Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described Nigeria's worsening child malnutrition figures as one of the most disturbing manifestations of the country's cost-of-living crisis, warning that economic hardship is no longer merely emptying the pockets of parents but threatening the physical development and future of millions of Nigerian children.
In a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku cited recent nutrition figures showing that 41.1 per cent of Nigerian children under five are stunted, while 19.2 per cent are severely stunted. The prevalence of stunting rises to 58.2 per cent in the North-West, according to the figures presented by nutrition experts and drawn from the Nigeria Mini Demographic and Health Survey 2025–26. Nearly two million Nigerian children are reported to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition, with only about two in every ten receiving treatment. "This is the most heartbreaking face of the cost-of-living crisis," Atiku said. "Behind every statistic is a Nigerian mother struggling to decide what her children can eat, how much they can eat and how often they can eat. A child does not understand inflation figures. A child only knows whether there is food on the table."
The former Vice President argued that high energy and transportation costs have consequences far beyond the price paid at filling stations. He said they affect the cost of moving agricultural produce, running small businesses and transporting goods to markets. "When fuel becomes expensive, transporting tomatoes from the farm becomes expensive. Taking rice to the market becomes expensive. Moving children to school becomes expensive. Running the neighbourhood grinding machine becomes expensive. Powering the small shop becomes expensive," he said. "And eventually, the additional cost arrives at the dinner table." Atiku said his proposed intervention in the petroleum sector was intended to address those cost pressures through what he described as a production subsidy rather than a return to the former system of subsidising imported petrol. "My position is straightforward: support what Nigeria produces and refines, lower domestic production costs, and ensure that the benefit reaches the Nigerian consumer. This is not an import subsidy. If you do not refine in Nigeria, you do not qualify. The subsidy follows the barrel refined in Nigeria. Produce here. Refine here. Create jobs here. Pay less here," he said.
The statement comes amid growing national concern over Nigeria's nutrition emergency. On Wednesday, Vice President Kashim Shettima raised the alarm over the same data, calling for coordinated action as 41.1 per cent of Nigerian children under five are stunted, with the figure rising to 58.2 per cent in the North-West. The Nutrition Society of Nigeria has also warned that nearly two million children are affected by severe acute malnutrition. The figures have prompted calls for urgent intervention across government, civil society and the international community.
Atiku said the malnutrition crisis must be understood within the broader context of household economic pressure. He noted that the National Bureau of Statistics currently reports food inflation at 19.57 per cent, even as households continue to contend with high prices accumulated over recent years. The World Bank has similarly noted that higher petrol prices can reduce household purchasing power directly and transmit additional costs to other goods and services, particularly transportation. Atiku also called for greater investment in the treatment of severely malnourished children and stronger maternal and child nutrition programmes, saying nutrition budgets must reach vulnerable communities. "We cannot build a strong country on the bodies of hungry children," he said. "We cannot celebrate economic statistics while mothers are cutting meals and children are denied the nutrition they require to grow."
The former Vice President's intervention is the latest in a series of criticisms he has levelled at the Tinubu administration over its economic policies. In May, he described a United Nations warning that nearly 35 million Nigerians could face acute hunger between June and August 2026 as a devastating verdict on what he called the catastrophic failure of the government. The Presidency has repeatedly pushed back against such claims, insisting that Nigeria is on the right track and that the reforms introduced since 2023, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and foreign-exchange liberalisation, have contributed to macroeconomic stabilisation. The World Bank has acknowledged that the reforms have placed significant short-term pressure on households and stressed the need for stronger social protection for poor and economically vulnerable Nigerians.
The nutrition data now before the country presents a stark picture. Stunting is the irreversible consequence of chronic undernutrition, leaving children physically and cognitively impaired for life. Nigeria already carries one of the world's highest burdens of stunted children, and the latest figures suggest the problem is entrenched rather than receding. The concentration of stunting in the North-West, where nearly six in ten children are affected, reflects deep regional inequalities in income, food access, healthcare and education. Atiku said economic policy must ultimately answer a very simple question: whether the ordinary Nigerian can afford to live. "The nutrition figures before us make that question more urgent than ever," he said.
Whether the government will adopt the production subsidy proposal Atiku has advanced remains to be seen. What is clear is that the malnutrition crisis is now firmly on the national agenda, with both the opposition and the administration acknowledging the scale of the challenge. For millions of Nigerian families, however, the statistics are not abstract. They are the daily reality of deciding between food and transport, between one meal and two, between a child who grows and a child who does not. As Atiku put it, a child does not understand inflation figures. A child only knows whether there is food on the table.
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