By Sani Idris Abdulrahman/Maryam Ahmadu-Suka

The Kaduna State Government, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has inaugurated Local Government Areas (LGAs) taskforce committees to track and prevent diversion of nutrition commodities across the state.

The initiative aims to strengthen accountability and ensure that life-saving nutrition supplies reach vulnerable populations, particularly women and children suffering from malnutrition.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the inauguration was conducted simultaneously across the 23 local government areas of Kaduna State on Wednesday.

The taskforce committees are expected to develop strategies to track, monitor and address incidents of diversion and misuse of nutrition commodities at the grassroots level.

Speaking in Zaria, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Bello Jamoh, described the inauguration as a critical step toward safeguarding nutrition interventions.

Jamoh, represented by the State Nutrition Officer, Muhammad Tukur, said stakeholders had a shared responsibility to ensure essential nutrition and health commodities reached deserving beneficiaries.

He said the committee would strengthen accountability mechanisms and improve collaboration among local government chairmen, health secretaries, nutrition officers, facilitators and community stakeholders.

According to him, the meeting was beyond a ceremonial inauguration, describing it as a call to action against diversion and misuse of nutrition commodities.

Jamoh urged participants to work collectively in implementation, supervision and monitoring to ensure the sustainability of nutrition interventions across Kaduna State.

Also speaking, the Vice Chairman of Zaria Local Government Area, Abdullahi Abba, described aid diversion as the misappropriation of humanitarian support away from intended beneficiaries.

He said diversion often occurred during storage, transportation or distribution of relief materials, particularly in vulnerable and conflict-affected communities.

Abba stressed that diversion of food items, funds and medical commodities undermined efforts targeted at supporting vulnerable residents, especially women and children.

He urged stakeholders across wards and local governments to understand the risks and strengthen accountability, transparency and service delivery mechanisms.

The vice chairman also encouraged participants to transfer knowledge gained during the programme to their communities in order to prevent diversion and misuse.

Speaking in Kaduna, the Chairman of Kaduna North Local Government Area, Alhaji Muhammad Gambo, said the committee would begin work immediately after inauguration.

Gambo said close monitoring of the committee’s activities would ensure the achievement of the desired objectives and effective service delivery.

“You do not just set up a committee for the sake of it without closely monitoring its activities,” he said.

Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Kaduna State Planning and Budget Commission and Chairman, State Committee on Food and Nutrition, Mukhtar Abdullahi, said the committee became necessary because nutrition commodities often failed to reach intended beneficiaries.

According to him, cases of mismanagement, diversion and poor handling of nutrition commodities had continued to undermine effective service delivery at the grassroots.

“The committee is very important because nutrition commodities meant for last-mile distribution sometimes do not get to the target beneficiaries,” he said.

He added that the state government would not tolerate any act capable of undermining access to essential nutrition commodities.

According to him, the committee was constituted at the instance of Gov. Uba Sani to strengthen transparency and accountability in nutrition support programmes across the state.

The Nutrition Focal Person of Makarfi LGA, Nafisa Yusuf, commended development partners and local government authorities for supporting nutrition activities across Kaduna State.

Yusuf said diversion of nutrition commodities negatively affected services provided to malnourished children, especially in rural communities.

She pledged to apply knowledge acquired during the programme to strengthen efforts against child malnutrition in the state.

Sani Hassan of the Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP) said the initiative was established in 2017 to address severe acute malnutrition.

Hassan said Kaduna previously recorded over 265,000 children suffering severe acute malnutrition, a condition that weakens children’s immune systems and increases mortality risks.

He attributed improvements recorded in the state to strong government commitment and support from development partners, particularly UNICEF.

According to him, Kaduna’s nutrition interventions have significantly reduced the prevalence and magnitude of severe malnutrition, attracting interest from other states seeking to study its strategies.

Hassan described diversion of nutrition commodities as criminal, lamenting that life-saving items meant for vulnerable children were sometimes stolen or misused.

He said many affected children came from poor families in remote communities and depended entirely on nutrition interventions for survival.

Also speaking, the Head Lead, Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) 2.0, Hajiya Hauwa Usman, said the taskforce would help prevent theft, misuse and poor storage of nutrition commodities.

Usman said committee members were expected to investigate and address reported cases of diversion or mismanagement at state, local government and facility levels.

She expressed optimism that members of the taskforce would replicate the initiative in their respective local government areas to strengthen monitoring and accountability mechanisms.

According to her, the exercise should be sustained as a permanent measure to safeguard nutrition commodities meant for vulnerable residents.

The Chief of Field Office of UNICEF in Kaduna, Dr Gerida Birukila, said accountability and transparency remained essential in the distribution of nutrition and health supplies.

Birukila, represented by Chinwe Ezeife, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, commended the Kaduna State Government for sustaining collaboration with UNICEF and other partners in supporting child nutrition interventions.

She recalled that the Kaduna Government contributed about N750 million for procurement of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, while UNICEF matched the amount with equal funding.

According to her, Gov. Uba Sani also approved an additional N350 million in late 2025 for nutrition supplies, which UNICEF equally matched.

Birukila said procurement processes for therapeutic food, micronutrient supplements and lipid-based nutrition products were ongoing and deliveries would soon commence.

She noted that Kaduna already had a state-level Aid Diversion Task Force Committee comprising ministries, agencies and law enforcement institutions.

Birukila said the newly inaugurated local government committees would strengthen monitoring at the last-mile distribution stage between state warehouses, health facilities and communities.

She added that ward development committees, traditional rulers and community volunteers would soon be integrated into the accountability framework.

Birukila warned that diversion, sale or misuse of nutrition and health commodities would no longer be tolerated in Kaduna State.

NAN reports that the LGAs committees would be chaired by the chairpersons of each LGA.(NAN)