By Kemi Yesufu
From July 8 to July 10, the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security hosted a National Summit on Nutrition and Food Security. The summit, which brought together experts from relevant sectors, representatives from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, the armed forces, security agencies, traditional rulers, members of the House of Representatives, and members of State Houses of Assembly, as well as supporting development partners, thrust a little-discussed yet pervasive problem into the spotlight.
For three days, participants discussed critical issues surrounding nutrition and food security. Vice President Kashim Shettima, who declared the summit open, was candid about Nigeria’s poor standing in terms of nutrition and food security.
Interventions by the Executive
The Vice-President described as highly unacceptable, data that shows malnutrition deprives about 40 percent of Nigerian children under the age of five of their full physical and cognitive potential.
The Vice-President who was represented by Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President (Office of the Vice President), stated that Nigeria needs a multi-sectoral and multi-level approach to stemming malnutrition and improving security.
It was therefore no surprise when Shettima, said the Federal Government has prioritised programmes such as the N774 Initiative even as it supports the legislative intervention through the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security. He said interventions which are co-implemented by the Federal Government and the sub-nationals are sustainable means through which Nigeria can introduce policies, programmes and laws to promote food security and combat malnutrition.
The N774 Initiative is a Federal Government programme targeted at revitalising and incentivising local action to improve food security, health, and nutrition in Nigeria. This is while the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security comprises the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, as well as the chairpersons and clerks of the Committee on Nutrition and Food Security in the 36 State Houses of Assembly.
“The (N774) Initiative is designed to have a direct impact in the most forgotten corners of our nation,” Shettima said, adding that urgent, coordinated action is needed to address Nigeria’s alarming nutrition crisis.
“We have witnessed the establishment of the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security and the replication of this committee across all 36 State Houses of Assembly. This is, without question, an unprecedented stride in our legislative engagement. Yet we must admit that the occasion that brings us here today is not a celebration”, the Vice-President said.
He added: “It is a reminder of the burden that we bear, a malnutrition crisis that continues to rob nearly 40% of Nigerian children under five of their physical and cognitive potential. It is a reminder that food insecurity is not only about hunger. It is also about whether our people can afford, access, and accept the food that meets their nutritional needs.
“It is about the economy. It is about education. It is about the very building blocks of human capital that this nation so urgently needs at this time of its development”.
Legislative Action Including Law On Six Months Maternity Leave
Towing the path already set by the Vice-President, who spoke of solutions, rather than lamentations, Chief Host of the summit and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas, stressed the need for a multi-sectoral and collaborative approach in dealing with the malnutrition challenge.
Abbas said, “Credible estimates place the annual economic cost at 12.2 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross National Income, approximately fifty-six billion dollars, while post-harvest losses alone account for two billion dollars each year. Such figures compel us to move beyond rhetoric to concrete, sustained interventions.
“To that end, the Committee is collaborating with stakeholders in all 36 States to transition from policy pronouncements to on-the-ground impact. Through capacity-building workshops and cross-sectoral consultations, we are addressing the root causes of malnutrition and strengthening the systems needed for rapid and effective response.
“Nigeria has every potential to become Africa’s food basket. Our vast arable lands and resilient farming communities position us to lead on food production and nutrition. We are championing the mainstreaming of nutrition-sensitive programmes into federal and state budgets and advocating policy reforms to institutionalise robust oversight and accountability.
“Currently, before the National Assembly are two transformative legislative initiatives. The first proposes six months’ maternity leave for nursing mothers, in alignment with global best practice to support early childhood nutrition and maternal health.
“The second aims to eradicate the unsafe sale of edible bulk oil in open markets, a practice that undermines public health and safety. Both measures are rooted in our commitment to protect the most vulnerable and invest in the nation’s future”.
In his welcome address, the Chairman of the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, Hon Chike Okafor, disclosed that the House is undertaking strategic capacity-building sessions to have a better understanding of the root and dynamics of current nutrition and food security challenges in Nigeria and expressed hope that the capacity-building sessions are institutionalised in partnership with the National Institute of Democratic and Legislative Studies, with support from our ever-helpful development partners.
He said, “This will put us in a better position to provide strategic oversight to all nutrition and food-related interventions and implementing partners, including but not limited to the UN family, the World Bank, International and National NGOs, and of course the government at Federal, State and Local Government levels. By doing so, we will not only have more money for nutrition, but also more nutrition for the available money.
“We cannot continue to impose multiple levies on long articulated vehicles carrying food from one part of Nigeria to another, and expect food inflation to reduce. This is why the new Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 (NTAA), which introduces a unified procedural framework for the assessment, collection, enforcement and administration of taxes across all levels of government, is a welcome development. The President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, deserves our commendation for this bold initiative.
“We now need proper sensitisation on the benefits of this tax law, which in the next couple of months will be reflecting on nutrition and food security and the Nigerian economy generally. We cannot continue to allow Development Partners to implement and oversee themselves on nutrition interventions, and expect better transparency and value for money.
“We cannot continue to borrow huge sums of money from multilateral institutions for nutrition interventions, and we don’t have a say as to how taxpayers’ money will be best spent, or ask questions if there are, to prevent infractions. We cannot continue to allow LGAs to invest in nutrition and food security outside the existing national guidelines and frameworks, without recourse to legislative oversight at state and local government levels”.
As expected, Okafor’s clarion call was immediately followed by the first panel discussion of the summit with the topic: “Strengthening Multi-Sectoral Synergies For Sustainable Development”.
Speaking during the panel, Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly and Chairman Conference of Speakers, Hon. Debo Ogundoyin, advocated for a unified law across states, to stop the levying of trucks conveying food items.
He said: “The first thing that we have to do is to recognise that we have a lot of illegal levies being collected. Some states will collect levies and even within those states that collect levies, there are many points of collection, where you see actors who just go on the road to harass trucks transporting food.
“This invariably increases the cost of food. It not only increases the cost of food, it also hampers the free movement of food across or within states or across or within LGAs. What we can do as the State Houses of Assembly, especially when properly coordinated, especially through the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security, is to ensure that the same law is passed in the 36 states at the same time”.
Further speaking on how the legislature can contribute to improving nutrition and food security, the Majority Leader of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and Chairman of the Forum of Committees on Nutrition and Food Security in the State Houses of Assembly, Hon. Tolulope Ige, emphasised the importance of effective legislative oversight. In his paper titled, “Strengthening Legislative Oversight for Enhanced Nutrition Outcomes at the Sub-National Level” Ige, emphasised that legislative oversight when well implemented, “drives implementation of existing policies, ensures transparency in spending, strengthens coordination among MDAs and makes nutrition visible and prioritised”.
Also speaking during the panel session, Professor of Food Security and representatives of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Ado Gambo, said the NGF should be well-informed on initiatives to be implemented at the sub-national level. He assured that the NGF will be presented with decisions reached during the summit, adding that the N774 and the National Legislative Network On Nutrition and Food Security are platforms which will supported by governors.
Dr Ben Nkechika, who represented the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), promised that the association will create awareness on the benefits of the new polices from the Federal Government and the legislature. He also assured that ALGON will work towards improving access to the benefits of these policies, and also ensure the buy-in into the N774 intervention by its members. He also said that ALGON will ensure that adequate structures are created, while a focal person and a committee on Nutrition and Food Security are put in place.
Development Partners Speak
The House Committee on Nutrition has worked closely with development partners right from its inauguration. It is worthy of note that some of these partners supported the hosting of earlier retreats and the recently concluded National Summit on Nutrition and Food Security. Development partners, including UNICEF, Nutrition International (NI), World Food Programme, CSUNN, Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, Gates Foundation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Hellen Keller International, FHI-360, backed the Committee in hosting the summit.
Neemat Hajeboy spoke on the work being done by UNICEF and how the UN agency is assisting in improving synergy during the summit’s first panel discussion. She stressed that for Africa to make malnutrition a thing of the past, Nigeria must succeed with its interventions on nutrition and food security. She said: “Nigeria is at the epicentre of the malnutrition crisis in Africa. We cannot win the fight against malnutrition without Nigeria at the forefront. So, the discussions and work we are doing here today are critical because it is from the highest level to the LGA level”. As development partners, it is our mandate to work with each level, beginning from the Office of the Vice President and the National Council on Nutrition and moving to the different states and LGAs. The work that we do includes technical and financial support”. Hajeeboy added that the most important aspect of UNICEF’s work is in the area of data collection. She said UNICEF has helped Nigeria with relevant data for the right policies and programmes to be designed and implemented in different parts of the country.
Ekenem Isichie, who represented the Gates Foundation, advocated for the National Assembly to deploy it legislative oversight role to ensure that Primary Health Care Centres across the country provide mothers and children with the right information and quality health services. He agreed with the UNICEF representative, that Nigeria must take the lead in the African quest to reduce infant and maternal mortality, as well as end malnutrition and significantly improve food security. “For us at the Gates Foundation, all lives have value. For us at the Gates Foundation, no mother or child should die from preventable deaths. Secondly, how do we make sure we are lifting people out of poverty with the work we are doing? Third for us is thinking about how do you begin to address infectious diseases? On a quarterly basis, we will ask the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security to meet with development partners, to think about where we currently stand in the fight against malnutrition and food insecurity”.
NGF, ALGON, Back National Policy
Country Director, Nutrition International (NI), Nigeria, Dr. Osita Okonkwo who also spoke on the first day of the summit, commended the House for focusing on nutrition. He noted that by prioritising nutrition and food security, the Green Chamber confirmed its “appreciation of the fundamental role of good nutrition in the well-being and development of our nation”.
He assured of NI’s continued support for Nigeria in its push to end malnutrition. He further said: “Nutrition International, as an expert ally of Government of Nigeria, is implementing high impact, low-cost evidence-based nutrition sensitive and nutrition specific interventions geared towards addressing the root causes malnutrition in Nigeria. These includes Vitamin A supplementation. Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation for pregnant women, introduction of multiple micronutrient supplements for pregnant women, and Zinc ORS treatment for children with diarrhea. Our programs also address the gender issues that impede access to quality nutrition in families through our gender focused behavioral change interventions.
“In May 2024, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Nutrition and Food Security organised a retreat with relevant stakeholders including Nutrition International where a consensus was reached on the legislative agenda and workplan developed for Nutrition and Food Security in the 10th Assembly. I would like to congratulate the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security on the tremendous strides that have been made 14 months after this retreat. Some of these include the formation of the National Legislative Network on Nutrition to coordinate nutrition related legislative processes and actions at the national and state levels, and formation of Committees on Nutrition and Food Security across various State Houses of Assembly.
“Nutrition International has also been at the forefront in supporting the Committee to conduct a functionality assessment of the Committees on Nutrition and Food Security across some selected State Houses of Assembly (Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna and Taraba), development of a nutrition capacity building plan for legislators and development of a nutrition legislative framework and toolkit. These are all geared towards adequately equipping the legislators with relevant capacity and tools required to effectively implement the national nutrition improvement agenda”.
Day-2 of the summit saw the development partners speaking to the issues hampering the country’s push to improve nutrition and food security. The Country Director for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, (GAIN), Dr. Michael Ojo, identified climate change, the high-level insecurity as well as the fact that Nigeria’s population growth outstrips its food production, as some of the issues causing hunger and malnutrition.
He said: “Malnutrition is a big problem for the country. But it is not a new problem. I think there is a lot more focus on this, partly because it is an increasing problem and the reasons for this are multiple. We produce a lot of food but we are growing faster than we produce food. So, there is a lot of pressure on the amount of food available to us. Unfortunately, in recent years, production capacity has reduced because of insecurity and other factors such as climate change.
“Also, it is one thing to produce food and it is another thing to produce food that is nutritious, so when we talk about malnutrition, we talk about it also in the context of food and nutrition insecurity. So, we are trying to deal with a double-headed problem. This is why this initiative by the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security is really good. What we have is not a problem for the Federal Government, it is a problem for the three tiers of government. The Federal Government can make policy, but where the real action is at the states and Local Governments, this is where the real action is”.
Replying to a question on the sustainable solutions for producing adequate quantity of food to drive down hunger and malnutrition, Ojo, opined that some of the solutions can be quickly implemented, while also ensuring that long term solutions are factored in by government.
“There are multiple problems and multiple solutions. We have to come together to make the solutions work. People say, ‘the farmers are not working’, ‘they don’t apply the right ways of farming’, currently, lots of our farming is rain-dependent. The majority of farms are not irrigated. But these are parts of the problems and there are lots of opportunities. For example, we can give access to women who are a big part of the farming population, to be able to access land to produce on a small-scale level”, he added.
Tackling Insecurity
As noted by the Committee Chairman in his welcome address on the final day of the summit, failure to discuss how high-level insecurity has contributed to food shortages and poor harvests in the country, would amount to a waste of time. Thankfully, security chiefs who participated in the summit were forthright with their solutions. On his part, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Olufemi Oluyede, called on the National Assembly to enact a law banning open grazing. Oluyede called on the National Assembly to pass a bill banning open grazing as part of the solutions to the perennial problem of farmer-herder clashes, kidnappings, and violent attacks, which have been attributed to killer herdsmen.
Oluyede who was represented by the Executive Director, Nigerian Army Farms and Ranches Limited, Major General O.M. Dare, averred that open grazing was no longer sustainable.
He said: “The issue of food insecurity is give and take. Even if all security agencies are deployed to the farms, they cannot cover every farmland.
“There’s a need to embrace ranching, leverage technology, and ensure every state and local government gets involved. Security agencies should be empowered to focus on their constitutional duties.”
He added: “If we really want to stop the issue of herders-farmers’ clashes, there must be give and take. There is nobody saying land will be taken forcefully from the owner (for ranching), it is the government that will solve this problem. But we must be sincere and our thoughts on addressing this issue must be straight.
“If we are still talking of ‘this is my ancestral land, nobody can take it….We are not saying we must have ranches in every state; the ranches will be established in states willing to have them, and we can have pastures where grass can be planted, harvested and taken to where the animals will be fed. When you are used to a particular way of life of moving around from one place to another, for you to stop it, it would take government intervention and not the security approach. For security agencies, we only recommend that if you handle this problem this or that way, the problem will be solved. It is left for the legislature to make laws. And like you said, the implementation of any law will be gradual. You can’t enact a law and say, ‘End open grazing today’.
He disclosed that the Nigerian Army has established various formations aimed at preventing farmer-herder clashes.
Also speaking at the summit, a representative of the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, Rear Admiral Yusuf Sani Idris, disclosed that the Nigerian Navy is contributing to improving food security in the country through the establishment of Admiralty Farms Limited.
Idris told the summit that the Navy-owned farms across the six geopolitical zones, provide both food security and physical security for farmers, while plans are underway to establish the farms in other parts of the country.
Also speaking through Assistant Commandant General Besong Michaels Ogar, the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, told the summit that the NSCDC established the agro-rangers unit specifically to protect large farming settlements and large herds.
Audi said the NSCDC collaborates with sister security agencies to protect farmers and herders from attacks. He further revealed that the NSCDC also created a mediation sub-unit within its agro-rangers department to resolve disputes between farmers and herdsmen.
He disclosed that so far, the mediation sub-unit has resolved 4000 cases of dispute between herdsmen and famers. He stated the support of the NSCDC on the call by the Nigerian Army for the National Assembly to introduce a legilslation that would streamline herder and farmer activities, noting the tension over encroached cattle routes in the Middle Belt, Northeast, and Northwest remains a huge problem.
While the inaugural edition of the National Summit on Nutrition has come and gone, with the communique issued at the end of the meeting advocating for the summit to be done biannually, it is time for the executive and legislature at national and sub-national levels to put words spoken at the summit into action. Development partners would also need to continue with the programmes already being implemented across the country.
Kemi Yesufu chaired the Media and Publicity Sub-Committee of the National Summit on Nutrition and Food Security. She wrote in via: [email protected]
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