Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The Gombe State Government is collaborating with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) towards ending the theft abuse and misuse of nutrition interventions in the State.
Both parties have collaborated in the past to tackle the growing incidents of malnutrition particularly on children and women through the provision of commodities such as Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and Small Quantity Lipid-based Nutrition Supplement (SQ-LNS) among many others.
However, there are indications that most of these nutrition commodities expected to be freely administered to malnourished children from health facilities have recently found their way into the open markets as well as being misused in the home front and health facilities.
To this end and worried by the trend, the State Government inaugurated a high powered task force on Misuse, Abuse, and Theft of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and other Nutrition Commodities.
Inaugurating the 19 man committee headed by the State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Salihu Baba Alkali in his office, the Deputy Governor, Daniel Manasseh Jatau (PhD), said their task is to identify, check, stop and sanction anyone that has the tendency to Mis-use, Abuse, Steal, Divert, Hoard, and or Destroy Nutrition Commodities.
According to him, “the essence of this Taskforce is to ensure you support the Government to ensure the attainment of its goal of a healthy population, free from malnutrition and other related consequences”, urging them to strictly comply to the terms of reference of the assignment.
He described good nutrition as the solid foundation that can ensure, maintain and sustain the growth and development of human beings, noting that “anything short of this is what we witness today among some individuals in our society, who are always weak, sick, stunted growth, mental retardation and other such challenges”.
According to him, out of concern about the issue, the administration since inception in 2019 under Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, embarked on numerous activities to minimize to the barest minimum the number of mal-nourished children in the state.
Speaking earlier, the Chief of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique, commended Gombe State for taking the bold initiative pointing out that it is the first in the Bauchi Field Office to embark on such initiative while hoping that other States will take lessons from Gombe.
She described the taskforce as very important considering the the huge amount spent on procuring the interventions which ultimate goal is to reach the child.
She called on traditional, religious and community leaders to be at the vanguard of ensuring that the taskforce succeeds by making the work of the taskforce very effective in their communities.
In his response, chairman of the committee and State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Salihu Baba Alkali, committed the committee’s readiness to work assiduously to ensure Government achieve its goals.
He also promised that the committee will make appropriate recommendations to the Government while thanking the Government for the opportunity to serve the State. He said the members of the committee are high calibre.
End.
