Nestle Nigeria Plc, a foremost food and beverages manufacturer in the country, recently re-echoed the danger inherent in iron deficiency among kids under the age of five, citing 68 per cent as the figure of those affected.
The danger was sounded by the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Victoria Uwadoka, during a courtesy visit to the head office of the Media Trust Limited, Abuja.
She lamented that even though the nation was rich in iron-based foods, Nigerians were not accessing them as a result of ignorance and poverty.
Uwadoka noted that the deficiency rate was higher among uneducated women at 64 percent and 47 per cent among the educated mothers, among other health conditions. She listed such foods as beans, sweet potato, egg, corn, soya and vegetables/fruits like melon, pumpkin, cashew nut, coconut, carrot, water melon and palm kernel as being rich in iron.
She revealed that the firm was going to launch a campaign named “Live Strong with Iron” by April, this year, with about 50 per cent of the nation’s population as its target.
She also highlighted the effects of iron deficiency to include poor growth and development among kids, and blood shortage for women during childbirth.
The scenario should be a matter of serious concern to the government at all levels in view of its socio-economic implications for the future generation.
Much earlier, the WaterAid came up with a frightening report that portrayed Nigeria as beinghome to over 10m children afflicted by stunted growth.Nigeria is ranked second in the world behind India which harbours about 48m of such children, even though it boasts of a higher population put at about 1.3bn. Hot on the heels of Nigeria are Pakistan, Indonesia and China in that order.
The report, entitled: “Caught Short” putsNigeria’s figure at 10,321,000, followed by Pakistan – 9.89m, Indonesia – 8.72m and China – 8.04m. It further revealed that out of 132 countries surveyed, 159m children under the age of five are stunted – at the ratio of one out of every four kids.
The agency also said that stunted growth in children cannot only be attributed to nutrition and gene constitution.
Defining stunting as children with unusually low height for their age, an indication that children have not developed as they should, physically or cognitively, the report also said that stunting is largely irreversible after attaining the age of two.
Also as recently as 2015, the project director of Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CSSUNN), Mrs. NgoziOnuora, sounded a similar alarm that about 11m under-five Nigerian children were stunted.
The project director further said: “This means they cannot reach their full potential if Nigeria does not reverse the trend.”
Malnutrition, one of the key factors responsible for stunted growth in children, is driven by grinding poverty afflicting the majority of Nigerian families both in the rural and urban communities. Most parents breeding stunted children can hardly feed well. No parents can provide what they do not have. In some instances, even when the right meals are available, most parents pass down small percentages of nutritional meals to their children while they corner the lion’s share in the erroneous belief that they are just kids.
But the truth is that children need an adequate nutritious diet in their formative years to develop well both physically and mentally, and even at conception through what their mothers consume. The reason why many children are intellectually deficient is rooted in malnutrition.
What appeared as the silver lining in the dark cloud came when two or so years ago, the federal government disclosed its plan to provide a litre of milk daily to 30m children in primary and secondary schools across the nation under the school feeding programme. The immediate past minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made the revelation during a meeting with a team from the West African Milk Company, Abuja.
Chief Ogbe gave the assurance that the measure would tackle the problem of malnutrition among Nigerian children affecting their growth and development. He quoted the UNESCO statistics stating that 24 per cent of Nigerian children under the age of five were underweight, while 37 per cent were undernourished.
We had welcomed the federal government’s initiative because we believed it would complement the scheme already in place in some states like Osun and Borno which had free feeding programmes in primary and secondary schools at the time. Although the free school feeding fever has caught on in several states across the country, about two years down the road, the white revolution, which the milk was to represent, is yet to be added to the scheme.
Nigeria is endowed with adequate resources to provide the needed nutrition for school kids. In the 70s, most secondary schools especially in the old Northern Region had regular supplies of what was referred to as the Kennedy Powdered Milk, an American initiative to nourish the Nigerian children at their formative age.
The federal, state and local governments should also create an enabling environment for parents to wean themselves from grinding poverty which is the major factor responsible for their inability to bring balanced diets to the family tables. This can be achieved through diversification of the economy leading to provision of employment opportunities at all levels and across the nation.
It is common knowledge that the phenomenon of malnutrition is more prevalent in the rural communities. It is heart-warming to note that the school feeding programme will go a long way to address the crisis. We urge all relevant agencies and stakeholders to accept the challenge posed by the deficiency in order to avert the grave consequences awaiting the future generation as a result of poor dieting in the midst of plenty.
