The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has called for concerted action to tackle malnutrition, warning that the condition was robbing nearly 40 per cent of Nigerian children under the age of five of their full physical and mental development.
He stated this on Tuesday at the National Summit on Nutrition and Food Security in Abuja.
Represented by Deputy Chief of Staff to the President (Office of the Vice President), Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, VP Shettima said the federal government has launched the Nutrition 774 Initiative, a grassroots-focused programme aimed at addressing malnutrition in the country’s most neglected communities.
He said President Bola Tinubu’s administration has repositioned nutrition as a core pillar of Nigeria’s national development agenda.
While noting that the Nutrition 774 Initiative has been approved by the National Council on Nutrition, which he chairs, he commended both the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly for establishing a National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security.
“The Initiative is designed to have a direct impact in the most forgotten corners of our nation,” Shettima said, adding that urgent, coordinated action was needed to address Nigeria’s alarming nutrition crisis.
He said, “We have witnessed the establishment of the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security and the replication of this committee across all 36 State Houses of Assembly. This is, without question, an unprecedented stride in our legislative engagement. Yet we must admit that the occasion that brings us here today is not a celebration.
“It is a reminder of the burden that we bear, a malnutrition crisis that continues to rob nearly 40 per cent of Nigerian children under five of their physical and cognitive potential. It is a reminder that food insecurity is not only about hunger. It is also about whether our people can afford, access, and accept the food that meets their nutritional needs,” he explained.
Shettima described the initiative as a transformative strategy designed to drive political will, secure sustainable funding, ensure accountability, and foster collaboration across all levels of government.
According to him, the initiative’s strength lies in its simplicity, empowering each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas to take action based on their unique needs, cultural context, and available resources. He noted that both the National Economic Council and the National Council on Nutrition have endorsed the framework.
“To strengthen its implementation, we have inaugurated the Nutrition 774 Strategic Board, made up of legislators, civil society leaders, and government technocrats. This is how we institutionalise accountability and move from rhetoric to results,” Shettima said.
He expressed appreciation to development partners including the World Bank for the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) program, UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières for their community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) initiatives, and GAIN’s ICAM project which integrates nutrition with climate-smart agriculture.
He also acknowledged Nutrition International’s Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) programme for addressing maternal anaemia and improving pregnancy outcomes.
He called on lawmakers to show leadership by ensuring that budgetary allocations for nutrition are consistent, adequate, and protected.
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