The International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH) has called for a concerted effort to end Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) across the country. It noted that with the right nutritional knowledge, mothers can feed their children with the right food combination.

It further stressed that poverty, being a major factor fueling malnutrition, can be tackled by empowering women, especially in rural areas, to be able to earn money, which will in turn afford them the ability to purchase healthy meals for their children.

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The Executive Director of the ISMPH, Mrs Moji Makanjuola, made this known in Abuja, during the dissemination of the European Union Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (EU-ACT)-sponsored empowerment programme for mothers of severely acutely malnourished children, especially in the Kwali and Bwari Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

She said: “Nigeria has very highly serious malnutrition issues – underfeeding, overfeeding and wrong feeding—they all have health issues. Of these, underfeeding is our focus in terms of quality and quantity. This is shown because we have well over two million children not just malnourished but also Severely Acutely malnourished.”

A Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Health, Dr Ejike Orji decried the increasing rate of the country’s population. Many Nigerians give birth to children they cannot cater for; adding that the country is fast entering a demographic crisis.