** FG, states seek lessons from Seqota Declaration to accelerate Nutrition 774 rollout

*** Pate says both countries to develop a roadmap as governors identify local challenges

Nigeria is turning to Ethiopia’s experience in combating child malnutrition and stunting as the Federal Government and state governments seek to adapt proven approaches to the country’s Nutrition 774 Initiative and accelerate results at the grassroots.

The Nigeria-Ethiopia Nutrition Leadership Exchange in Addis Ababa has brought Nigerian governors and federal ministers face-to-face with Ethiopia’s experience, particularly its Seqota Declaration, a national initiative aimed at eliminating stunting among children under two.

The engagement is expected to provide lessons for strengthening Nigeria’s nutrition policies and translating them into measurable improvements in communities and households.

Led by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the Nigerian delegation is examining how coordinated government action can tackle malnutrition beyond food availability, with emphasis on maternal and child health, education, agriculture, water, sanitation and social protection.

The central challenge for Nigeria is how to translate national commitments into sustained action across its 774 local government areas, ensuring that interventions reach individual wards, communities and households where nutrition needs are most immediate.

Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said Nigeria and Ethiopia would develop a roadmap drawing on lessons from the exchange, expressing optimism that stronger coordination and sustained implementation could accelerate progress.

“Nutrition is key to human capital development, and it requires sectors to work together in a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach,” Pate said.

He said Nigeria had recorded progress through coordinated national interventions and community-based programmes but needed to consolidate the gains and move faster.

“We have to now go back and deepen the progress, accelerate,” he said.

Pate added that sustained implementation over the next four to five years could deliver significant improvements, particularly for children, whom he described as the country’s future.

“There are reasons to be optimistic that if we continue in this direction over the next four to five years, Nigeria will achieve remarkable success in dealing with key issues affecting the people of Nigeria, particularly the children who are the future of our country,” he said.

For Jigawa State Governor Umar Namadi, Ethiopia’s experience under the Seqota Declaration offers a practical lesson in taking nutrition interventions beyond policy design and government institutions to the people they are intended to serve.

Namadi said the effectiveness of Nigeria’s Nutrition 774 Initiative would depend on its ability to replicate interventions at every level of the federation, down to individual households.

“The one thing that is very important with 774 is the fact that it will have to go down from the national level to each local government, each ward, each community and each household,” he said.

He said Jigawa had complemented federal interventions with locally developed programmes, including the Masaki initiative and a Tom Brown nutrition programme, under which about 600 women had been trained to produce nutritious food for children.

The governor’s remarks highlighted one of the key issues confronting Nigeria’s nutrition drive: how to adapt national and international approaches to local circumstances while ensuring that interventions reach vulnerable families.

Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke said children under five and pregnant women must remain priorities, acknowledging that Nigeria had recorded some progress but needed to do more.

“Especially for the young ones under five and, of course, pregnant women, it is very, very important. We have some success, but we can improve on it. That is why I am here, to learn from our counterparts in Ethiopia,” Adeleke said.

Abia State Governor Alex Otti also backed the decision to learn from countries that had made progress, arguing that Nigeria should be willing to acknowledge gaps and adapt approaches that have worked elsewhere.

“There’s nothing wrong with saying that we have not done as well. And there’s also nothing wrong in learning from those who have done it, so that you don’t go reinventing the wheel,” Otti said.

He cautioned against treating nutrition as a problem that could be solved by food production or distribution alone, noting that outcomes were linked to healthcare, education, agriculture, climate change and poverty reduction.

His administration’s investments in education, he said, included the recruitment of 9,469 teachers, the development of 20 smart schools and the rehabilitation of more than 200 primary and secondary schools. The state also commits about 20 per cent of its annual budget to education.

Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, meanwhile, pointed to insecurity as a major setback to food production and nutrition in a state that previously produced enough food to feed its population.

“In the past, when you spoke about nutrition, we didn’t even have anything like that in the state because we produced enough to feed our people. However, because of those challenges now, it has become difficult,” Lawal said.

He insisted that insecurity should not define the state’s development prospects, stressing the importance of aligning with federal programmes while adapting interventions to local realities.

“Should we be defined by the insecurity? The question is no. What else can we do?” he asked.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, said Nigeria’s efforts must also draw on the importance of early-life interventions, particularly during pregnancy and the first years of a child’s development.

“If we miss that period, the 2,000 days, we’ve set those children up for failure in life,” Alausa said.

He described Nutrition 774 as an effort to carry interventions from the federal level through states and local governments to communities, reinforcing the need for implementation structures that can reach families directly.

Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, said the Ethiopian lessons would also need to be considered alongside Nigeria’s challenges in water access, sanitation, irrigation and agricultural production.

“When we talk about the workforce, we must first talk about healthy living. A human being must be healthy before he can impact positively in any role given to him,” Utsev said.

He stressed that reliable water supply was essential for safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as irrigation and food production, making it an integral part of any comprehensive response to malnutrition.

For Nigeria, the task following the Addis Ababa exchange will be to translate the lessons from Ethiopia into a workable roadmap that reflects the country’s federal structure, security challenges and differing local needs.

The proposed Nigeria-Ethiopia roadmap is expected to provide a framework for deepening coordination and accelerating implementation, with the ultimate test being whether the lessons learned translate into better nutrition outcomes for mothers and children.