First Lady Oluremi Tinubu has described Nigeria’s health sector leadership as one of the best, expressing confidence in the country’s capacity to tackle hunger and child malnutrition through strategic partnerships and effective deployment of resources.

She spoke on Monday when she received a delegation from the U.S.-based Operation End Starvation initiative, which is seeking to partner with the Federal Government to combat hunger and prevent child deaths caused by severe malnutrition.

The delegation was led by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, who said the proposed collaboration would strengthen existing government interventions aimed at reducing malnutrition, particularly among children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.

He disclosed that the government was working to reduce the estimated 6.4 million cases of acute child malnutrition in Nigeria, while expanding support for vulnerable mothers and children.

The First Lady welcomed the proposed collaboration, saying the quality of expertise, commitment and dedication demonstrated by Nigerian professionals extended beyond the health sector to other areas of national development.

Meanwhile, the Emir of Kano, Khalifa Muhammad Sanusi II, has called for stronger collaboration between global food scientists and traditional institutions to tackle food insecurity and accelerate the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger.

Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), made the call while addressing the 23rd International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) World Food Congress in Hong Kong.

The monarch, who is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, argued that the persistent global hunger crisis was no longer primarily a challenge of scientific knowledge but a failure to translate available solutions into effective interventions at the community level.

Citing the 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report, Sanusi noted that global hunger declined from 8.6 per cent in 2022 to 7.8 per cent in 2025, but expressed concern over the worsening food security situation across Africa.

He disclosed that two out of every three Africans could not afford a healthy diet, while nearly 36 million Nigerians were projected to face acute food insecurity during the lean season, describing the figure as the highest on record.

The Emir maintained that scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations alone would not eliminate hunger without the active participation of traditional institutions, which command enormous influence and public trust at the grassroots.