FOOD AND NUTRITION AMONG NIGERIAN CHILDREN 1985- 2015; POLICY ISSUES IN PERSPECTIVE

Ogbonna Brian Onyebuchi*

ABSTRACT

Nigeria is a country with 774 local government areas and 36 states in addition to the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, with an average life expectancy at birth of 47 years in 2008 and 52.62 years in 2014. Certainly, she needs to consider her food and nutrition policy to be able to meet up with the food and health challenges as it affects population health in the 21st century. The national health policy introduced in 1988 is one of the strategies towards achieving health for all Nigerians. It addresses the realities and challenges of population health to accelerate growth and improvement on the national health system. It is a national health intervention and a target of the national health policy in Nigeria. The objective of this article is to discuss the developmental milestones in the national food and nutrition policy in Nigeria as an audit trail for improvement on the food and nutrition status of the Nigerian child. Articles were searched electronically and those which met the eligibility criteria were drafted for the study. Policy implementation is a dynamic process, which must be followed-up and reviewed periodically to meet the ever-increasing demands, and achieve the desired change in the life of any nation.

Keywords: Policy, food, nutrition, children, public health, Nigeria.