Nigeria’s First Lady, Dr. Aisha Buhari has noted that Nigeria may not have competent young adults to run the government, business and academia in the future if the problem of malnutrition is not solved.
Mrs Buhari, who was represented by Mrs. Oludolapo Osinbajo, Wife of the Vice President, spoke at the virtual National Nutrition Summit held on Tuesday.
A statement to newsmen on Wednesday by Aliyu Abdullahi, Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, said that Mrs Buhari charged stakeholders to end the scourge of malnutrition ravaging Nigerian children so that they can survive, thrive and possess the requisite cognitive ability to handle the future.
To ignore this, she said, is to mortgage our future, “because tomorrow, we would not have competent young adults to run government, businesses or even academia.”
“By now we are certain that the Government and people of Nigeria are not oblivious of the nutrition situation in the country.
“We have also made some progress in recent years, especially having more stakeholders talking about Nutrition, and getting more nutrition-sensitive budget lines at Federal and State levels,” She said.
Mrs. Buhari also drew attention to the current global pandemic, which has worsened the situation by moving all attention and resources towards the containment of COVID-19 virus and unconsciously excluding vulnerable children in the process. She stated that their lives are equally important.
