A very grim but accurate picture of Nigeria’s food security crisis was presented last week by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which warned that the food and nutrition crisis might deepen in Nigeria, pointing out that the country had already been flagged as having the highest number of malnourished children in Africa and the second highest in the world. The Chief of Nutrition at UNICEF, Nemat Hajeebhoy, gave the warning during a media briefing on the 2025 lean season multisectoral response plan for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The briefing, organised by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was aimed at mobilising funding and support for humanitarian response in the region. She said: “Children with severe acute malnutrition are nine to 11 times more likely to die,” disclosing that 600,000 children in Nigeria are suffering from acute malnutrition, with half of them being at risk of developing severe acute malnutrition. On his part, Serigne Loum, Head of Programme at the World Food Programme (WFP), also warned of worsening conditions, saying “Nigeria has the highest number of food insecure people on the continent.”
Trond Jensen, Head of OCHA in Nigeria, also said: “$160 million is needed to address problems of food insecurity, nutrition, water and sanitation, health, protection, and logistics that come with the lean season. This is the absolute bare minimum that we are needing. Of course it is a paradox and a dilemma that whereas the needs when it comes to severe acute malnutrition have doubled in the year, our ability to address those needs in some instances has halved. And that is because of the freeze of US funding, but also the cuts in other donors’ funding.” Jensen said OCHA had been forced to reduce its target from four million to two million people due to the budget shortfall, and called on governments and international partners to step in. The development follows its announcement last month that it would begin scaling back operations in Nigeria due to a $58 million funding gap.
It is impossible to debate the conclusion that malnutrition or, more specifically, severe acute malnutrition, particularly among children, is a significant issue in Nigeria. According to the global statistical agencies, and as confirmed by everyday experience, an uncomfortably large number of children in Nigeria suffer from stunting, wasting, and underweight conditions, leading to increased mortality rates. The causes of malnutrition include poverty, inadequate food production, poor infant and young child feeding practices, and limited access to healthcare and sanitation. In this situation, it is no surprise that Nigerian children, particularly those under the age of five, have for years been vulnerable to diseases, delayed development, and higher mortality rates. This is, to say the least, an embarrassment. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, yet it is unable to feed its children, and this is not surprising given the state of the economy, which inevitably raises the overarching question of inept leadership.
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Ideally, experts recognise the fact that addressing malnutrition in Nigeria requires a multi-faceted approach that covers increased food availability, affordability, and accessibility, particularly for vulnerable populations; enlightening communities about proper nutrition, healthy eating habits, and the importance of breastfeeding, as well as addressing prenatal care, promoting exclusive breastfeeding, and providing nutrient-rich foods for infants and young children. Addressing malnutrition should also include food fortification programmes such as iodized salt and vitamin-enriched staples to address micronutrient deficiencies; community-based initiatives on food, and ensuring that healthcare systems can detect, treat, and prevent malnutrition, particularly in rural areas. The government has to support sustainable agriculture, improve crop yields, and promote diverse, nutrient-rich food production, and develop and implement policies supporting nutrition, advocate for increased funding, and monitor progress. But all of this is, ultimately, and perhaps unfortunately, a question of quality leadership, which remains largely a dream in the country.
One corollary of poor leadership in the country is policy somersaults. Each government, for political purposes, seems to jettison programmes by its predecessor, even where such programmes have been proven to have merits. For instance, the policies of Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, including the ones on cassava bread and wallets for farmers, have been all but trashed. This is, to say the very least, unfortunate. If a government cannot feed its population, what really can it do? Food is the most basic of all the basic needs and once it is lacking or inadequate, then a crisis of epidemic proportions is afoot. Apparently, the high poverty rate in the country is a strong factor for malnutrition. It is a no-brainer that if parents are cash-strapped and lacking access to quality healthcare services, then their children will not fare better. Indeed, talking about (acute) malnutrition among Nigerian children may leave the false impression that adults are well taken care of. But who really is well nourished? The truth is that most Nigerians, because of the poor leadership, are malnourished, and many have indeed become philosophical about their condition, blaming their condition on cosmic forces rather than bad governance. If the minimum wage cannot guarantee survival, then what is expected to happen?
Besides, the widespread security in the country contributes to malnutrition in so many ways. When farmers keep getting killed on the farms, how do you produce adequate food? It is tragic that we have this misery even with all the natural endowments. Global organisations working to address malnutrition in Nigeria, like UNICEF, which supports nutrition programmes, including community-based management of acute malnutrition, and the World Food Programme, which provides food assistance, supports school feeding programmes, and promotes sustainable agriculture, can only do so much. The Nigerian government, from the Federal to state and local government levels, must lead the way in fighting malnutrition. It must save Nigerian children, and indeed all Nigerians, from malnutrition, hunger and starvation. No citizen deserves to live in misery.
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