Nutritional Crisis: Nigeria Needs To Address It
Dr. Francis Ohanyido, the Country Director of Vitamin Angels, has emphasised the need to end the “nutritional crisis” that is still looming over Nigeria during a one- day programme, Coordination Meeting on Maternal Child Nutrition and Quality Antenatal Nutritional Care (ANC) services held in Ibadan, in conjunction with the Jos-based Christian Health Association of Nigeria (CHAN).
Women and children, according to Dr. Ohanyido, are the most affected by the latent nutritional crises, which is the result of the “hidden hunger” in the land caused by poverty, and pregnant women are the most affected as well.
Health, he said, must be seen as a top priority in our weighing of national concerns. In his view, addressing the nutritional crises of the nation’s critical population of women and children would lead to positive results.
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He advised that the government should be more focused on how to integrate good nutritional practices for the benefits of the women before and during antenatal services. According to him, his organization, Vitamin Angel, was committed to ensuring that women and children get this desired attention. In his own words, “What Vitamin Angel is doing in Nigeria is catalytic. It is to open our eyes as a country to do the right thing in this area of public health.”
Dr. Ohanyido explained that it was highly necessary to point out that “health is everything and nutrition is at the heart of health.” He gave the COVID-19 pandemic which took the whole world by surprise as an example and added that it was much needed eye opener for nations to take health issues seriously. According to him, “Health is an electoral issue and we should not deceive ourselves that it is not. We must get our politics right. Enough of accidental leadership.”
He states that Vitamin Angel is playing its role for better nutrition in the country by supplying the relevant drugs through the CHAN Members Institutions amongst other to help raise healthy young children for the future.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Micheal Idah, the Secretary General of CHAN, who was represented by the Director of Advocacy, Mr. David Omoanebokhae commended Vitamin Angels for the steady supply of Micronutrient Vitamins for pregnant women and Abendenazole for deworming of children. He said that in the last one year, for instance over 1.2 million people consisting of women and children mainly have been reached through 48 hospitals across Nigeria. CHAN, he said, values the partnership with Vitamin Angels and appealed for the body to do more by making available their reliable, essential and vital drugs so that CHAN can empower more health Institutions and Individuals.
