Moji Makanjuola’s NGO, others task Media practitioners on campaign against severe acute malnutrition.

From: Ruth Yarnap Bauchi

International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) has emphasized Media involvement in the renewed campaign to eradicate Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) as critical, stressing that the media are major stakeholders in influencing policy direction of governments at all levels Nigeria.

The Executive Director of ISMPH, Mrs. Moji Makanjuola stated this during a virtual media parley on the national nutrition conference organized by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in collaboration with international society of media in public health (ISMPH), Aisha Buhari Foundation and other groups.

She said that a sustained media campaign for the Nigeria SAM advocacy will pave the way for increasing political support in order to achieve increased domestic resource mobilization and innovative financing for the prevention and management of Severe Acute Malnutrition in the country.

Makanjuola therefore charged Media practitioners who are partners in the struggle, to churn out news stories, features and opinions articles that will call for action for the sake of the innocent children who are mostly affected by SAM.

The CSO were disturbed by the attention governments at all levels in Nigeria are paying to the fight against severe acute malnutrition (SAM) which has claimed the lives of innocent children under five years, Stakeholders in the nutrition sector of the country have advocated harnessing alternative sources of financing for the fight.

The stakeholders, during the webinar meeting, particularly expressed displeasure over the way and manner the N800m appropriated for Nutrition in the 2020 Federal budget was removed without trace, a development that may negatively affect the success of the fight as it will be difficult to procure RUTF needed for management and treatment of SAM.

The major focus of the virtual media parley was how to get the organized private sector involved in the fight against SAM.

The Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari said that the Agency is ready to partner with the advocacy consortium in creating more awareness on the need for care givers to be utilizing local foods as alternatives in the prevention of severe malnutrition in the community, using local dialects for such campaigns.

In her goodwill message, Dr Mairo Mandara ,a stakeholder from Maiduguri said that Media practitioners should not see their advocacy campaign in their reportage as a job only, but they should view it as a calling to save the future productive generations of Nigeria.

According to her, any nation with children affected by SAM cannot contribute anything meaningful to the development of the country, stressing that this is the more reason why something urgent must be done.

Mairo Mandara added that, the media, as the custodians of social justice should be on the vanguard of the fight against SAM to secure the future of the country saying, “No child will be useful with low IQ and we should not think that we are doing favor to these children, it is their right”.

Representative of UNICEF Nigeria, Mr. Zachariah Fusheini said that it has become imperative for the media to, as a matter of priority, focus on equitable distribution of resources meant for the prevention, treatment and management of severe malnutrition in Nigeria.

He pointed out that, there is the need for the media, as watchdog of the society, to ensure that all intervention gets to the right target beneficiaries at all time, saying that, “if we are investing, we should invest right”.

The theme of the meeting was, “Harnessing Innovative Financing Options for Nutrition: Role of the Media”.