THE United Nations Children Fund’s (UNICEF) has condemned the sales of nutrition supplements in Sokoto State.
The UNICEF’s chief of field office in charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states, Micheal Juma, made the remark during the quarterly policymakers’ meeting of the organisation on Wednesday, August 21, in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the state deputy governor, Idris Gobir, and the commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Balarabe Kadadi, were among the government officials who attended the meeting.
Represented by Abraham Mahama, the UNICEF chief stated that the nutrition supplements were provided by donors and distributed to healthcare centres in different communities aimed at enhancing the lives of malnourished children.
He said the supplements were sold openly in markets while an investigation by UNICEF revealed that some personnel stocked cartons of supplements with stones and other items to conceal the act.
He regretted that the products failed to get to the people who needed them but were hijacked by unscrupulous persons who diverted them for pecuniary gains.
He further urged the Sokoto State government to appoint a statistician-general who would ensure that data collection is fast-tracked, preserved and disseminated in line with modern trends.
While highlighting some of the state’s key health indicators including, antenatal care, immunisation, mortality rates, healthcare-seeking behaviours, and social behavioural change, Juma noted that they recorded very poor performances.
He added: “The indices on healthcare infrastructure, power and water supply, competent healthcare workers, and client-untrusting service providers were not encouraging in the state”.
Also, UNICEF social protection specialist, Isa Ibrahim, in his presentation listed areas that needed alignment in the state while analysing the state’s 2024 budget performance. He stated that the nutrition sector recorded zero allocation and mentioned areas that recorded high capital expenditure with less impact on the citizens.
He also concurred with the chief of field’s call for the appointment of a substantive statistician-general in the state to harness and keep data.
Sokoto is one of the seven northern states with severely malnourished children, according to the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors without Borders.
According to a report, the global humanitarian organisation indicated that the MSF in-patient facilities in northern Nigeria recently recorded an “extraordinary increase in admissions of severely malnourished children with life-threatening complications,” surpassing last year’s figures by over 100 per cent in some locations.