Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has been honoured with the award of ‘National Nutrition Vanguard’ by the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN) in a brief ceremony held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
The award was in recognition of the vice president’s outstanding and immense “contribution to national development and particularly nutrition development in Nigeria.
Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, former Kano State Deputy Governor and a member of the NSN Board of Trustees, who read the citation, said Osinbajo had contributed immensely in Nigeria’s nutrition space.
“Your Excellency, under your leadership as the Chairman of the National Nutrition Council(NCS), the council has provided the purposeful direction in the nutrition landscape in the country as well as increase the visibility of the council in national development.”
Abubakar listed major achievements recorded in the food systems space under the vice president’s leadership.
“Approval of the National Multisectoral Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition (NMPFAN) in Nigeria by the Federal Executive Council
“High level support for the Nigeria Food System Dialogue leading to the development of a food system transformation pathways
“The approval for the establishment of nutrition departments in all relevant MDAs
“High level engagement of the Nigeria Governors Forum for increase in funding for nutrition at State level
Creation of the Technical Advisory Group for the support and guided implementation of NCN decisions.
“Improvement in the funding for nutrition activities both at Federal and State levels, among others,” he said.
The President of NSN, Prof. Wasiu Afolabi, gave an update on the society’s activities over the years and presently under his leadership.
Afolabi said the society was currently supporting the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry with the implementation of the school feeding programme especially by enhancing the quality of meals served under the scheme.
Accepting the award, Osinbajo spoke on Federal Government’s commitment to improving nutrition and security.
“We decided as a government to do a lot more work in the area of nutrition and one of the major issues for us was the consideration that, the most important task for government was the security of lives and property of the citizens.
” Security, of course, in terms of physical security but perhaps more, in terms of lives and livelihoods, because really what is the point of providing any physical security for somebody who dies of hunger or who is about to die of hunger.
“So, I think, for us this was so important that we should dedicate time and attention to food security and of course, nutrition.
“Our work on Human Capital Development which we have done through the National Economic Council and our work in the area of nutrition, through the National Council on Nutrition, is one that we think, we have developed synergy and it is very important that we maintain that synergy.
“It speaks to our responsibility to the country and our responsibility to the people.”
He thanked NSN for the honour and dedicated the award to all stakeholders in the nutrition and food systems space.
Osinbajo said that the award was not expected because a lot of what he had achieved was in the course of doing the work for which he was elected.
He commended the NSN for its steadfastness and contributions to the advancement of the food systems space in Nigeria over the years
“But I deeply appreciate this award and I also dedicate the award to all of us including yourself, all of us who worked diligently but silently in the nutrition and food systems space, who are hardly ever acknowledged or hardly ever noticed.
“If we did not have the NSN, we would not have made the advancement or achievements that we have made. It is your advocacy over the years that has led to the point where government could not ignore the nutrition space at all.”
The vice president urged the society to expand its scope of collaboration with government to cover more areas, citing ongoing partnership with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, through the Homegrown School Feeding Programme, as an example.