The United Nations Children Fund’s (UNICEF) has deplored the alleged diversion of nutrition supplements in some communities in Sokoto State.
UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office in charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states, Mr Micheal Juma, who expressed his indignation during the quarterly policymakers’ meeting on Wednesday, August 21, that is today, in Sokoto urged community members and stakeholders in the healthcare sector to intensify vigilance against diversion of prepared nutrition supplements in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Sokoto State Government to discuss activities, successes, challenges and offer solutions to lingering challenges.
Juma, who was represented by Mr Abraham Mahama, noted that the nutrition supplements were provided by donors and distributed to healthcare centers in different communities aimed at enhancing the lives of malnourished children.
He lamented that some bad elements in the system connived with traders and engaged in selling the supplements to unintended persons.
He stressed that the supplements were openly sold at markets while on investigation at the designated stores, UNICEF discovered that personnel stocked cartons of supplements with stones and other objects to cover their nefarious acts.
Juma also urged Sokoto state government to join other states in appointing State’s Statistician General that would fastrack data collections, prudence, preservation and dissemination inline with modern trends.
He highlighted that most of the key indicators in the state portrayed very poor indices such as; antenatal care, immunization, skill birth child delivery, mortality rates, healthcare seeking behaviors and social behavioral change.
According to him, indices on healthcare Infrastructures, power and water supply, competent healthcare workers, client not trusting service providers along with others were not encouraging in the state.
In his presentation, the UNICEF Social Protection Specialist, Mr Isa Ibrahim, dwelled on the state’s 2024 Budget performances, areas that need alignments such as the nutrition sector with recorded zero allocation along with some areas recording high concentration of capital expenditure which has less impacts to the citizens.
Ibrahim also anchored Juma’s call on appointment of substantive Statistician General in the state to harness data prudence and accessibility using standard systems, stressing that absence of Statistician General is a vacuum and gap which is needed to be abridged.
He explained that the objectives of quarterly meetings consisted of, a) to sensitize stakeholders on activities; 2) advocate increased inclusion of children in policies; 3) prioritize joint partnerships, advocate optimum data usage and 4) budget performance.
Earlier, the Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Idris Gobir, had assured of the government’s maximum support to all donor agencies, describing the presentations as an awakening call to government officials to amend anomalies.
Alhaji Balarabe Kadadi, the state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, described UNICEF and other donor interventions as critical to addressing the state’s challenges.
Kadadi noted that collaborations remained key to improve service efficiency and ensured value for money on budget formulation and implementation.
