Shettima’s voice should echo in Borno
July 24, 2026 1:15 am
Tunji Ajibade Thinking it through
This month, the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, received a delegation from UNICEF, and he talked about child nutrition in Nigeria, among other issues. Nutrition for children has been part of national discourse in recent years, particularly as the subnational governments embark on school feeding programmes with varying degrees of success. I observed that in the same week Shettima received UNICEF in Abuja, a state-owned health agency in Borno, the vice president’s home state, called a meeting of stakeholders in child nutrition. At the Borno meeting organised by the state health agency, officials issued warnings against the diversion of nutritional items meant for children. This isn’t the first time news of the diversion of items meant for Nigerians emerges in the public space. My concern, though, is that there’s been so much talk about diversion, but few practical solutions offered to stop the diversion.
As the reader already knows, I don’t concentrate on complaining about issues, name-calling, or sharing blame. I focus on solutions. In this regard, I noticed the VP mentioned some practical solutions during his meeting with UNICEF, as well as other stakeholders, even though diversion of nutritional items for children wasn’t his main focus when he did. I think what he said should be echoed and implemented in Borno State, and across the federation as well. For instance, the he said some of the initiatives embarked upon to support children reflect FG’s convictions that the quality of tomorrow is determined by the investments made in children today. What investments are the subnational governments making regarding children, when they can’t ensure that ordinary nutritional items safely get to the children who need them?
Certain changes are needed at the subnational levels for them to be able to deliver services to citizens. However, suggestions of solutions that work have been in short supply. Finding solutions to issues here is important as I’ve always held the view that in addressing nationwide challenges, whoever leaves out the subnational governments while pointing fingers only at the FG needs to do a reassessment of their submission. I think we’ve focused long enough on the FG on every matter ranging from insecurity, corruption, and poverty reduction. It’s time to seek reforms regarding the quality of governance at the subnational levels. So much is going on here that is not right. My reading is that without the complementary contributions of subnational governments, each measure adopted at the top will have no meaningful impact at the bottom.
Although there was no mention of it when UNICEF visited the VP, warnings against diversion of nutritional items meant for kids had been issued by UNICEF in the recent past. For instance, in May 2025, at a meeting with stakeholders in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, UNICEF spoke about the diversion and reselling of ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food meant for malnourished children in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa State. RUTF is a lifesaving, high-calorie nutritional paste primarily used to treat severe acute malnutrition in children. It contains milk powder, peanut paste, vegetable oils, sugar, and vitamins. This results in rapid weight gain in starving children. The UNICEF Chief of Maiduguri Field Office, Joseph Senesie, has described the act of diverting nutritional items meant for children as “going out of hand”. One effect is that this may lead to the death of many malnourished children estimated at over half a million in the area.
The problem isn’t limited to the northeast. Last June in Enugu State, at an event organised by the Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the State Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF, the global body warned against similar practice. I suppose one question the reader might ask is, what do adults do with nutritional items made for kids? Adults sell these items donated by UNICEF and meant to be freely distributed to Nigerian children. If the items were sold to children who needed them, then the narrative would have been different. The items were given to animals. According to the Yobe State Government, “the nutritional supplement for children is diverted and smuggled to neighbouring countries where it is allegedly used to fatten livestock.”
There have been some legislative actions to tackle this problem, though. In 2025, the Borno State House of Assembly threatened to criminalise hoarding, theft, and resale of therapeutic foods. A proposed bill in this regard imposes heavy fines and prison terms on compromised healthcare personnel or traders caught siphoning aid. The assembly is establishing food and nutrition committees across all 27 local government areas to oversee direct distributions. Nonetheless, diversion of nutritional items meant for kids continues. There are two measures that I think are missing in the effort to curb such criminal diversion; one of them is contained in the remarks made by the VP when he hosted UNICEF. In his general comments, the VP said the Nigerian government has assembled a broad portfolio of interventions to restore and strengthen the place of the Nigerian child. Among them is the Nutrition 774 Initiative, Renewed Hope Child Support Programme, Nigeria 2050 Child Foresight Analysis, and Generation Unlimited Nigeria. These are meant to secure a safer future for the Nigerian child. That’s what the FG is doing for our kids.
What are the subnational governments doing? Do they complement what the FG does? Do they provide that last rung of the ladder needed to step safely to where our people are located so that they can benefit from these many programmes? Do subnational governments put internal control mechanisms in place which ensure that what the FG makes available actually gets to our people who need them? I don’t think so, and I’m not even calling attention to this obvious gap for the first time on this page.
States and LGAs fail our people at the local level, then they turn to FG to make further provisions of what has already been provided but mismanaged. This thing doesn’t come across fine, to put it mildly. Does the reader notice how every Nigerian calls on the FG to do everything for them? Politicians and their fans don’t help matters. Castigating the FG for every problem grabs more attention, so they focus on it. No one talks about subnational governments where all that appears to be happening in many of them is the sharing of federal allocations. Most subnational governments don’t appear configured to undertake measures that task their energy beyond the sharing of the contents of their treasuries. Often that’s all the governance there is at that level.
Even when states corner funds meant for LGAs so that they can’t carry out their statutory duties to our people, the FG is still blamed for all problems. Against this backdrop, I take note that the VP hosted the association of LGA chairmen, ALGON, the other time. In the course of the meeting, he said ALGON needs to actively participate in and strengthen the Local Government Committees on Food and Nutrition, ensuring they become centres of planning, coordination, implementation, and accountability in every council. And he went on to add that strengthening every tier of government is the pathway through which this directive can become operational.
The VP further noted that “national concern must become institutional action, institutional action must become measurable outcomes, and measurable outcomes must be reflected in healthier families, stronger communities, and children whose opportunities in life are no longer constrained by preventable malnutrition.” I find it satisfactory that the VP makes a call for strengthening institutions at the subnational levels across the nation, adding that they should become centres of planning, coordination, implementation, and accountability. For me, it’s in doing this that we can have solutions to the diversion of items meant for the vulnerable, which is so rampant across the nation.
The VP’s words remind me of the call I’ve always made here that it’s at the subnational levels we have more of the work of reform to do. It’s where advocates, activists, and other stakeholders should concentrate their activity. This is even more so as the FG is shedding some of its powers as indicated in the ongoing constitutional reform. I think I should seize the opportunity to commend members of the civil society who are making efforts to bring changes to the grassroots, making people know their rights, as well as improve governance at that level. These include YIAGA, BudgIT, Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, and many more. I take note of the hard work they put in on behalf of our nation,
As for the diversion of child nutrition items at health centres, it’s noteworthy that Senesie, the UNICEF head in Borno State, did not call on the FG. Rather, he asked stakeholders at the grassroots to help in advancing the rights of malnourished children. He called on traders not to sell, and buyers not to buy nutrition meant for children. He also appealed to health workers not to sell or divert public supplies, as well as transporters not to transport such items that are without a waybill. To me, the constant call on the FG by some over issues that should be better monitored at the grassroots can’t lead anywhere beyond attention-grabbing newspaper headlines. Unless subnational governments, especially the LGAs, become centres of planning, coordination, implementation, transparency, and accountability, we can’t expect that many of the challenges everyone laments about will be resolved.
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