Zainab Bagudu, wife of Kebbi state governor has said that about 60
per cent of children in the state suffered from malnutrition.
Bagudu made this known at the flag-off of November 2018 Maternal
Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Week in Jega local government area of
the state.
She said the state has stunted children of about 60.3 per cent, which
she described as well above the 32 per cent of national average in
2017.
“With over 11 million stunted children, Nigeria is, without doubt,
confronted with the doubting challenge of malnutrition and ranks
second with highest number of stunted children globally.
“For Kebbi, there are various quoted statistics, ranging from 47 to 90
percent prevalence in 2017, the stunting rate stood at 60.3 per cent
well above the national average of 32 per cent,” she said.
“Whatever the figure is, it is too high. It is unacceptable that the
state prides itself as leading in the rice and agricultural production
while the children under age five were dying of hunger.
“Honourable lawmakers, policy makers and implementers, my colleagues
in the health sector, civil servants, we have to stop playing lip
service to the issue and reverse the trend now,” Mrs. Bagudu charged.
She said she championed the routine MNCH weeks and led the creation of
breastfeeding rooms in government workplaces and public spaces.
“This was done in response to the wife of the president, Mrs. Aisha
Buhari’s call to improve upon their implementation of the routine MNCH
weeks.
“I urge the local government chairmen to follow suit and make it easy
for mothers to satisfy the recommended six months of exclusive
breastfeeding,’’ she said.
(NAN)
