By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Abubakar Y Suleiman has ordered the immediate formulation of a joint committee that will comprise the Ministry of Local Government, the 20 Council Chairpersons and the House Committee on Local Government for effective monitoring of nutrition situation in the.
He also expressed worry over the alarming rate of malnourished children in the State declaring the need for emergency on the situation.
The Speaker was speaking during an advocacy meeting organised by the State Committee on Food and Nutrition, Ministry of Budget, Economic Planning and Multilateral Coordination with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday.
Abubakar Suleiman stressed that the malnutrition situation in the State called for urgent action, as many of the children need to be rescued.
Though he lamented that he was not aware of the alarming situation before the passage of the 2025 budget, the Assembly will definitely do something to salvage the situation to save lives of innocent children.
The Speaker therefore declared commitment to supporting the nutrition challenge of the state, pledging to probe previous funds meant for child nutrition. Speaking on behalf of the House of Assembly.
Abubakar Suleiman ordered the House Committees on Food and Nutrition, Budget and Appropriation and Committee on Health to map out a plan to improve the budget line for nutrition in the state.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has taken the campaign about child welfare funding to the Legislative arm of government in Bauchi State, raising an alarm on the rate of children on the verge of dying.
The UNICEF Chief of Bauchi Field Office, Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, while speaking at the meeting stated that available Data showed the State has the highest burden of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the Field Office.
According to her, the situation has worsened the rate of children with stunting and wasting but the commitment from the government seems to be elusive since it is yet to release counterpart funds for the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF)
She said that, “I would like to share with you the CNF – the Child Nutrition Fund. Globally, it’s such a major issue that these women have collected together to make a Child Nutrition Fund. It has ever since been practiced in many countries. Nigeria will be one of those countries.”
“If you put 100 million, is it magic? You will have 200 million. We work on all the conventions, rules, and super-conventions of the children. To have such a society, such a community, there is no time to go into malnutrition,” She added.
She added, “So, there is prevention, there is cure, and the children who are already affected so much by malnutrition, can be rehabilitated. So this is very sensitive and very important. And I would like you people (lawmakers) to feel from the heart.”