The Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, Dr. Titilayo Falade of the International Institute for Tropic Agriculture (IITA),  a Consultant Pediatrician at the Institute of Child Health, University College Hospital (UCH), Dr. Folusho Balogun, Kemi Jeje of Community Pot, and others, have called on Nigerians to eat well to have a healthy nation.

The experts, who made the call during the pilot flag-off and unveiling of the Nutrition Support Centre (NSC) at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, said poverty was not responsible for malnutrition but ignorance of the right food to eat.

The project is the initiative of Community Pot, a social impact project that seeks to reduce stunting and wasting caused by malnutrition among Nigerian children.

Falade, who is the FoodSafety4Africa Project Coordinator and Scientist at IITA, Ibadan, spoke on the theme: ‘The Impact of Malnutrition on the Economy’, lamented that malnutrition affects health, increases health costs, creates social problems, food-borne diseases, and results in a loss in the gross domestic product (GDP).

“Ignorance plays a big role in what happens in our society.  Malnutrition affects our health; it increases health costs, social problems, food-borne diseases, and loss in the GDP,” Folade said.

Oyo State Health Commissioner, Ajetunmobi, who was represented by the  Director of Nursing Service, Oyo State Hospital Management Board, Bolaji Ayoola, said: “A healthy mother is for a healthy baby.

“When a pregnant mother eats healthy she will give birth healthy. A healthy baby constitutes a healthy family and a healthy nation. It is not actually poverty that causes malnutrition but ignorance.”

Kemi  Jeje, the initiator of Community Pot, lamented that some were not eating right due to ignorance and lack of good support.

Jeje said if the country invested in nutrition, health expenditure would reduce, saying the project was set to change the narrative of nutrition in Nigeria.

She disclosed that the goal of NSC was to rehabilitate, prevent, and see to adequate nourishment for the thriving of 10 million toddlers, to establish 20,000 of these centres across the country.

“We want to change the narrative of nutrition in Nigeria. Nutrition plays a big role in healthy living. Some are not eating right due to ignorance and lack of good support. If we invest in nutrition, health expenditure will be reduced.

“The goal of NSC is to rehabilitate, prevent, and see to the adequate nourishment for thriving of 10 million toddlers, to establish 20,000 of these centres across our nation, and by doing this, to change the narration that we currently have in toddler malnutrition, and working with everyone seated here and everyone that is going to join the course to reduce the malnutrition numbers to zero.”

Adenike Akpeji, who spoke on the theme: “impacts of business on malnutrition”, stressed the need for collaboration among stakeholders.

On her part, Dr  Balogun, a Senior Research Fellow and Consultant Pediatrician at the Institute of Child Health, UCH, said Community Pot was set up to support healthy nutrition. The consultant, therefore, unveiled the NSC.