By Gbenga Oke

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuosho, has said the malnutrition cases at the internally-displaced persons, IDPs, camps in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states were a blessing in disguise, as it will propel the country to make adequate provision for malnourished children in the country.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily on Channels Television yesterday, Tejuosho said: “Before the IDP issue started, Nigeria was losing 1,200 children daily due to malnutrition.

“What is happening in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe is just a blessing in disguise for us to actually do what is right for malnutrition in this country. It is responsible for 53 percent of deaths of children under the age of five.

“Despite these statistics, only N2.4 million was allocated for nutrition purposes in the 2016 budget.”

Tejuosho, however, proposed that government needed to build about 10,000 primary health centres in the next two years to tackle malnutrition across the country.

The United Nations, UN, recently warned that about 50,000 children could starve to death this year, if nothing was not done urgently to ameliorate the situation.