By IJEOMA UKAZU
The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS-SUNN, has charged media practitioners to improve nutrition visibility through their reportage as they are critical to winning the fight against malnutrition in Nigeria.
Speaking at a just-concluded three-day media training in Abuja, CS-SUNN’s Executive Secretary, Mr Sunday Okoronkwo, said journalists are key stakeholders in improving nutrition indices in the country, adding that more needed to be done by the media to achieve the needed change.
He pointed out that despite the successes, four out of 10 children were still stunted in Nigeria, pointing out that the situation was worse, particularly in the northern part of the country.
According to him, “The media needs to come in stronger to hold relevant stakeholders accountable to their responsibilities by ensuring that no child dies of preventable death, particularly malnutrition.
“We need to work together to create the change we want to see by increasing our impactful media reportage that will push the government and key stakeholders to act.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director of Development Communications Network, DEVCOM, Mr Akin Jimoh, who facilitated the training called on the government at all levels as well as stakeholders to prevent malnutrition among the under-five children in the country rather than seeking a cure or managing it.
According to him, “Policymakers and stakeholders need to wake up from their slumber and find a way to reduce the mortality rates that occurred because of the malnutrition crisis. It is time for policymakers in the country to take a step to stop the menace.
He stressed that if non-preventive measures are taken, the number of deaths would increase daily due to malnutrition, hence the need for journalists to use their medium to enlighten the public on preventing children from being malnourished rather than reporting the number of deaths.
Jimoh further adds that malnutrition was a collective problem and needed a collective response from all relevant stakeholders.