A member of Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Dr Gift Izenyi, lamented that 43 per cent of children in Benue were not exclusively breastfed.
Izenyi who represented the CS-SUNN Deputy Coordinator, Dr Priscilla Utoo disclosed this during advocacy visits to the Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management and Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security on Tuesday in Makurdi.
She further emphasized that children should be exclusively breastfed for the overall good of the society.
She added that a study in 2021 showed that Benue had the highest burden of malnutrition followed by Cross River, stressing that there was a need for the children to have good nutrition in order to be mentally alert.
Meanwhile, the state Secretary, CS-SUNN, Mr Dickson Odeh, appealed that paid maternity leave should be extended from three to six months in the state.
Odeh further sued for the establishment of nutrition departments in frontline ministries like Agriculture, Health, Education, Women Affairs, Humanitarian and Disaster Management, stressing that they should also increase budgetary allocation as well as prompt release of funds to nutrition departments.
Also, the Commissioner for Humanitarian and Disaster Management, Mr Aondowase Kunde, pledged his support to CS-SUNN and lamented that the IDPs depend solely on support from the government, adding that the ministry was doing a lot to improve their condition.
Kunde also disclosed that the ministry already have a desk officer on nutrition.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mrs Iveren Terfa, said that breastfeeding actually boost children's immunity. stressing that women carry a lot of burden and the challenges they faced were enormous.
Terfa promised to relate the message of the advocacy visit to the commissioner and management team of the ministry
