By Oluwabukola Akanni
Ibadan – The President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Dr Barth Brai, on Thursday called on government at all levels to increase budgetary allocation to tackle malnutrition in the country.
Brai, who made this call during the ongoing 47th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the society, said that Nigeria’s high malnutrition rate was adversely affecting national development.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference had the theme: “Controversies in Nutrition: Separating Facts from Fads and Fallacies”.
The NSN President said that the low level of commitment and political will on the part of policy makers contributed to the high malnutrition rate.
“Nutrition that was once dubbed the medicine of the future has undoubtedly been accepted as the best medicine the world needs today.
“We need the political will of our leaders because if they are determined and resolute to take action to address the country’s malnutrition status, they will successfully turn the fortunes of Nigeria around.
“Eventually, we will have healthy children grow into healthy adults and this will bring about growth and development in the country,” he said.
Also speaking at the conference, Prof. Ngozi Nnam, the President, Federation of African Nutrition Society (FANUS), said that government should create a budget line specifically for nutrition.
“We have continually embarked on massive public sensitisation as a group, but there is nothing you can do without money,” she said.
Nnam said that about 23 per cent of Nigerian children under five had stunted growth.
“When we say that a child is stunted we mean the child is too short for his or her age and that means that the child is not developing well both physically and internally.
“It also means that the child does not have adequate height and this affects all the organs in the body including the brain.
“The implication of this is that the brain has not developed the way it ought to have developed.
“We are all aware that the brain controls all mental and physical activities in the body and if the brain has not developed well that child has not developed well,” she said.
The FANUS president said that a stunted child would not be able to fully actualise his or her potentials.
“We know that children today are the future leaders of tomorrow and when they grow up as future leaders with a stunted brain, they will be unable to take adequate actions to take the country to the expected heights.
“So stunting or malnutrition adversely affects individual development as well as National development,” Nnam said. (NAN)