THE Anambra State has inaugurated State and Local Government Committees on Domestication Policy on Food and Nutrition at the Jerome Udoji Secretariat, Awka.

Performing the ceremony, Joe Akabuike, the commissioner for Health, represented by Uchechukwu Onyejimbe, the director of Public Health, observed with this, the south east part of the country had been remembered.

“I just returned from series of meetings held with the President, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on `the way forward in Nigeria’ after the elections.

“It seems the Federal Government has realised the mistake it has made over the past four years, by using politics of exclusiveness and discrimination,” Akabuike said.

He recalled that previously, most of the international bodies, helping in health matters were told to concentrate mainly in the North excluding the South and the Southeast of the country.

“Now, they have realised that such things cannot bring peace and progress in the nation, and we have been remembered,” the commissioner said.

He enjoined the committee members to embrace this with both hands, saying: “Let us recuperate ourselves into the main stream of the Nigerian politics, so that in no time we would be able to follow others.”

Earlier, Leo Imoka, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, said that poor nutrition was a problem in Nigeria, especially Anambra State.

Imoka said that this was supposed to be 2018 activity, but in any case, we could still do something now to tackle the issue with better planning.

“So, in planning it, we have to put all solution structures in place. These structures should be limited to the state Committees on Nutrition and Local Government Committees on Nutrition to enable them to recuperate.

Uzoamaka Eriken, the Anambra State nutrition officer, said that the children were looking up to foods being given them with much enthusiasm; “those in crèche are feeling neglected.’’

She enjoined parents to supply their children with fruits in season, since fruits were not included in the school’s children menu.

Nneka Mefoh from Anambra Polytechnics said it was important that officials were trained and re-trained to be able to function effectively on their assignments.

She said that the curriculum of universities and those polytechnics taking food and nutrition courses, must be updated, so that there would be no lapses academically.

Gloria Eneh, a representative from Enugu, said that the UNICEF did not have a nutrition outfit in Enugu. She added that every newly born baby was fed with breast milk of the mother within the first hour of birth.

Dignitaries at the occasion include Azuka Ofomata, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Children and Women Affairs; Blessing Nomeh of the Nsugbe College of Education; Keneth Dike of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Ifeyinwa Uzoka of Anambra Agric ministry.

The committee members were later inaugurated.

– Mar. 26, 2019 @ 13:49 GMT |