She was carrying a big coffeemaker on
one hand and a bag of plastic cups on the other. From the way she walked
and darted her eyes around expectantly, it became apparent that she was
a peddler of some sorts – maybe an itinerant beverage brewer, or one of
those new-product canvassers. A workman in a nearby garage called her,
she stopped at the front, laid down the giant flask, carefully brought
out a cup from her bundle, poured out a fuming hot, dark liquid into the
cup, and handed it to the customer, who gingerly took it from her and
began to sip with total concentration. The lady, noticing that I was
engrossed by the transaction, turned to me with a sweet smile, “This is
herbal tea. It is very good for your health. It has authentic medicinal
properties; many people now drink it every day. It is from China.”
Now, can somebody tell me the difference
between what this herbal tea seller described above is doing from what
the many Nigerian girls hawking bottles of herbal brews popularly
called “agbo” are doing? Well, the difference might be in the fact that
the Chinese herbal concoctions are masterfully packaged and marketed. In
fact, even our elite are proud to consume them. But in contrast, our
own herbal solutions are perceived as dirty and dangerous to health; and
no member of the elite would like to be seen patronising any of those
“agbo” sellers. But the irony is that Nigeria, and indeed Africa, has
more raw materials for these herbal medicines than China and all other
developed nations. We are blessed with so many bioresources that it is a
pity to think of the money we are missing in the global herbal medicine
market, estimated to be worth over $100bn. For the sake of definition,
herbalism (commerce in herbs) means the growth, collection, and sale or
dispensing of aromatic herbs, especially those considered to have
medicinal properties.
It even goes beyond just herbalism;
orthodox medicine depends on herbs. According to the Nigeria Natural
Medicine Development Agency, it is estimated that about 25 per cent of
the drugs prescribed worldwide are derived from plants, and such active
compounds are in use. Of the total 252 drugs in World Health
Organisation’s essential medicine list, 11 per cent is exclusively of
plant origin. Nearly 80 per cent of African and Asian populations depend
on traditional medicines for their primary health care. In Nigeria,
more than 80 per cent of the rural population use medicinal herbs or
indigenous systems of medicine. A comprehensive review of African
medicinal plants listed more than 2,000 plant species that are used in
traditional medical practice in various parts of the continent. These
rich arrays of plant species notwithstanding, Nigeria, like most other
African countries, plays very insignificant roles in the estimated
herbal medicine global trade. Laughably, China not only gives us
technology now, they give us herbs too.
So, to mimic the popular Nigerian
lawyers’ catchphrase, “First thing we do, let us kill all the (Nigerian)
herbalists!” Well, it is also important to point out that the origin of
the expression is in William Shakespeare’s book, “Henry VI”, where Dick
the Butcher stated in Part II, Act IV, Scene II, Line 73, “The first
thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Dick the Butcher was a
follower of the rebel, Jack Cade, who thought that if he disturbed law
and order, he could become king. Shakespeare meant it as a compliment to
attorneys and judges who instil justice in society. On the same hand, I
recognise the importance of herbalists in our world, and it is high
time we utilised our own herbalists to attract some foreign currencies
to Nigeria, and also to create the much-needed jobs.
Interestingly, earlier this year, the
Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, disclosed that the ministry
was working on the integration of traditional medicine practice into
medical school curriculum in Nigerian universities. Against this
background, it is noteworthy to remember that traditional medicine
practitioners in Nigeria have been clamouring for formal recognition and
acceptance just like the orthodox medicine practitioners. Therefore, at
a first glance, this move by the Federal Government would seem like the
veritable jump-start needed to push the country into a herbal medicine
revolution. However, when we consider the fact that the Nigeria Natural
Medicine Development Agency, under the Ministry of Science and
Technology, has been in existence since 1997, we can see that the
Minister of Health’s plans might just be another manifestation of the
unfortunate Nigerian federal fiscal waste syndrome, where a lot of moves
are made without any action.
To be sure, the mandate of the NNMDA
reads thus: “This is to enable government through the Federal Ministry
of Science and Technology to actualise its critical and strategic
mandate to research, develop, collate, document, preserve, conserve and
promote the nation’s indigenous (traditional) health care systems,
medication and non- medication healing arts, sciences and technologies
and assist facilitate its integration into the National Health care
Delivery System, as well as contribute to the nation’s wealth and job
creation, socio-economic growth and development effort.” From this, it
is obvious that, had the agency, and in fact the Federal Ministry of
Science and Technology, been carrying out its gazetted functions
creatively and proactively, the nation would have by now become a major
exporter of herbal products. This is because we have all the raw
materials, natural and human, needed to attain any global height in
herbal medicine practice, also known as alternative medicine.
Granted, in developed countries there
are schools and colleges that offer courses in alternative medicine; the
practitioners have the title of Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine in
front of their names. In 16 American states and six Canadian provinces,
for example, the title refers exclusively to a medical degree granted by
an accredited naturopathic medical school. But I do not think this is
the time for Nigeria to complicate issues by incorporating traditional
medicine into its medical schools’ curriculum. The poor students are
already burdened with enough study modules and materials while
struggling under our peculiar harsh academic environment; they do not
need extra herbal lessons. What our government can do is to create
special medical schools, or/and special degrees, for natural medicine
practice; and then establish a comprehensive linkage with the NNMDA,
which is basically a research agency. The National Agency for Food and
Drug Administration and Control will then effectively team up with them
in order to bring sanity to the herbal medicine sub-sector.
This will solve the current problem of
name-dropping by some unscrupulous herbal remedy manufacturers. The
Minister of Health has complained that some traditional herb producers
come to them and obtain listing status approval: which shows that the
medicine is safe if taken according to the required dosage. But these
practitioners then go ahead and begin to make claims of curing all sorts
of diseases including HIV, just because the herbal medicine they market
has an authentic NAFDAC number by virtue of the listing status
obtained. Uninformed and illiterate Nigerians are easy preys to such
shenanigans.
The flip side of the integration of
traditional medicine practice into mainstream medical practice is that
it might end up edging out the grassroots practitioners, when
overzealous government regulators start demanding a degree in medicine
before allowing these ones to practise. We must not lose sight of the
home truth that most people who practise it here engage in it as a
calling or vocation, with some having a spiritual angle to their
passion. Therefore, what the government needs to do is to work hard and
mainstream our own traditional potential into a modern professional
structure like other nations are doing, and getting economic mileage for
it.
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