Malnutrition has been a ravaging issue in Nigeria, the current economic downturn, climate change and insecurity has not been helpful. As a result, millions of children in Nigeria are at risk of poor cognitive, physical, psychological and mental developments. Over the years, some persons perceived Benue State as the headquarters of affordable food both cooked and uncooked.
The people of Benue are known for their variety of food crops and their penchant for farming, little wonder the state is known as the “Food Basket of the Nation.” But the stark reality is that the state is amongst those being ravaged by malnutrition at the moment. “Hunger dey o; if you come to Makurdi you will see families including enlightened ones struggling to eat.
Whatever they can lay their hands on is what they eat. “It’s worse at the villages; ruam (morsels of either corn flour or cassava paste also known as Akpu or Fufu) is what most of them eat all through the day and with the way things are, protein especially meat, fish and eggs have become a luxury for many including the middle class and so you see over dependence on carbohydrate foods including rice and spaghetti, there is no balanced diet anymore,” Ugbah Teresa, an indigene of Benue State lamented. Speaking to INSIDE ABUJA recently at the end of a two- day Project Inception and Validation meeting for nutrition stakeholders drawn from the states and Civil Society Organisations ( CSOs ) on ‘Increased Investment to Scale up Quality N.
