At the just-concluded United Nations General Assembly, the imagery of hunger and malnutrition of Nigerian children was painted as the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) led by Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani) and other experts provide panacea to the elusive actualisation of the SDGs, Bayo Akinloye of Thisday Newspaper reports
The statistics are often startling: nearly 1,000 Nigerian children die of malnutrition-related causes every day – a total of 361,000 annually. With an approximate 2.1 million Nigerian under five children affected by malnutrition, Nigeria is said to account for one tenth of the global total. The prevalence of chronic malnutrition among women of childbearing age in Nigeria was put at 11.6 per cent, with 14.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent overweight and obese, respectively.
At 4 West 43rd Street, New York, during a side event at the just-concluded 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the imagery of hunger and malnutrition of Nigerian children was painted, however, there was a positive mood about the group seated in the room as important discussions went on about the plight of Nigerian children regarding hunger and malnutrition.
The faces in the room were familiar: the Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Olanrewaju Tejuoso; Programme Specialist and Coordinator Africa and Middle East UN SDG Action Campaign, Hilary Ogbonna; the Nigeria Permanent Representative to United Nations, Prof. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande (represented by Muyiwa Onifade); and the Representative of UNICEF, Mrs. Chizoba Steve-Edemba. Others were civil society groups, development partners, the international community, players in the private sector, Nigerians in the Diaspora and the media.
To the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani), who led the discussion, the startling statistics is an indication of the emerging double burden of malnutrition in the country. It was apparent to all in the room that there is no other time than now to “interrogate the issue of poor nutrition and inadequate political will” to arrest severe cases of malnutrition among children under the age of 5 – especially as 45 per cent of all under-five deaths are attributable to under-nutrition.
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