By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Many thing calls for everyone's attention but children state of malnourishment is such that could not be brushed aside without a clarion call to the authorities and managers of the economy for appropriate solutions.
Nigeria has the worst case of malnutrition in Africa and the second worst in the world in the latest ranking by both the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A UNICEF report titled, “Fed to Fail? The Crisis of Children’s Diets in Early Life”, published in 2021 placed Nigeria second in the global malnutrition burden with 17 million undernourished children.
One in three children in Nigeria is diminutive and one in 10 children is wasted, the report said, setting the country off track to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – Zero Hunger by 2030.
“From the 2018 National Demography Health Survey, NDHS, 37 per cent of Nigerian children aged between 0 to 59 months are stunted, seven per cent are wasted (thin for their height); 22 per cent are underweight (thin for their age), and two per cent are overweight (heavy for their height),” the report added.
“According to the NDHS, South-West has less than seven per cent (6.8) of Global Acute malnutrition and moving up North, it is direr with North-West showcasing 57 per cent in stunting.
“Only the South-East fared a little low with 18 per cent of children stunted.”
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