When the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report revealed that 652 children had died from malnutrition in Katsina State within six months, the reaction from the Katsina State Government was swift and measured. There was no denial, no attempt to discredit the data — only an acceptance that this was a challenge demanding an even stronger response.
Yet, while some have seized on the numbers to launch one-sided attacks against the administration, they fail to tell the full story: the scale of government intervention, the partnerships forged, the millions of naira committed, and — most disturbingly — the acts of sabotage that are undermining these very efforts from within our communities.
Governor Malam Dikko Umaru Radda’s administration has made malnutrition response a cornerstone of its public health policy. Since assuming office, the Governor has:
1. Released ₦200 million in counterpart funding to UNICEF, unlocking a matching ₦200 million for nutrition commodities.
2. In 2024, followed with an additional ₦300 million, again matched by UNICEF, bringing the total joint investment to ₦600 million.
3. Increased funding support for Local Government Areas from ₦250,000 monthly to ₦1 million per LGA, totalling ₦34 million monthly, for malnutrition response.
4. Expanded to 185 Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) sites and 17 Stabilisation Centres treating children with severe acute malnutrition.
5. Partnered with UNICEF, MSF, WFP, and others to create a multi-sectoral nutrition plan with immediate, mid-term, and long-term strategies.
6. Launched food security drives, including farm implement distribution, mechanisation centres, the Rumbun-Sauki initiative to make food accessible, and a taskforce to prevent hoarding.
Preventive measures have already reached over 3 million beneficiaries through the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project, with more than 1,000 healthcare workers trained on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition.
In an ironic and deeply troubling twist, reports from the field indicate that some of the very parents whose children are receiving life-saving supplements are selling these nutrition commodities for personal gain.
Even more disturbing are accounts of parents deliberately harming their own children’s health — giving them Omo detergent to drink to induce vomiting and diarrhoea — just so they can claim more supplements to sell.
There are also reports of health workers colluding with parents to divert Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) from the treatment centres into the black market.
This is not just sabotage; it is an assault on the lives of innocent children and a betrayal of the collective effort to save them.
In light of these revelations, the Katsina State Government is moving beyond appeals and awareness campaigns. Plans are underway to establish mobile courts that will prosecute parents, guardians, and health workers found guilty of misusing or diverting nutrition commodities.
These legal measures will run alongside intensified community engagement, working with traditional rulers, religious leaders, and civil society to reinforce the message: these supplements are not commodities to be traded — they are medicine for the most vulnerable.
Critics who frame this crisis purely as a failure of government policy ignore two key realities:
1. The fight against malnutrition in Katsina is backed by unprecedented government funding and partnership.
2. Some of the biggest obstacles now come from within the affected communities themselves.
Journalistic ethics demand that both sides of this story be told. To omit the government’s massive interventions — and the sabotage undermining them — is to present the public with an incomplete and misleading narrative.
The truth is that this is not just a government problem; it is a societal problem. The state has shown its readiness to act decisively, but without responsible behaviour at the grassroots, every naira, every partnership, and every policy risks being undone.
At a press conference, Dr. Shamsuddeen Yahaya, the Executive Secretary, Katsina State Primary Health Care Agency, remarked that, “The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.” Katsina is committed to making that improvement — but it will take both government resolve and community integrity to ensure no child dies for want of a meal that was in fact provided.
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