Speaking as the special guest of honour at the occasion, Mrs. Buhari, represented by the wife of the Executive Governor of Niger state, Dr. Amina Abubakar Bello, informed that federal government would prioritize breastfeeding as part of the efforts to roll out the National Strategic plan of Action for Nutrition. Unveiling the ‘Abuja Breastfeeding Declaration’ which commits Nigeria to prioritizing the key policy and program actions as outlined in the Lancet Breastfeeding Series, Mrs. Buhari noted that there is an opportunity to improve breastfeeding practices in Nigeria, but only if all levels of the society work together to breakdown the political and societal barriers that hinder the Nigerian women’s ability to breastfeed exclusively for 6months.

Also re-iterating government’s commitment, the Honourable Minister of Health Professor Isaac Adewole, in his keynote address said ‘Today, we are re-committing and re-doubling our efforts to protect, promote and support breastfeeding in Nigeria. We know that policies are only effective if they are fully funded and if there is widespread commitment to fully implement the policies. Today, we must all re-commit to ensuring that the National Food and Nutrition policy and the National  Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition are fully funded, so they can in turn be fully implemented’.

He further maintained ‘ I believe we can overcome the challenges that are keeping us from improving breastfeeding in our country if we all work together to ensure that every Nigerian woman feels empowered to breastfeed and every child receives the nutrition he or she needs from the start’. According to a presentation by Dr. Nigel Rollins of the Department of Maternal, Newborn, child and Adolescent Health Organisation ‘Supporting breastfeeding makes economic sense for rich and poor countries and latest breastfeeding study proves it. Breastfeeding is a powerful and unique intervention that benefits mothers and children, yet breastfeeding rates are not improving as they should in Nigeria. We hope the scientific evidence amassed in this series will help revert these negative trends and spur greater policy action’.

The Lancet Breastfeeding Series reaffirms that breastfeeding is a critical intervention that not only saves lives and improves the health of women, newborns and children but also improves development and economic opportunities into the future. The event which was attended by Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige and commissioners of Health from across the country was organised by Federal Ministry of Health and the Scaling- Up Nutrition Movement (SUN), with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Source:National Mirror Online