By Haruna Gimba
Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya says his administration will spare no effort in ensuring that children in the state don’t suffer the needless health challenges of malnutrition.
The governor stated this shortly after receiving an award as NUTRITION CHAMPION conferred on him by the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH), in recognition of his administration’s disposition towards tackling menace of malnutrition among children in the state.
He said his passion to see children grow to their full potential dates back to when he was a Commissioner of Finance and Economic Planning during the administration of former Governor Muhammad Danjuma Goje.
According to him, he was so concerned on the need for the people in the state to live well, especially children.
He however noted with dismay that inspite of the human and natural resources the state is endowed with, the incidences of malnutrition among children still persists to the extent that the state was classified as having a high degree of malnourished children.
“We have a lot of food products that we produce locally but somehow we failed to utilize them properly for the benefit of the children, so little wonder then that when I became governor in 2019 I realized that we are still so backward on the issue and I took it upon myself to relate with development partners and agencies like your own in order to achieve the objective of giving proper nutrition to our children,” he said.
Governor Yahaya added his administration has so far gone into partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide nutritious food to children through the timely payment of counterpart funding.
He said: “But above all, the important thing we did was to try and do these things on our own because we cannot continue to rely on the support we get from development partners and I directed the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to find some means of having direct relationship with the institute of Agricultural Research at ABU Zaria, so the we can now develop and continue to produce on our own formula and continue to produce on our own for the benefit of the children.”
He said his administration has committed over N30 million in the fiscal year on direct production and that the state has gotten certification from NAFDAC which has since prompted the distribution of the Ready to Use Therapeutic food to various units within the Local Government areas so that children across the 11 LGAs of the state can benefit from it.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya said the initiative is going to be a permanent solution to the malnutrition challenges in the state, noting that all the basic materials required like soya beans, maize, ground nuts, sesame are all available in the State.
“We have gotten the formula and the Technology Incubation Centre in Gombe has provided the basic machines required in order to continuously producing and I believe going forward Gombe will come to be listed out of those states that have the issues of malnutrition,” he added
The governor thanked the ISMPH for the award, saying he feels humbled by the honour done to him and assured that the honour will spur him to do more in the area of malnutrition in particular and the health sector in general.
