COS Worried Over High Infant Mortality Rate in Nigeria

Okon Bassey in Uyo

A civil society organisation, CS-SUNN, has expressed worry over high infant mortality rate in Nigeria due to malnutrition.

The group therefore called for increased budgetary allocation for nutrition by state governments to address the challenge.

The Chairman Steering Committee of the organisation for nutrition, Mallam Sodangi Chindo Adam, noted that over 800 children die annually before the age of five due malnutrition in the country.

Adam, disclosed this yesterday, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, at a two-day retreat for legislators and executives from Niger, Kano, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Lagos States.

The retreat had as its theme: “Improved Malnutrition Funding: The Role of Legislators and Executives.”

“What is currently happening is very worrisome because the statistics from the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children Educational Fund and even the World Bank is showing that one million of our children are dying annually before age five.

“And what UNICEF did was to identify malnutrition as the underlying cause of the infant mortality and morbidity for over 80 per cent of these children which means that over 800 of these children that die is as a result of malnutrition.

“This calls for action. That is why you see the legislators and state executives here for them to look at the statistics from world leading institutions like the WHO, UNICEF and World Bank for them to take appropriate action in their various states.

“I think we have the right mix of legislators including speakers, government agencies, permanent secretaries and other stakeholders. This is very apt and I think they will come out with solution to address this challenge.”, he stressed.

He noted that, “most of the states are battling with the challenges of budgeting. Appropriations are not made for nutrition and even they are made the issue of releases becomes a problem.

“That is why we have the legislators and principal officers of state assemblies. What we are trying to change is the budgeting so that improved amounts will be budgeted for nutrition”.

The chairman, Board of Trustees of the organisation, Dr. Mbang Kouffreh Ada, had explained that the aim of the retreat was to ensure food security for Nigerian children.

She urged legislators to make legislations that would support good and safe nutrition, adding that such foods should be free from contaminants.