The recent report that about 40 percent of children under the age of five are suffering from stunted growth in Nigeria has sparked a national conversation.
It has again brought to the fore the reality of governance failures and poor accountability, which has ultimately worsened child hunger in Nigeria.
According to the report by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, also called Think Tank, 40 percent of Nigerian children under the age of five are suffering from stunted growth, eight percent are wasted, while 27 percent are underweight, with the highest burden concentrated in the North-West and North-East regions.
The report, titled, “Why malnutrition persists in northern Nigeria: Strengthening nutrition governance, financing and primary healthcare,” blamed weak governance structures, poor accountability and institutional failures for the continued child nutrition crisis despite years of government interventions and policy initiatives.
Released earlier in the week, the report warned that Nigeria’s malnutrition
