Angela Onwuzoo
Nutritionists have expressed concern over the alarming rate of hunger in the country, revealing that children under the age of five years are now going to school on empty stomachs.
They warned that children who go to school without eating will have low immunity and lack concentration in class.
They further revealed that such children are at risk of having low intelligence quotient and impaired cognitive development, which will lead to poor academic performance.
As the months roll by, food prices have continued to soar, with the cost of staple foods such as garri, rice and others increasing astronomically.
Also, the cost of bread, ‘pure water’, bottled water, soft drinks, and many others has increased.
The nutritionists, who spoke exclusively to PUNCH Healthwise said the economic hardship in the country is causing hunger and deepening poverty in families.
They called on the Federal Government to urgently address the issue of hunger, warning that children battling with hunger will end up malnourished, anaemic, and stunted, and will not be able to achieve their full potential as well as contribute meaningfully to national development.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The National Demographic and Health Survey 2018, indicates that currently, one in three Nigerian children suffer from stunting.
In 2023 the United Nations Children’s Fund disclosed that 23.5 million out of the 35 million are suffering from anaemia.
UNICEF logo
They expressed worry over the health and future of children under the age of five years in the face of the current economic hardship being experienced in the country.
The nutritionists lamented that the cost of feeding a family is too high due to the current high prices of foodstuff.
President of the Federation of African Nutrition Societies, Professor Ngozi Nnam, told our correspondent that it is obvious the economic situation in the country will have a devastating impact on children.
Prof Ngozi Nnam
The professor of Community and Public Health Nutrition at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said, “The economic hardship is impacting on families. So many families go to bed hungry. Food is very expensive and some families can’t even afford one meal a day.
“Most children now go to school on an empty stomach because of the economic crunch. It will hurt their academic performance.
“They are likely not going to concentrate in class because their brains have not been sufficiently powered with the needed energy to function well. They may also have lower IQ and their ability to conceptualize in class will be reduced.”
Besides being plagued by anaemia, UNICEF also said 12 million children under five are stunted with three million others wasted.
Nigeria signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 and access to good nutrition, which UNICEF describes as an important right of every child.
In 2003, Nigeria signed the Child Rights Act, and 29 out of 36 states have a strong Child Rights Act in place.
Nnam noted that the hunger in the country will further worsen the nation’s malnutrition burden.
She added, “It is going to have a very bad impact on them. There is no doubt about it because it will worsen the malnutrition indices.
“More children will be stunted, we will have underweight wasting and the indices will be more. Even more children will be anaemic. It is when you have money that you talk about buying foods that are rich in iron”, she said.
The don noted that the nation’s child malnutrition indices will be alarming when the next national health survey is released due to economic hardship.
“One of the impacts of stunting is not only physical appearance but that they are too short for their age. That is one of them. But the one that is of real concern is that everything about them is stunted; their cognitive development is stunted.
“We are so worried and something needs to be done urgently to address the economic crunch in the country.”
The Don suggested measures that the Federal Government can adopt to mitigate the daily rise in food prices and other essentials.
According to her, the FG must set short and medium-term goals to make living easy for the citizens.
Nigeria is currently ranked first in Africa and second globally in terms of the number of malnourished children.
According to the World Health Organisation, anaemia is a serious global public health problem, affecting 571 million women and 269 million young children worldwide.
WHO
“In 2019, anaemia affected 40 per cent of children between six months and five years of age; 37 per cent of pregnant women, and 30 per cent of women 15–49 years of age.
“It is most prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. Anaemia increases the risk of infections and death, impairs cognitive performance, and causes extreme fatigue, poor pregnancy outcomes, loss of earnings, and poor growth and development. It is a strong indicator of overall health”, WHO said.
Corroborating Nnam’s statement, President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Professor Wasiu Afolabi, said malnutrition could have both short and long-term devastating impacts on children.
Afolabi, a Professor of Community Nutrition at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, affirmed that Nigeria has the highest burden of stunted children in Africa.
The don warned that all these will have implications on national development besides the children not doing well academically.
“The rising cost of food is also going to worsen the malnutrition burden unless deliberate efforts are made to make food available and at an affordable price,” he maintained.
The nutritionist said the rising spate of insecurity in the country has also depleted available food and farmers can no longer access their farmlands.
He called on the FG to urgently address the issue of hunger and poverty in the country.
“We have a very difficult situation and the government needs to wake up. We need a multiplicity of policies and programmes to address the current hunger situation.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation says no fewer than 2.6 million Nigerians in Borno, Sokoto, and Zamfara States including the FCT, may face a food crisis between June and August 2024.
In 2023, the FAO declared that about 26.5 million Nigerians in 26 states and Abuja may face an acute food crisis.
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