Featured, Health
By Anayo Ezugwu | Aug 14, 2017 @ 01 GMT |
IN every 30 minutes Nigeria loses 11 to 18 children to malnutrition and related health diseases. Babatunde Oguntona, former president, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, who gave the alarming statistics in Lagos, said the most dangerous aspect of malnutrition is the micro-nutrient deficiency.
At a one day nutrition symposium on “Malnutrition, Child Development and the Media” organised by Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition, MeCAM, Oguntona, who is a professor of nutrition, said if Nigeria fails to ensure that iodised salt is included in processed food and beverages, it will lose 13 percent of her children to mental disorder. He regretted that leaders in the country have wrong priorities by not seeing the need to focus on efforts to prevent malnutrition.
According to him, leaders in the country place nutrition as one of their lowest priorities. Oguntona said Nigerian government doesn’t care about the health conditions of its citizens, rather it is the international donor agencies that care and cater for them. “With the failure of government to tackle high malnutrition in the country, Nigeria now has poorly nourished children which will ensure that the country remain underdeveloped and backward. “God forbid but that is the recipe for it. And thank God things are moving. People are beginning to be aware of it and we should thank journalists who are making efforts to bring it to the forefront. Like we always say, our leaders are completely ignorant of the consequences of poor nutritional status of our people. Many of them are very ignorant and is unfortunate because they are overfed and their children are overfed, so they don’t know what is going on in the rest of the country.
“It depends on everybody starting from individuals and the media to educate our so called leaders about what the implications are for the country they are leading. I say individuals because individuals make choices and you would agree that choices are based on knowledge. But people still know that they have to eat right. The details may not be too obvious for them but they still eat well when they can. If you have money you know what to eat but there is complication of poverty with ignorance and bad habits,” he said.
According to him, “These are the issues and I think that the responsibility rests on the individuals, communities and government. Government has a responsibility of enlightening the public and providing the infrastructures people can use to facilitate the production of good food. Also government has the responsibility of monitoring and supervising the private sector especially the food and beverage industry. More people are becoming aware of manufactured foods and many more are eating processed foods. And if they are not properly monitored and controlled, it brings another set of problems for the country.
“Nigeria can only come out of this present micro-nutrient deficiency through two things, which are commitment to agriculture and food production, and commitment to education. These are the secrets of India and China in fighting malnutrition. They invested in education and food production and they moved forward,” he said.
In his welcome address, Remmy Nweke, national coordinator, MeCAM, said despite the increasing number of children suffering from malnutrition in the country, government is still doing nothing to tackle the situation. He said MeCAM is partnering with every relevant stakeholder in the health sector to create awareness and sensitise both the public and government on the dangers of malnutrition in the country.
Dotun Oladipo, secretary general of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, in his good will message commended the efforts of MeCAM to sensitise the public on the adverse effect of malnutrition in the country. He said that GOCOP will continue to partner with MeCam in this noble endeavour.
Aug 14, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT
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