Vice President Kashim Shettima will, on Monday, July 7, 2025, declare open a three-day national summit on nutrition and food security.
Themed “Curbing Malnutrition and Food Insecurity Through Effective Synergy,” the summit is organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security.
Chairman of the committee, Chike Okafor, disclosed this during a pre-summit media briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
According to him, the summit will be held from Monday, July 7, to Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
He said, “Do you know that on the second day of this summit, we are inviting the heads of security agencies? We are expecting the police, the Director-General of the Department of State Services, the Commandant-General of the Civil Defence, and the Chief of Army Staff to be part of our discussions.
“This is because you can’t talk about food security without addressing the fact that today, farmers cannot go to their farms due to insecurity. We have made this a key part of our discourse.
“You know what they say about security — what the security people are doing, whether kinetic or non-kinetic — that can’t be discussed in public. But I can tell you very clearly that we are insisting they (the security agencies) come and tell Nigerians what they are doing to ensure that farmers can go to their farms without being harassed, killed, or molested.”
Some of the stakeholders expected at the summit include the Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, Governor Hope Uzodimma; Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State; federal and state lawmakers; as well as representatives of relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
Also expected are officials from the ministries of health, education, agriculture, planning, and finance.
Development partners, including UNICEF, FAO, WFP, GAIN, CS-SUNN, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as civil society organisations and key actors in the organised private sector, are also scheduled to attend.
According to Okafor, the summit is designed as a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement platform.
“Despite decades of national policies and sectoral programmes aimed at improving nutrition and food systems, Nigeria continues to grapple with alarming rates of malnutrition and food insecurity.
“Children under the age of five, pregnant and nursing mothers, and vulnerable populations in rural areas bear the brunt of this crisis.
“This situation is exacerbated by factors such as climate change and environmental degradation, persistent insecurity across food-producing regions, high inflation, and the rising cost of living.
“Other factors. Include inadequate infrastructure for food storage, processing, and distribution, as well as low public investment in both nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions”, Okafor added.
On the expected outcome of the summit, he said, “The summit is not intended to be a ceremonial event, but a catalyst for decisive and coordinated action. We expect the following concrete outcomes: strengthened legislative frameworks for nutrition and food security at the federal and state levels; improved budgetary appropriations and tracking of nutrition funding; clear recommendations for policy reform and inter-agency coordination; and a roadmap for effective domestication and implementation of nutrition policies by State Houses of Assembly.”
Also speaking, House spokesman Akin Rotimi commended the committee’s leadership for its commitment to improving nutrition and food security in the country.
While noting that nutrition and food security are being approached holistically, Rotimi said, “Let me reiterate something from this speech: he mentioned that some of the factors exacerbating food insecurity include climate change and environmental degradation.
“So, you can see that it’s a holistic approach — addressing food security, low investment in the sector, and many other issues. Over the course of three days, we will see a multi-sectoral strategy that brings stakeholders together to tackle these challenges.”
