At the Mercy of Malnutrition
The needless deaths of half a million children yearly and the underdevelopment of several others have been blamed on malnutrition in the country. Martins Ifijeh writes on the role of government, stakeholders and the citizens in curbing the menace
Zainab
Saliu rests on her mother’s back, with her tiny little hands strapped around
her neck. The jaw bones and her eye balls are the only prominent features
around her face. The chin is emaciated, same with the muscles around her eyes,
the richness of the hair of a three-year-old eludes her, all what she has on
the head are scanty hair strands, too little and weak to form ponytails.
Although there are other children there, she did not play with anyone, because
they are all too weak. They are all waiting for hope.
Zainab’s mother first noticed these features in her several months ago. She didn’t know what to make of it, until the little baby became the shadow of her former self. She could pass for a one-year-old child, despite being three. She is suffering from malnutrition, an illness that has brought both of them, along with other women and their malnourished children to one of the outpost centres for Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) inAbuja
A CMAM is an outpatient therapeutic programme, which enables community volunteers to identify and initiate treatment for children like Zainab, who are between the ages of six months to five years old with acute malnutrition.
Zainab is just one among the over 1.7 million Nigerian children who are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), with available reports suggesting that over a thousand of such children die everyday in the country, while over 400,000 kids die yearly from a menace the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said was 100 per cent preventable.
No wonder a medical expert, Dr. Kalejaiye Lekan, once expressed concern over loss of human capital because of malnutrition. He explained that with the number of child deaths occasioned by the scourge in the country, which ranges from between 350,000 to 450,000 yearly, it would be regrettably fair to say Nigeria has lost more than four million children over the past 10 years due to malnutrition, a holocaust worse than the Nazi genocide where over six million Jews were massacred.
According to him, if four million children die from malnutrition over 10 years in Nigeria, it means more than 10 to 15 million malnourished persons who are lucky to be alive would either have one or more physiologic - developmental impairment, which, when considered economically, would mean such persons would not be able to contribute optimally to the growth of the nation, the way they ordinarily should.
But this menace is one monster most Nigerians do not believe exist in the country, as they often imagine it as a peculiar health problem for people living in medically undeserved countries, where war, drought and other natural disasters are prominent.
Health indices suggests that Nigeria is just second to India among countries ravaged by the scourge, way ahead of Somalia, Syria and other war-torn countries, as well as those with weaker economic strength. However, what is news is that, priority has still not been given to this monster threatening the existence of infants and children under age five in the country.
Both years of oil boom and economic growth of the country since 1960 has not changed the narrative, as prevalence of malnutrition has continued to increase yearly, bringing to bare, the government, the health and the agricultural sector’s poor drive to eradicate the monster, which is increasingly making Nigeria notorious in the global community for not being able to feed its citizens properly.
But why the increase of malnutrition in a country neither under war, drought or natural disaster, especially considering the fact that it prides itself as the biggest economy inAfrica ? A nutritionist, Dr.
Bernard Okey, provides a guide. He believed the causes are multi-faceted,
including government’s lackadaisical attitude, ignorance and poverty.
This ‘tripod’ perhaps, has caused loss of millions of lives of the future generations of the country, whose only crime were to be born in a nation where medical emergencies are hardly given prompt attention.
Okey queried why the government was still spending money on frivolities, while majority of families inNigeria
Okey’s assertion brings to mind the amount of money budgeted for feeding in The Presidency, which makes one wonder how much is budgeted yearly to tackle malnutrition in the country.
For the records, in the 2016 budget proposed to the National Assembly by the Federal Government, N445.5 million will be spent on meal-related expenses.
Details of the proposed budget show that the President would spend N114.97 million on food stuff/catering material supplies, as against N16.68 million by his deputy during the year. The Vice President would also spend N7.55 million on refreshment and meals, and N2.49 million on cooking gas/fuel costs.
The State House Headquarters will spend N102.94 million on food stuff/catering materials supplies; N104.744 million on refreshment/meals; N89.17 million on purchase of canteen/kitchen equipment and N6.95 million on cooking gas/fuel cost.
Logically, it will be out of place if from the tax payer’s money of the 180 million Nigerians, huge amounts are budgeted for the feeding of the country’s first and second families, while over N400,000 Nigerian children will most likely die from lack of qualitative and quantitative food in the same year, with no tangible plan in place to quell their starvation and undernutrition.
This, perhaps informed why Okey has advocated for a special budget to tackle the monster which is threatening the country’s future. “Inasmuch as we are clamouring for people to improve their feeding habit, through the types of food they eat and as well give to their children, the government must be seen to be making conscious efforts to address the root cause of the problem, not only putting up programmes to treat children who are already malnourished,” he stated.
Zainab’s mother first noticed these features in her several months ago. She didn’t know what to make of it, until the little baby became the shadow of her former self. She could pass for a one-year-old child, despite being three. She is suffering from malnutrition, an illness that has brought both of them, along with other women and their malnourished children to one of the outpost centres for Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in
A CMAM is an outpatient therapeutic programme, which enables community volunteers to identify and initiate treatment for children like Zainab, who are between the ages of six months to five years old with acute malnutrition.
Zainab is just one among the over 1.7 million Nigerian children who are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), with available reports suggesting that over a thousand of such children die everyday in the country, while over 400,000 kids die yearly from a menace the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said was 100 per cent preventable.
No wonder a medical expert, Dr. Kalejaiye Lekan, once expressed concern over loss of human capital because of malnutrition. He explained that with the number of child deaths occasioned by the scourge in the country, which ranges from between 350,000 to 450,000 yearly, it would be regrettably fair to say Nigeria has lost more than four million children over the past 10 years due to malnutrition, a holocaust worse than the Nazi genocide where over six million Jews were massacred.
According to him, if four million children die from malnutrition over 10 years in Nigeria, it means more than 10 to 15 million malnourished persons who are lucky to be alive would either have one or more physiologic - developmental impairment, which, when considered economically, would mean such persons would not be able to contribute optimally to the growth of the nation, the way they ordinarily should.
But this menace is one monster most Nigerians do not believe exist in the country, as they often imagine it as a peculiar health problem for people living in medically undeserved countries, where war, drought and other natural disasters are prominent.
Health indices suggests that Nigeria is just second to India among countries ravaged by the scourge, way ahead of Somalia, Syria and other war-torn countries, as well as those with weaker economic strength. However, what is news is that, priority has still not been given to this monster threatening the existence of infants and children under age five in the country.
Both years of oil boom and economic growth of the country since 1960 has not changed the narrative, as prevalence of malnutrition has continued to increase yearly, bringing to bare, the government, the health and the agricultural sector’s poor drive to eradicate the monster, which is increasingly making Nigeria notorious in the global community for not being able to feed its citizens properly.
But why the increase of malnutrition in a country neither under war, drought or natural disaster, especially considering the fact that it prides itself as the biggest economy in
This ‘tripod’ perhaps, has caused loss of millions of lives of the future generations of the country, whose only crime were to be born in a nation where medical emergencies are hardly given prompt attention.
Okey queried why the government was still spending money on frivolities, while majority of families in
Okey’s assertion brings to mind the amount of money budgeted for feeding in The Presidency, which makes one wonder how much is budgeted yearly to tackle malnutrition in the country.
For the records, in the 2016 budget proposed to the National Assembly by the Federal Government, N445.5 million will be spent on meal-related expenses.
Details of the proposed budget show that the President would spend N114.97 million on food stuff/catering material supplies, as against N16.68 million by his deputy during the year. The Vice President would also spend N7.55 million on refreshment and meals, and N2.49 million on cooking gas/fuel costs.
The State House Headquarters will spend N102.94 million on food stuff/catering materials supplies; N104.744 million on refreshment/meals; N89.17 million on purchase of canteen/kitchen equipment and N6.95 million on cooking gas/fuel cost.
Logically, it will be out of place if from the tax payer’s money of the 180 million Nigerians, huge amounts are budgeted for the feeding of the country’s first and second families, while over N400,000 Nigerian children will most likely die from lack of qualitative and quantitative food in the same year, with no tangible plan in place to quell their starvation and undernutrition.
This, perhaps informed why Okey has advocated for a special budget to tackle the monster which is threatening the country’s future. “Inasmuch as we are clamouring for people to improve their feeding habit, through the types of food they eat and as well give to their children, the government must be seen to be making conscious efforts to address the root cause of the problem, not only putting up programmes to treat children who are already malnourished,” he stated.
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