The recent report that about 40 percent of children under the age of five are suffering from stunted growth in Nigeria has sparked a national conversation. 

It has again brought to the fore the reality of governance failures and poor accountability, which has ultimately worsened child hunger in Nigeria.

According to the report by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, also called Think Tank, 40 percent of Nigerian children under the age of five are suffering from stunted growth, eight percent are wasted, while 27 percent are underweight, with the highest burden concentrated in the North-West and North-East regions.

The report, titled, “Why malnutrition persists in northern Nigeria: Strengthening nutrition governance, financing and primary healthcare,” blamed weak governance structures, poor accountability and institutional failures for the continued child nutrition crisis despite years of government interventions and policy initiatives.

Released earlier in the week, the report warned that Nigeria’s malnutrition challenge was no longer due to lack of policies but failure to effectively implement programmes and ensure accountability in nutrition spending.

It noted that children in several northern states remained the most affected, citing stunting rates of 46.3 percent in Katsina, 43.8 percent in Sokoto and 42.6 percent in Zamfara.

The report also highlighted severe child food poverty in conflict-affected states, noting that 67 percent of children in Borno, 66 percent in Yobe and 60 percent in Adamawa are affected.

According to the report, more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected northern states are currently facing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger, based on World Food Programme data.

The authors, Dr. Suleiman Bello and Joshua Abah, said Nigeria had made progress in developing nutrition policies but had struggled to establish effective delivery systems capable of reaching vulnerable children and households.

“The absence of clear institutional ownership and an accountable delivery chain linking nutrition financing, primary healthcare, social protection, agriculture and local implementation structures continue to undermine progress,” the report stated.

In 2025, a study by an international nongovernmental, not-for-profit organisation, Save the Children International, reported that over 96,000 children risk death before the end of last year in six northern states due to malnutrition.

The organization, alongside other partners, including PLAN, Action Against Hunger in Nigeria and OXFAM among others, predicted a devastating public health crisis for six states in northern Nigeria, namely, Adamawa, Borno, Katsina, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara, before the end of 2025, as a result of malnutrition.

However, the latest report argued that the government’s responses had remained largely reactive, with interventions often introduced after children had already developed severe malnutrition rather than focusing on prevention during pregnancy and the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

It called for stronger accountability mechanisms, including making verified nutrition readiness a condition for accessing performance financing under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund in high-burden states.

The Think Tank also recommended the publication of quarterly nutrition compliance reports detailing budget releases, procurement of nutrition commodities, health facilities supplied, wards reached and outstanding obligations.

It further urged northern states to establish lead nutrition accountability institutions to coordinate interventions across health, agriculture, water, sanitation, social protection and humanitarian sectors.

The report stressed the need to strengthen Ward Development Committees to enable early identification of vulnerable mothers and children before malnutrition becomes severe.

It maintained that tackling child malnutrition requires treating nutrition as a measurable responsibility of the government rather than an emergency response activated only during humanitarian crises.

“A child should not have to become visibly wasted before the state becomes visible,” the report concluded.

Since the recent report was made public, discussions around the possible push factors and how to mitigate or avoid the crisis have raged on.

Some people are of the view that if further studies are carried out, more states, even in the southern part, are not excluded from the scourge. 

Those on this side of the argument are of the view that states like Benue, the food basket of the nation, Plateau, Niger, Kogi and even some parts of Kaduna and Kwara states, where bandits and terrorists have been riding roughshod, would not be exempted.

The argument is that looking at the level of havoc that kidnappers, bandits and militant herdsmen are causing in some of these North central states of Nigeria, it is not hard to predict what will happen as the food crisis ravages the people.

One of those demanding the government’s decisive action against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and all forms of criminalities to create enabling environments for farmers to go back to farm is the president of the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Dr. Pogu Bitrus. 

He believes that only the government had the powers to arrest the ugly trend, by not only providing nutrition supplements for the children but by also tackling insecurity headlong.

He emphasised that Nigeria did not need any international body to give her the report about the number of stunted or malnourished children in some northern states because the reality was staring everybody in the face. 

“We know it is a reality because banditry has reached a stage where farmers can’t go to farm, and if farmers can’t go to farm, naturally, there won’t be food to eat. 

“And when children can’t feed properly, the resultant effect is malnutrition which leads to stunted growth in children and even death.

“So, their report is in order because it is in line with what is on ground. Unfortunately, it is not only in the North West and North East that children under 5 are experiencing stunted growth, it cuts across other states.

“Perhaps, the number may not be as much as 40 percent but the issue of banditry and kidnapping is almost everywhere, preventing farmers from going to do their farm work. And in such situations, you will agree with me that there will be a devastating hunger unless the government takes a proactive action to address the issue, so that farmers can return to their farms in peace,” he stressed.

However, an educationist and farmer, Sabiu Abubakar, believes that traditionally, the people in some northern states like Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina experience shortage of food at certain period of the year but lamented that the insecurity in those areas had worsened the situation such that the food shortage was now all year round.

“Ordinarily, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and other states on that axis receive their first rains around May/June, which is the beginning of the harvesting season. And every year, we, in the north, normally experience food shortage around June/July because most people would have brought out the remaining food in stock at that period to plant for the next season. 

“And there is nothing more for the peasant farmers to do other than to go to farm during the period.

“Now, considering the insecurity situation in the country today, where bandits and kidnappers are riding roughshod on the people, coupled with the high cost of living, obviously there will be acute food shortage. 

“The terrorists, bandits and kidnappers don’t allow people to go to farm; so what do you expect? 

“Added to that is the removal of fuel subsidy, which has heightened the cost of living.

“So, for me, I think the report is a wake-up call to the government to take steps in advance to avoid raising stunted children due to hunger and malnutrition. It is for the government to take the war to the bandits and kidnappers, clear them from our forests and bushes, and allow the farmers to go back to the farm. That is the long-term solution.

“In the interim, the government in those mentioned states should respond by providing food and children’s supplements and making such available to poor families scattered across these states. 

“Other states that are not captured in the report should also sit up and do something in that regard. That is the only way to avert the danger, otherwise it would come to pass, not only in the two northern geopolitical zones but also in states of other zones where insecurity has made life miserable,” he told DAILY POST.

A public affairs analyst, Adedayo Oluseye said there was no hard and fast rule to making food available apart from creating an enabling environment for farmers to do their farm work without fear of being attacked, and churning out economic policies that were people oriented and not the strangulating economic policies of the current government.

He said many Nigerians would easily blame the acute food shortage in the country to insecurity, but emphasized that the government’s economic policies were a major contributory factor.

“For an instance, the issue of subsidy removal has badly affected millions of families in Nigeria. Why won’t there be stunted growth in children under five when their parents barely feed a square meal a day? 

“Parents no longer bother about the quality of food children eat; all they care about is to make sure the children do not go hungry. 

“So, the quality doesn’t matter again and that is why many children are malnourished and stunted, not only in the North West and North East but also across other zones in Nigeria. 

“I can tell you that over 90 percent of hardship in the country today is attributed to that singular policy of fuel subsidy removal.

“Then, look at the issue of taxation; it is crazy. And in the midst of all these, you have terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and herdsmen militia killing, maiming and destroying people’s farmlands and villages. 

“Why won’t there be malnourished children, when parents barely feed once a day?

“It is a terrible situation and the government cannot just pretend that all is well. All is not well and the report, as far as I am concerned, did not capture all the states where children are stunted or malnourished. 

“There are other states, particularly those in the North Central like Benue, Kogi, Kwara and Plateau where insecurity is at its peak.

“Even down south, the story is still not palatable. Many families are feeding from hand to mouth. 

“Do you know how much baby food costs today in the market? A can of NAN baby food that used to sell at a little above N1000, now sells for N10,000 or even more.

“Why won’t there be many malnourished and stunted children? How many households in those affected states can afford such baby food?

“And when they can’t afford baby food that will adequately nourish them and keep them healthy, they resort to whatever that is available to feed the children and that is where the problem starts. 

“And all these are happening because the economy is very hard and there is no food anywhere. They are very expensive for ordinary Nigerians to afford.

“So, the government must take two very important steps very fast.

“First, it must provide food and children’s supplement to poor families in those states at no cost or relatively cheap costs.

“Secondly, the government must declare a total war against those enemies of the state, rout them out once and for all and allow the farmers to return to the farm in peace,” he stated.