is left behind. Just as it calls on world leaders to address exclusion and ensure every last child gets the nutrition they need.

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Bama IDP camp: 323 children suffering Severe Acute Malnutrition

NaijaAgroNet:

Out of the estimated 15,000 children at the Internally Displaced suburb in Bama, Borno State, 323 of them suffered from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Confirming this, the Chief, Communication at UNICEF Nigeria, Doune Porter, said though these children are now receiving assistance after being admitted.

She also said that the worrisome situation here is that the figure reflected an average of 6 new cases per day within 34 days, across April 3 and May 31, 2016.

Just as out of the 15,000 children in the camp, they have also identified three thousand children who have become separated from their families and efforts are ongoing to register them with the aim of tracing their families and reunited them.

Porter reassured that these children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) are receiving treatment to change their situation as UNICEF is collaborating with the Borno State government to provide additionally some social amenities.

These, she said, include repairing and upgrading five boreholes in Bama, providing some 10 to 12 litres of water per day in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp.

UNICEF Nigeria, the spokeswoman said, would in the coming days construct 150 latrines among others to further improve the living situation in the camp.

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Malnourished Nigerian Children and burnt N60m fish

NaijaAgroNet:

As the United Nations Children’s Fund announced that over a million Nigerian children are suffering from acute malnutrition, Nigerian Army in the fight against insurgents burnt over N60million worth of dried fish and meat capable of ameliorating this malnutrition challenge, writes REMMY NWEKE.

 Applause for CMAM:

THE Federal Government of Nigeria and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)  where recently commended for endeavoring through the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) to reach over a million Nigerian children with a highly successful and cost-effective treatment for acutely malnourished children, saving over 200,000 lives in the past six years.

According to reports sighted by NaijaAgroNet about 1.7 million Nigerian children under the age of five years were severely and acutely malnourished, thus accounting for a tenth of the global total. Even as approximately a thousand Nigerian children die of malnutrition-related causes every day; a total of 361,000 each year as acute malnutrition also leads to stunt in children’s growth, thereby causing life-long physical limitations and reduction in intellectual capacity.

The Chief of Communication at UNICEF, Doune Porter,revealed that the latest success came through Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) which was piloted in Gombe and Kebbi States in 2009 and has now been introduced in 11 northern Nigerian states where malnutrition poses the greatest threat. 

Malnourishment acute in children under five:

She said, CMAM treats acutely malnourished children from six months to five years old on an out-patient basis, just as over 830,000 children, NaijaAgroNet learnt, have been cured in the programme with the cure rate rising steadily – currently standing at 85 per cent. Of the remaining children, about two per cent do not respond to treatment and are referred to hospitals; the current mortality rate, the report said, is just one per cent, while the other children have defaulted from the programme.

“We must scale-up CMAM in Nigeria. It is a proven high-impact intervention that is saving lives and helping Nigerian children reach their full potential through a good start in life,” noted UNICEF Nigeria Representative Jean Gough. “We need greater investment in Nigeria’s future by investment in good nutrition,” she added.

Nigeria government committed:

“The Government of Nigeria is committed to reaching more children with CMAM,” said Linus Awute, Permanent Secretary of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, “We cannot accept that Nigerian children continue to die of malnutrition and that our potential future leaders should be diminished by its effects.”

CMAM, NaijaAgroNet learnt, is carried out during weekly appointments over approximately eight weeks at primary health care centres. It includes education of parents and caregivers on nutrition, the importance of continuing breast-feeding and the role of hand-washing and hygiene. The nutrition status of the children is assessed during the CMAM sessions and children are given a health screening; if necessary, they are also treated for other illnesses. Children are given highly nutritious Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) during the sessions and mothers and caregivers are provided with supplies of RUTF to feed the child at home.

The cost for CMAM is just US$160, about N34,400 for each child treated, including US$76 about N16,340 for the RUTF; the remaining US$84 N18,060covers all other costs, including staff time and training, transport and storage of supplies, and basic medicines. UNICEF and the Government of Nigeria are scaling up the CMAM response and UNICEF is advocating increased investment in CMAM from both the Government of Nigeria and external donors. 

1,000 children died today is media listening:

Nutrition and media experts have called for media partnership so as to curb the rising rate of child malnutrition, even as estimated over 1,000 children die daily, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This was the tune of discussions from the dialogue organized by UNICEF and facilitated by Communication Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, with participants drawn from both traditional and online media.

Likewise, the UNICEF Chief of Communication, Doune Porter, stressed the need for media partnership so as to attract the necessary intervention to stop child malnutrition in the country.

Nigeria needs well-nourished children for growth:

Doune Porter, said healthy and well-nourished children are needed for the future of Nigeria, calling on the media to sustain the partnership.

In his presentation on “An overview of malnutrition in Nigeria and its impact on children, UNICEF’s Chief Nutritionist, Mr. Arjan De Gwat, spoke extensively on the nutrition values of foods that he classified as macronutrients and micronutrients.

 As said by him, 55 percent of child deaths are attributed to malnutrition, adding that malnutrition of the mother could result in disability of the child or miscarriage.

Mr. Arjan, said malnutrition could also lead to reduction in mental capacity and ultimately poor education of the child, advising mothers to embrace exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months, asserting, “Exclusive breastfeeding has the potential to save more children’s lives than any other preventive intervention,” he said.

Nigerian military seizes, burns over 2,000 cartons of dried fish:

Many Nigerians were delighted  at the first week of September when the military announced the seizure of over 2,000 cartons of smoked fishes also known in local parlance as ‘dry fishes’ in addition to several bags of dried meat worth about N50 million, allegedly from Boko Haram on transit.

According to the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel TukurGusau said these smoked fish and dried meat, were impounded from Boko Haram terrorists from different communities in Borno State of North-East Nigeria.

“The cartons of the dried fish are believed to be seized from innocent fishermen and business men by the terrorists who later sell them at ridiculous mount to finance their terrorists’ activities,” Col. Gusau, who also is the spokesman of 7 Division Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, told newsmen at the burning ground of cartons offish.

“By burning of this fishes, we’re sending strong message to the insurgents to change their terror act because an end is at sight. We’re determined with the support of patriotic Nigerians to end Boko Haram and other terror acts in the country,” he said.

Malnourished IDP children and burnt fishes:

However, as many Nigerians that commended the Army for the seizure, sooner than later turned against their burning of the dried fish and meat in the face of hunger in the region, especially children who are highly malnourished due to the activities of Boko Haram.

For many Nigerians, what stops the government from handing over the seizures to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) now located over the northern part of the country, especially for the nutrients contained thereof.

But some school of thought were quick to add that the reason behind the burning of dried fishes and meat could be for the fear of that being a ploy from Boko Haram, and could contain poison to get those Nigerians they could not kill by bomb and Extremely Insensitive Detonating Substance (EIDs).

A role for NAFDAC et al:

While some also canvassed that even if the scare of poison was the army reason, Nigeria has several scientific agencies including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and some 14 agricultural based research institutes, such as the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), charged with fisheries research; Federal Department of Fisheries (FDF), mandated with fisheries development. This is in addition to two fisheries research institutes namely the Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri, Borno State and Kainji Lake Research Institute in New Bussa, Niger State.

Fishery nightmares:

A concerned Nigeria, Mrs. Lara Owoye-Wise, lamented that taking a closer look at the consignment before they were set ablaze, one could easily recall that the insurgents raided fishing communities, killed some of the fishermen and carted away their neatly packed cartons of fish meant for sale. They were on their way back to their camp before the Army intercepted them.

For her, the actions of the Army by burning the fishes and meat were disturbing decisions which gives nightmares, lamenting that “It’s not right oh. Okay, the Nigerian military intercepts trailer loads of dried fish and other sources of protein from fleeing terrorists in Borno State and what does our military do with the seized items? They make a burn fire and destroy the rich sources of protein estimated at millions of naira!”

Quickly, she recollects that at a shouting distance, were children dying of malnutrition, mothers’ breastmilk gone dry and the little quantity those breasts produce, is lucid and bereft of nutrients.
“And you guys destroy tonnes upon tonnes of dried fish, just like that! This doesn’t sit well at all,”she said.
Wondering how wasteful Nigeria has become, Lara lamented that those fishes could have added some flesh on those skinny frames.

Watch out … it could be a bait:

Baba Aye noted that the burnt cartons of fish were from insurgents which does not vitiate the protein content in them and that would have ameliorated the malnourishment consuming millions of poor people in the region.

For the duo of Messrs Michael Joshua Ojo and Mathew Akinyoola who felt the same way too, but later realized that those animals could have been used as bait for their targets. Mr. Akinyoola, declaring “Oh No..those fishes may have been poisoned.”

Another member of their school of thought, Amaobi Nwachukwu said that those fishes may be poisoned baits, as such, falling for the bait would have enabled the insurgents to accomplish more than they would have done effortlessly.

Adeniyi Adetola said that if they are not destroyed now, it does not take an evil genius to have a large consignment of same poisoned and then make the military intercept the poisoned consignment to be distributed; what do we say then? And if I may ask, if given to you would you eat?

Adding his voice to the argument, Mr. Flourish Atoju thinks the ideal thing to do was burn them off, as it was uncertain the safety of those products.

Yet, another perspective came on board from Mr. Abdul Jimoh, who sought to know if there is any law in Nigeria empowering security agencies to burn seized goods. Asking, “If anyone has a law that empowers security agents to burn items impounded, I should be grateful if the person could educate me with citations of the extant enabling laws! It’s a totally different thing to incinerate...

Bringing child malnutrition on front burner:

Like the Coordinator, African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, Mr. Chido Onuma, said in his presentation on media advocacy required to keep the issue of child malnutrition on the front burner. Emphasising on how the media can support advocacy for increased resources for nutrition programming.

He therefore, charged the media to sensitize governments at all levels to increase resources to enhance child nutrition, and do more of features, special reports and editorials to sustain focus on child malnutrition in the country.

Proper examination of those burnt fishes and meats could have solve a huge problem for Nigeria only if our agencies, especially those concerned with food and drug administration were engaged adequately to ensure that every of these fishes are well screened before giving same out to avoid the scare of poison in any case.

The war against malnutrition is surmountable through proper planning and use of available resources.

 

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