As a Clinical Biochemist working in a hospital laboratory, I was increasingly alarmed by what I saw every day. Patient after patient presenting with conditions that were not inevitable — conditions that better nutrition could have prevented, or at the very least, significantly delayed. The right food, given consistently and early enough, could have changed so many outcomes.

I saw cases that could not be managed. I watched people deteriorate from diseases that began on a plate. Each preventable death affected me. But none broke my heart like the times I watched mothers lose their children, or children lose their mothers — to conditions rooted in nutritional neglect.

There came a point where I could no longer find fulfilment in diagnosing what had already gone wrong. I needed to work upstream — before the hospital, before the illness, before the damage was done. I needed to be where food decisions were being made. So I resigned.

The answer revealed itself when I had my daughter in 2015. I learned that at six months, right after exclusive breastfeeding, Nigerian babies were being transitioned to complementary foods that were pre-packaged, full of artificial additives, and nutritionally imbalanced. Then I discovered something that stopped me cold:

I also saw a profound knowledge gap: mothers were devoted, loving, and willing — but they did not have the nutritional information they needed to make confident food decisions for their children. And in that vacuum, marketing had moved in.

Ugu leaves were being traded for celery, broccoli, and coriander — vegetables that, while nutritious in their own right, have no deep roots in our food culture. Imported fancy instant cereals were chosen over our own made-in-Nigeria, home-grown baby food solutions crafted from Nigeria's finest whole ingredients. Our crayfish, one of the most powerful calcium and protein sources in any kitchen in the world, was being dismissed as old-fashioned. Our local rice, Acha, Millet, Finger millets, Guinea corn, and Ofada rice — complex, fibre-rich, nutritionally superior grains — were passed over for ultra-processed alternatives. And as the foods changed, so did the children. So did their health outcomes.

I watched this happen over 12 years of practice, working with families across Nigeria. And I knew I had to do something about it.

I thought to myself: why do we not value our local resources? Why can't we take what Africa has always had — the most nutritious, diverse, God-given food system on the planet — transform it with modern nutritional science, and give our babies products adapted specifically to their needs?

Nigeria has 26 million children under five. 37% are stunted. 29% are wasted. These are not statistics — they are children. Children I have dedicated my career to nourishing.

Using my background in Medical Biochemistry and years of nutritional training, I began researching, experimenting, developing recipes, and blending natural food options for my daughter. I started talking to other parents. I built a community — first on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram — where I educated over 60,000 mothers on the importance of infant and young child feeding and practical ways to improve the nutritional quality of their children's meals.

I faced resistance. Older mothers disagreed with my approach, dismissing it as going against tradition. But I pressed on — because I understood something they could not yet see: I was not abandoning tradition. I was honouring it, elevating it, and giving it the scientific precision it had always deserved.

I noticed that 100% of the baby food in Nigerian stores was imported, even though we have extraordinarily rich nutritional resources here at home. Our local fruits, nuts, seeds, roots, tubers, legumes, and grains could be processed right here in Nigeria — for the benefit of babies and for local farmers. A few months later, Somma's Yummies® was born.

I founded Somma's Yummies® to give African children access to High-Energy Nutritious African foods, made with love by an African mum — and to prove that premium, science-backed baby nutrition could come from our own soil. I built Mother First® for pregnant and nursing mothers, because the mother's nutrition is the first environment the child ever inhabits. And I founded Jaddah's Special Recipes® to make God-designed nourishment accessible to every family, regardless of income.

Jaddah's Special Recipes® were not invented from scratch. They were inherited. The pap, the tom brown, the kunun zaki, the kunun gyada — our mothers had been preparing these for generations, long before nutrition science could explain why they worked. The wisdom was always there. What I did was take that foundation and build on it: measuring the right combinations, balancing the nutrients, raising the hygiene standards — so that every mother can offer her child the very best version of what tradition already gave us.

As the rise of female employment reduced the time available for home food preparation — and as the gap between mothers and the knowledge of their children's nutrition widened — I knew that individual consultations and brand products alone were not enough. Mothers needed a home. A resource. A community. A place where expert guidance, African food wisdom, trusted products, and a circle of support could all be found in one place.

This is what The Mumtritionist® Africa is becoming: Africa's first integrated Maternal & Child Nutrition Hub. A space where mothers find education, community, products, and professional guidance — from trying to conceive, through pregnancy, breastfeeding, first foods, toddler years, and beyond into the school-age years.

The TMA Circle® was never something I launched. It is something I have always been doing — gathering mothers, teaching, equipping, and encouraging the return to our God-given nutritional inheritance. This platform is finally giving that movement the home it deserves.