FG’s failure to adequately tackle malnutrition dangerous, says ex-nutrition society boss

A health expert, Prof. Babatunde Oguntona, has warned that failure on the part of the Nigerian Government to invest properly in nutrition to combat the high rate of malnutrition in the country will have grave consequences on the society in the nearest future.
Oguntona, who is the immediate past president of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, gave this warning in a chat with our correspondent against the backdrop of the recent declaration by the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, that Africa loses $25billion every year to malnutrition, despite surplus food in the world.
The former NSN boss noted that a poorly nourished society would continuously be underdeveloped, backward, tasking all stakeholders and the media to take up the joint responsibility of bringing the issue of malnutrition to the front burner.
He said, “Our leaders are completely ignorant of the consequences of poor nutritional status of our people in Nigeria. It is unfortunate that because they are all overfed and their children, too, they don’t know what is going on in the country. If this phenomenon is not tackled properly, it will have serious consequences in the future.
“What we can do is to continually bring malnutrition to the front burner and everybody must be involved, starting from individuals, continuing to the media, particularly the media, to educate our so called leaders on what the implications of malnutrition are for the country they are leading.
Oguntona added, “When we say the responsibility rests on individuals, communities and of course the government, government has the responsibility of enlightening the public or providing the infrastructure that people can use to facilitate the production of
good food.
“Also the government has the responsibility of monitoring and supervising the private sector, especially the food and beverage industry, because more and more people are becoming aware of manufactured food; many more people are eating processed foods and if they are not properly monitored and controlled, it creates another set of problems for the country nutritionally.”