An erudite scholar on nutrition, Prof. Babatunde Oguntona would on Friday, August 4 lead other experts to the one-day 2017 Nutrition Symposium being organised by the Media Centre Against child Malnutrition (MeCAM) in Lagos.

Top speakers to join Prof. Oguntona in dissecting the theme, “Malnutrition, child development and the Media” at Welcome Centre Hotels, would include the Project Director at the Civil Society on Scaling-Up Nutrition Nigeria (CS-SUNN) Mrs. Beatrice Eluaka and chairman, Community Health and Research Initiative (CHRI) board, Dr Aminu Magashi Garba.

Confirming this, the National Coordinator of Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Mr. Remmy Nweke said the Country Coordinator, and Scaling-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN) Nigeria, Uduak Igbeka and Head, Nutrition at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Isokpunwu.

He further said that Oguntona was a graduate of University of Ibadan with a degree on Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition in 1970 and holds in addition, M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Nutrition from the universities of London and Nottingham respectively.

Oguntona, he said, was a pioneer Professor at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta (UNAAB) in 1988, and has headed Department, Dean of College and Centre Director. In 2006 he was made Dean of Faculty of Agriculture and Rural Development (FAMARD) at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (Ayetoro Campus).

Oguntona has trained hundreds of students at both undergraduate and post graduate levels over the past 36 years. He season author of both national and international, including co-authoring of the report on National Food Consumption and Nutritional Status, and the principal author of Nigerian Food Composition Table.

A nutrition consultant to the Federal Ministry of Health for 22 years, Oguntona and has consulted for several governments including Ghana, Liberia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Zambia as well as for some international agencies, among other organizations.

A recipient of many distinguished International awards on nutrition, including BP Protein, Leverhulme Trust, ACU/Carnagie Corporation having been a Professor of Nutrition since 1990, he is a member of many professional and social organisations. He is the past President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria and a fellow of that society. He is presently the Chair of Nigeria Beverage Panel and is married to Professor Clara Raquel Oguntona.

MeCAM, he said, is peopled exclusively by journalists, and mediapreneurs to push the narratives to save the Nigerian child from the danger of malnutrition through scaling up reporting and advocacy, among others.

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