The recent report about massive cases of malnutrition among the children and women in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the north-eastern Nigeria is just a tip of the iceberg, particularly when the issue of malnutrition is being discussed in Nigeria. Malnutrition is strongly linked to the cycle of poverty in any population. A typical scenario is observed among the very poor and deprived families, who lack access to adequate food supply and other social amenities, including health care.
A typical scenario can be observed in a rural area or in a typical urban slum. I am always reminded of the story of a two-year-old child, the 6th among seven other children in the family, whose mother was expecting her eighth child; having lost two at birth a few years earlier. The little girl’s eyes were sunken, her skin looked wrinkled and pale, and her hair, brownish and very scanty. Her mother had never taken her to the nearest health center in the town where they live and may never visit the health center because she is either too busy with household chores. With another baby on the way, it was just impossible to have enough time to pay full attention to the little girl who is always sickly and unhappy.
The truth is that the little girl may eventually survive and may be enrolled in school. However, the probability of her effectively competing with her peers in school may be very low. This is because she is growing up in a poor and challenging situation complicated with chronic malnutrition which adversely affect her physical, mental, emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Malnutrition is a major problem in Nigeria contributing to childhood morbidity, mortality, impaired intellectual development, poor school achievement, suboptimal work performance and increased risk of diseases in adulthood. According to the NDHS (2013), 37 out of every 100 children under 5 are chronically malnourished (stunted), 18 out of every 100 children under five suffer from acute malnutrition (wasted) and 29 out of every 100 children under five (percent) are underweight. 17 percent of children less than 6 months are exclusively breastfed and complementary foods are not introduced in a timely fashion for all children as only 67 percent of breastfed children aged 6-23 months receive complementary foods. Overall, only 10 percent of children age 6-23 months are fed appropriately based on recommended infant and young child feeding practices.
Adequate nutrition is a prerequisite for the overall development of our country and for the wellbeing of individuals and though the problems of malnutrition affects the entire population, women and children are especially vulnerable because of the their unique socio-economic and physiology characteristics.
Adequate nutrition is essential for every child’s growth and development and especially important in the first 1000 days of the child’s life. This period is marked by optimal physical, mental, and cognitive growth, health and development of the child.
A woman’s nutritional status has implications for her health and for the health of her children. Malnutrition in women results in reduced productivity, increased susceptibility to diseases and infections and a heightened risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. And like in case scenario above, malnutrition results in low body mass index, short stature, anaemia. Others include; having a greater risk of obstructed labor, low birth weight baby, producing low quality breast milk, death due to post partum haemorrhage and morbidity for herself and her baby.
Malnutrition is everyone’s problem and thus, the urgent need to engage in conversations and support collective efforts to scale up nutrition in the country. Investment on nutrition by Nigerian Government has not been adequate enough to meet the nutritional challenges in the country. Recent analysis of the 2015 health budget shows inadequate provision for adequate nutrition programs and services at the National, state and local government areas. There is a saying that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation and until Nigeria prioritizes health as one of the key indices for development, achieving the sustainable development goals may be mirage.
Consequences of Nutritional deficiencies include high maternal deaths, high infant death rates, poor educational performance among the children, low productive capacity of the adult population, high poverty rates, low life expectancy rate, and so many other poor indices associated with underdevelopment.
I suggest that Nigeria should declare a state of emergency in response to the current data on malnutrition. The civil society, donor agencies and international partners should scale up advocacy, funding and mobilize support for key interventions that would promote nutrition and other measures to save the vulnerable women and children from this national epidemic. Malnutrition is indeed everybody’s problem and must be treated as a national emergency!
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