Atiku Raises Alarm Over Child Malnutrition Figures, Mentions Who To Blame
- Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar raised alarm over data showing 41.1% of Nigerian children under five are stunted, calling it the most disturbing face of the cost-of-living crisis
- Atiku linked the malnutrition figures to soaring food, fuel and transportation costs that are squeezing household budgets across Nigeria
- The former presidential candidate used the statistics to push his proposed production subsidy on domestically refined petroleum as part of a broader affordability plan
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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned that Nigeria's deepening cost-of-living crisis is now visibly damaging the physical development of millions of children, pointing to new nutrition data that he said should alarm every leader in the country.
The warning came in a statement released on Thursday, September 17, by Phrank Shaibu, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication.
Source: Twitter
Nutrition experts had presented figures showing that 41.1 per cent of Nigerian children under five are stunted, with 19.2 per cent classified as severely stunted. In the North-West, the rate climbs to 58.2 per cent. Close to two million children are suffering severe acute malnutrition, and only about two in every ten are receiving any form of treatment.
Atiku said these numbers cannot be viewed in isolation from the financial pressure that food, fuel and energy costs are placing on families. Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics has put food inflation at 19.57 per cent, even as households continue to absorb price increases built up over recent years.
"Behind every statistic is a Nigerian mother struggling to decide what her children can eat, how much they can eat and how often they can eat," Atiku said in the statement. "A child does not understand inflation figures. A child only knows whether there is food on the table."
Energy costs and the price of food
Atiku argued that expensive fuel does not only hurt drivers at the pump. It raises the cost of moving farm produce to markets, powering small businesses and running basic services, all of which eventually push up the price of food at the household level.
"When fuel becomes expensive, transporting tomatoes from the farm becomes expensive. Taking rice to the market becomes expensive," he said, adding that the additional cost "arrives at the dinner table."
He used the occasion to restate his proposal for a petroleum production subsidy, which he described as distinct from the import subsidies Nigeria operated in the past. Under his plan, support would be tied exclusively to crude refined inside Nigeria, with the intervention capped, transparently budgeted and independently audited.
"If you do not refine in Nigeria, you do not qualify. The subsidy follows the barrel refined in Nigeria," he said.
A broader affordability argument
Atiku said lowering energy costs is central to his wider programme aimed at reducing what ordinary Nigerians spend on transport, food and basic goods. He called on the government to scale up treatment for severely malnourished children and ensure that nutrition budgets actually reach the communities that need them.
"We cannot build a strong country on the bodies of hungry children," he said.
Atiku served as Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 and is currently identified as a member of the African Democratic Congress.
Buhari's wife visits Atiku
Previously, Legit.ng reported that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar hosted former First Lady Aisha Buhari, using the occasion to speak directly to the worsening cost of living facing millions of Nigerian families.
Legit.ng recalls that in February 2026, Atiku and Aisha, the wife of late former President Muhammadu Buhari, met in Saudi Arabia.
Source: Legit.ng
