By Mike Ebonugwo
A new chapter of hope opens for Nigerian children next week as the national school feeding programme kicks off in Nasarawa State. But how far can the programme go in meeting the needs of the average school pupils who are endangered by malnutrition? Mike Ebonugwo reports.
A recent news report that Nigeria has been ranked the second poorest country in the world by the World Bank came to many Nigerians as a shock bordering on bewilderment. The shock was heightened as Nigerians tried to come to terms with claims that their beloved country could only fare better than Ethiopia which was seriously ravaged by drought and starvation a few years ago, while lagging behind such countries as Madagascar, Chad, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Nepal, Niger, Congo Republic and Burundi.
"How can they rank small countries like Guinea Bissau, Chad and Niger ahead of Nigeria in economic development?" queried a Lagos-based legal practitioner, Moses Odigie, who considers the claim as not only misleading and mischievous but also insulting to the image of Nigeria as the giant of Africa. He did not stop there. "Is it not these same countries that we have been feeding all these years and assisting financially anytime they’re in trouble, like we are presently doing in Niger where starvation has taken the centre stage due to acute shortage of food? In spite of the economic problems we have had in the past was there anytime that we have had problem of food shortage such that we cried out to the world to bail us out?" he had asked repeatedly in an aggrieved voice.
But while the ranking remains a debatable issue, one issue that is not in dispute is that successive years of worsening economic down- turn have taken a serious toll on the living condition and well-being of the average Nigerian families such that for them the recommended three-square meal has become a mirage rather than a reality. At a time many families can barely make ends meet, preaching to them the essence of balanced diet is like trying to sell contraceptives to a eunuch.
The tragedy of the situation, in the estimation of most observers, is that children are usually the worse for it since it is required at this growing stage of their lives that they be fed on rich and nutritionally balanced diets. Indeed a visit to any average Nigerian home may confirm the shocking reality that children are fed on what is readily available or what the family can afford at any point in time and not according to their nutritional requirements.
A similar visit to any public school, whether in the city or rural community, may also reveal the poor feeding profiles of Nigerian school children. Take the case of 10-year old Lasisi who is a pupil of a primary school in Agege, Lagos. Every morning before he joins the exodus of other school children trekking to their respective schools in the area, he is given the paltry sum of N10 which he spends either to buy buns or "puff-puff" along the way or to buy rice without meat during break time at school. When he returns from school at about 2.pm later in the day, Lasisi will be lucky to get an additional N10 to buy cooked beans with which he and his siblings will eat a meal of gari soaked in water. What passes as a full meal can only be provided in the evening or night when the whole family assemble for the usual supper-cum-dinner.
With this kind of feeding profile, Lasisi certainly cannot be blamed for having a stunted look, a stature which some people in the area say does not do credit to his age. And if the claims of relevant experts on the link between nutrition and mental health are anything to go by, Lasisi needs not worry when his teachers call him "Olodo" due to his declining academic performance. The fact that he and most of his school mates are poorly fed and malnourished should be blamed for their being dull in rising to the challenges of their school works.
The good news for Lasisi and other school children like him in Nigeria at the moment is that the dawn of an end to their suffering is around the corner as government is presently spearheading an initiative to provide them a new lease of life through feeding. By next week, precisely on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, the pilot scheme of the much-talked about national school feeding programme is expected to kick off in Nasarawa State, with its official launching by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Under the programme as espoused by relevant officials, government intends to provide one nutritionally-balanced meal each school day to primary school pupils in the country, beginning with the Nasarawa State pilot scheme which is expected to cover 2.8 million children.
Said to be the brain-child of President Obasanjo who has also been described as its moving spirit, the programme is being touted as a home-grown offshoot of the New Economic Partnership for Development which is targeted at ensuring that at least 30 million Nigerians have access to a nutritionally rich or balanced food everyday. In fact, the Nasarawa State governor, Dr. Abdullahi Adamu, made bold in vouching for the commitment of the President towards the success of the programme. "I am privileged to know that Mr. President is anxious to make a positive difference in this vital sector of the our national development. I also know that he has put his shoulders to this plough and he is not looking back," Dr. Adamu had informed during a workshop on the national school feeding programme last month in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital.
But what consideration(s)gave rise to this initiative and in what way will it benefit Nigerian school children? "The primary objective of the national school feeding programme is to help nurture healthy children to grow into healthy adults mentally and physically equipped to take on the onerous responsibilities in the public and private sectors of our national life in the future," so says Governor Adamu who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Dairy Production.
Speaking further, he said the programme, especially as being packaged as a pilot scheme in Nasarawa State, was intended "to specifically prevent hunger and correct known deficiencies amongst pre-school and school-going children". According to him, the programme is also envisaged to increase enrolment and retention of school children in schools, raise the attendance levels in schools, enhance the performance of children for sustainable educational development and reduce morbidity and mortality rates among school children. "Our commitment to the programme is consistent with our belief that what we do with the health and education of our children today would determine the kind of legacy we have for the future generations of our people," the governor has said.
The programme actually took off last June with a test-run which was anchored on the objective of providing balanced diet to the school children. "We are using ultra-high temperature treated(UHT) 250ml nutritional supplement called Nutri-Sip for the programme. Nutri-Sip contains 30 trace elements that meet the daily requirements of growing children. Our ultimate aim is to balance the consumption of such staple foods as maize, millet, sorghum, cassava and other starchy foods with high carbohydrate content with Nutri-Sip. We strongly believe, on expert advice, that although this approach is simple, it is consistent with the implementation of similar programmes in other countries," Dr. Adamu informed.
Speaking also on the programme, its coordinator in Nasarawa State, Dr. Dan Iya explained that the benefits to accrue from its implementation would further the objectives of the National Economic Empowerment and Develop-ment Strategy (NEEDS).
According to him, the fallout in the improvement in the nutritional status of school children and increase in school attendance would also indirectly lift the economic and social status of the community. "For example, the produce that is being used for this nutrient supplement is to be localised here in Nigeria.
And this localisation will lead to the boosting of agriculture in our state and the country at large. So, we see the school feeding programme in a totality of the picture of our children developing mentally and for the total good of the society at large," Dr. Iya said.
He also informed that the programme started off in the state with 7,000 pupils in about six schools, adding the plan was to extend it to other schools in the state with an estimated total primary and junior secondary schools population of about 450,000 pupils.
On the safety and health benefits of the nutrient supplement Nutri-Sip, Dr. Iya who incidentally is a medical doctor assured that it was both safe and nutritious. "The Nutri-Sip contains protein, carbohydrate and so on for the development of the child. And it has several advantages in that it is treated so that the bacteria are killed. It is packaged in such a way that it has a shelf life of at least six months to one year. It is also packaged in such a way that whatever a child gets in town A is the same quantity and quality that another child gets in town B. What I mean is that it contains the same elements, so that a child in one village is eating the same thing as the child in another village," he informed.
Meanwhile, the state according to Governor Adamu has so far taken delivery of about 3.6 million units of Nutri-Sip out of the 10 million units it ordered which are currently being stored in different warehouses in the state from where they will be distributed to the schools.
But while Nasarawa State is preparing to go full blast on the school feeding programme from next week, 12 other states in the country are also expected to follow suit this month and may decide to use the Nasarawa State experience as a guide.
Published by Vanguard, Wednesday, September 21, 2005