The First Lady of Nigeria, Oluremi Tinubu, on Tuesday, urged traditional and religious leaders to throw their full weight behind the Federal Government’s National Community Food Bank programme.

Oluremi also warned that no eligible family must be left behind as the initiative rolls out nationwide in April.

Speaking at the National Traditional and Religious Leaders Summit on Health 2026, held at the State House Banquet Hall, in Abuja, the First Lady said her Office was counting heavily on the moral authority and grassroots reach of traditional institutions and faith communities to drive the awareness and household sensitisation that government agencies alone could not achieve.

According to the First Lady, the programme, being developed in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, will operate through the nationwide network of Primary Health Centres.

Tinubu disclosed that the initiative would be bankrolled through a Trust Fund fed by willing private sector partners and public-spirited Nigerians, with oversight entrusted to credible Nigerians to ensure accountability.

“This programme is designed to strengthen community nutrition support, improve access to safe and nutritious food for vulnerable children, and contribute meaningfully to the national response to ending child malnutrition,” she said.

She described the programme as a direct expression of President Bola Tinubu’s placement of health at the heart of the Renewed Hope Agenda, noting that without the well-being of the people, no amount of infrastructure or natural resource endowment could translate into national development.

The First Lady also officially flagged off the Advocacy and Awareness Campaign for the National Community Food Bank Programme and congratulated the National Health Fellows, health volunteers deployed one per local government area, on the commencement of their second cohort, wishing them success in their service to the nation.

For his part, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, stressed the urgency of Tuesday’s summit after a sobering assessment of the scale of Nigeria’s child malnutrition crisis.

“Almost 40 per cent of our children have stunted growth. Sometimes it starts from the womb.

“If the mother is malnourished, doesn’t have enough protein or calories, the child will be small for age, will have a higher chance of dying early, will not do well in school, and as the World Bank mentioned, the early childhood years are the most important, because by the time you are five or ten, it is too late.