Date: 2016-07-24

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, today kept his promise that the Senate would weigh in on the malnutrition crisis that is plaguing the North East, following the Boko Haram insurgency that ravaged the zone.

At its plenary on Wednesday, Senate debated a point of order raised by Sen. Baba Kaka Garbai (APC - Borno Central), which was aimed at addressing the acute malnutrition in the country and resolved that the Ministry of Finance should release necessary funds to the North East while the Federal Government should coordinate donations from the private sector to the region.

Writing on his social media pages, Saraki noted that it was unacceptable for an average of 134 children to die everyday from starvation-related causes. He called on private sector and international partners to support the federal and state governments in the rehabilitation, resettlement and rebuilding efforts in the area in order to curb the humanitarian crisis brought about by malnutrition.

"We do not need to lose more lives to malnourishment. Hence, Nigeria must adopt a public-private-partnership driven approach to combat the issue of malnutrition", he said.

The Senate President commended the military for the successes recorded thus far, and also praised the Borno State government for the work that it has done to alleviate the malnutrition crisis in the State.

Senate Majority Leader, Ali Ndume, while contributing to the debate, harped on the fact that the Federal Government needed to do something immediately as the situation was becoming serious.