No fewer than 26.5million Nigerians would be grappling with high levels of food insecurity this year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.
According to OCHA, Nigeria is the second highest burden of malnutrition in the world, with 32% of children under the age of five stunted or chronically malnourished.
“Malnutrition currently impacts 35 million children under the age of five, among whom 12 million are stunted, 3 million are wasted, and 23.5 million suffer from anemia. An additional 17.7 million individuals are facing hunger, with 2.6 million children confronting severe acute malnutrition in 2024” OCHA added.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas revealed the statistics on Thursday at the inauguration of the House committee on Nutrition and food security held in Abuja.
The speaker, who spoke through the house leader, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere said the data paints a very gloomy picture requiring urgent legislative action.
He said “This is particularly so given that some of the causative factors are issues within the legislative competence of the House to deal with. The food and nutrition crisis affecting us as a nation is partly caused by global warming and climate change, pervasive insecurity across the country which prevents farmers and herders from engaging in their various agricultural activities, poor Irrigation, outdated land tenure system, crude and traditional farm practices on subsistence levels as well as a myriad of other challenges”.
Additionally, Abbas noted that the World Food Programme’s September 2023 publication of the ‘Nigeria Hunger Map’ estimates that 24.9 million Nigerians are in an acute or critical stage of hunger,
categorized as an emergency, while 85.8 million Nigerians have insufficient food consumption. “Among this population, 47.7
million Nigerians resort to crisis-level or above-crisis-level food-
based coping strategies” he said.
“As a committee, you
are expected to provide a legislative response to the worsening food insecurity and malnutrition in the country through effective oversight of policies and programmes towards addressing
these twin issues especially as the President had declared a
state of emergency on food insecurity, review existing legislation and suggest new legislative frameworks that affect agricultural production, the tood supply chain.
“Your task becomes more crucial and urgent in the face of rising food prices and high cost of living occasioned by the withdrawal of
government subsidy on petroleum products. I have no doubt in
the capacity of the Chairman and members of the committee to
deliver on this onerous task of providing immediate solution to
the growing food and nutrition crisis in the country”.
He therefore urged the committee to enlist the support and collaboration of relevant stakeholders to achieve success in the overall interest of Nigeria.
