Authorities in Bauchi State have said the state has a staggering 54,000 children who are writhing and wasting in their mothers’ arms. Most of the children are in the red, waiting to die if urgent attention eludes them. With Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), they risk a bleak future as they battle with stunting, which has implications on their brain development as essential micronutrients needed in their first 1,000 days are missed.

Suleiman Abdullahi is a father of a 30-month-old son who has been suffering from severe acute malnutrition since he was 18 months old. He was expected to crawl in preparation for his totter stage but no, he failed. The situation put the parents in confusion, which drove them to a nearby primary health care centre at Brishin Fulani, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis.

According to Suleiman, his son has been on Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) –a life-saving supplement formulated for children battling with malnutrition since he was one year and six months but the seizure of the RUTF at his facility speedily returned the boy to emergency situation.

“When my second wife gave birth to him, we didn’t do exclusive breastfeeding because she became pregnant shortly after. We noticed that he was supposed to be walking around but he could not stand. We became worried and that was when we started noticing that his body was stunted.

“We went to two health facilities where we got the RUTF before we were told that it was out of stock. We went to another hospital, they told us that they have stopped giving them out because some women were found to be using borrowed babies to gdt them from hospitals and sell.

“Someone referred us to Kafin Madaki, Ganjuwa LGA. We went to the hospital on Monday, the day after Sallah, they told me that they were still on break and we were asked to return on Thursday. I have spent N3,000 going to that place and I may still spend beyond that next visit. The cost of going to that place is challenging. That apart, I have to keep carrying him in my arms, he cannot sit nor walk. Even at two and half years, we have to put on diapers for him,” he said.

The father added that they took him to the Bayara General Hospital during Ramadan where he was placed on drip and spent the night there believing the situation could be managed there.

“They ran seven different tests on him, including HIV/AIDS and kidney, among others, but the results turned out negative.

“Someone advised me to take the boy to a facility in a village called Gadan Maiwa. I must say that this boy was eating food and drinking water but his body organs weren’t using those for his growth and health because even when he eats food or we give him a different food, you won’t see any improvement in his body,” Suleiman said.

Confronted with challenges of accessing RUTF which is provided by the government and development partners, Suleiman has resulted in traditional treatment hoping a miracle happens.

“I know if God says he will walk, my son will walk and I leave him unto God,” he said.

Suleiman looked frustrated despite mourning the demise of his last son who died of another sickness last week, he was preoccupied with how to save the boy who was seen clinging to him.

Facing a similar experience, 35 year-old Aishatu Musa of Birshin Fulani Community in Bauchi metropolis, laments that her twin boys, the last of her 19 children, are malnourished. One is moderately malnourished while other is severely malnourished.

According to Aishatu, the kids are one year and a month but the severely malnourished son could not stand.

“When we noticed it at his birth, we went to Kafin Liman and we were placed on RUTF and he took it with improvement to the level he is in at this moment. Honestly, for the past few weeks now, I’ve not gone back to the hospital because of the situation of hardship in the country, I’ve not been able to go back there.

“Some few weeks ago, we went to town and the governor’s wife donated that RUTF to us free of charge. Since he finished that one, there’s nothing that he takes currently. I mean because of the hardship, we don’t even have what to give him to eat for now,”he said.

Further investigation showed that cases of malnourished children are on the increase but non-availability of the RUTF commodity forced several of them to remain indoors. In addition, household poverty has worsened the access to health care services.

The Guardian had last year May reported that Yelwa Domiciliary, one of the PHCs considered as Centre of Excellence, was recording above 400 cases of malnourished children weekly, according to the facility’s data in 2024. Health workers at different facilities told our Correspondent that more cases are happening in the state while many of them do not bother to visit the hospital again after being told repeatedly of the lack of RUTF.

One of the health workers who preferred not to be named, said that mothers are contributing factors to the plight of the kids.

“They don’t want to stand the stigma of having a malnourished child, I have seen where a mother loads stones inside her child’s diaper just to alter the weight and deceive the health workers. I reported and warned her not to compromise the health of her child.

“We teach them how to make locally made food combinations and encourage them to practice exclusive breastfeeding but some of them won’t do it when they get home,”he said.

Bauchi ignores Child Nutrition Fund, Gombe, Adamawa, Plateau States prioritise initiative

Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) is a financing mechanism designed to accelerate the scale-up of sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child wasting. The Fund is anchored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the funding from the UK Government, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Child Investment Foundation Fund to support the scale-up of five essential government-led actions for the early prevention, detection and treatment of child wasting in early childhood.

UNICEF’s Bauchi Chief of Field Office, Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, while speaking with lawmakers and local government chairmen from Bauchi State in February, announced that the state accounts for 54,000 malnourished children and that in every 10 children, three are malnourished.

Investigation revealed that Bauchi, despite having a huge burden of malnutrition, has failed to pay for a counterpart fund to benefit from CNF like Gombe, Adamawa and Plateau. Gombe had paid N160 million while the partners added N300 million. Adamawa paid N100 million last year with a commitment to raise it to N200 million.

In an interview, Rafique pleaded with the Bauchi State Government to release resources to save the lives of the children who are on verge of transiting to critical conditions.

“We were very hopeful and we are still very hopeful, given the commitment of the state governor, especially the Commissioner of Budget and Economic Planning who was there and the Commissioner of Health,m. They are already committed and dedicated, they feel for the people.

“The state government also felt for the children and I had the privilege to witness where the governor announced some money for Fathers-for-Good Health for example and the governor made the money available that day. I am praying that we get this CNF matching grant from the Bauchi State Government as we have gotten from Gombe and Adamawa, but still, we are waiting, there is no solid commitment seen.

“These commitments have been made for the past two years, since the CNF started, honestly speaking, but we have not received anything to match the grant and procurement for the children of Bauchi State because you can see how severely malnutrition is in the state.

“Every 10 children, three are severely malnourished and given the circumstance of 20 LGA where there are dozens of children, which means that they have never been reached with immunisation before. So what will be the immunity status of those children?”

“If we are not able to bring them back to normal nutrition status, they will go and the ones suffering from the severe acute malnutrition will die,” she said.

Motion without movement: N2.1b nutrition budget suffers releases

However, Bauchi State in its 2024 budget appropriated the sum of N2.1 billion for nutrition related expenses but achieved almost nothing. For instance, the ministry of women affairs and child development budgeted N125 million but did not get a release for the year, according to the budget performance data.

The document showed that UNICEF injected N1.3 billion for the year to support Nutrition, Immunisation, CMAM, MNCH, IMCI, family planning and others, with 100 percent release.

Similarly, the House of Assembly had also raised a red flag over an alleged misappropriation of N1 billion nutrition fund. The Speaker of the House, Abubakar Suleiman, while speaking in Jos during a stakeholders meeting, vowed to set up a committee to probe the spendings which has left the children in despair.

It is my fault not gov’s —Rilwanu Mohammed

Meanwhile, the Executive Chairman, Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, while reacting said, “It is not that we refused to do something about it nor the governor refused to approve the matching fund. We are in the process of preparing the memo, very soon, it will be presented to the governor for approval.

“UNICEF has sent a letter to us and we are working on it. They told us that if we give N100 million they will give N200 million, and it will be joined together to procure the required food nutrients.”

Rilwanu added, “Other states in the Bauchi Field Office of UNICEF, Adamawa, Gombe, Plateau and Taraba have paid except our own. It was me that had not written the memo, not that the governor refused to pay. Now, I am writing, I have proposed a bill which I am going to send to the governor for approval as soon as he comes back.”