Recently Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora, called on Nigerian universities to introduce Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree programme in herbal medicine for better healthcare delivery. Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu reports that there may be hurdles on the path of realising this objective,
Background
Recently, Minister of State for Education, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, called on Nigerian universities to introduce B.Sc. programme in Herbal Medicine for better healthcare delivery. He made the call at a news conference commemorating the 2019 African Traditional Medicine Day which held in Abuja.
African Traditional Medicine day is celebrated on August 31 annually.
He appealed to Nigerian universities to incorporate modules of herbal medicine in their Health Sciences curricula.
The minister also unveiled the ministry’s report on curriculum development for the training of herbal medical practitioners and medical schools, and urged agencies and departments working on traditional medicine in the country to work together for the development of the sector, as he said the ultimate goal of government in the sector was to derive maximum economic benefits from traditional medicine like China, India and other countries.
Like Mamora, a former minister of health had mad made similar call which had not been heeded.
Chukwu’s call ignored
Former Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, had once said that the implementation of herbal medicine curriculum in medical schools will facilitate plans to integrate traditional medicine into the conventional healthcare system. But his call seems to have been ignored as nothing was done to support his statement. Nigeria would have produced sets of herbal medicine graduates to take care of health challenges which go beyond the orthodox medication.
“We seem to be moving in circles… However, I am surprised that no mention was made of the Herbal Medicine Curriculum, which was produced and adopted during my tenure as Honourable Minister of Health. The objective is to enable Herbal Medicine (HM) to be studied in the university just like conventional medicine. Thus students of HM will graduate as medical doctors at par with their conventional medical counterparts.
“The vision was born out of, first, my appreciation that the first duty of a doctor is to make a diagnosis. Yes, one may have inherited from one’s ancestors roots that can stop ‘fever’ but the ability to determine the cause of fever (which could be caused by many different diseases like malaria, typhoid fever, urinary tract infection, Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), meningitis, Lassa fever, hepatitis, etc) require training. And there is no single ‘cure all’ medicine.
“So possession of a medicine does not guarantee successful treatment of a disease. One cannot make a diagnosis unless one had been taught the basic medical sciences: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and pathology. Secondly, medical practice must be evidence based. Unfortunately, not all branches of TM presently lend themselves to available tools for the collection of evidence. Until such tools are available or developed, it is safe and pragmatic to concentrate on HM for which evidence is abundantly available. Many do not appreciate that TM does not automatically mean HM. HM is only but a branch of TM.
“Until prospective Herbal Medical Practitioners (HMP) undergo training to become physicians in their own right, it would be almost impossible to formally integrate them into the nation’s health care system,” said.
Chukwu, former Minister of Health in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, had taken steps to integrate herbal medicine into the curriculum of medical colleges.
The Federal Ministry of Health had under Chukwu’s leadership, raised a committee for the development of curriculum for the training of herbal medical practitioners in medical schools. Besides, the ministry constituted a committee on herbal products promotion and export.
But four years on, the committees and Chukwu’s plans have been swept under the carpet and nothing has been heard of the plans since Chukwu left office.
Herbal medicine and Nigerians’ psyche
The idea of teaching Herbal medicine as a degree programme shouldn’t come yet at this stage because one must undergo primary school, complete secondary school before proceeding to tertiary school. If we want herbal medicine in school curriculum it must be taught first in the basic level. This means it should normally take about six to 10 years before we can think of producing graduates in the course. If the minister of education wants herbal medicine taught at the tertiary level there will be a vacuum which will make nonsense of the programme.
Can a students who did not study elementary science in primary school, Mathematics Chemistry, Biology and Physics in secondary school proceed to university to read medicine? And even if we have traditional doctors who are magical in herbal medication do they have the certificate to qualify them to teach in universities, knowing that Nigeria is a certificate-dependent nation. Or is Nigeria going to import herbal medicine lecturers from China and India to teach the course? Also what is going to be the entry requirements for students who want to read herbal medicine at graduate level? Will the entry requirement be at par with their orthodox medicine counterparts?
Another contending issue is that Nigeria does not believe in creativity and inventions arising from their own soil. The case abound where the local scientists who claimed to have discovered vaccines for HIV have not been given ‘fair hearing’ in the public domain and by the powers that be.
In 2013, NAFDAC dissociated itself from the claim of an alleged HIV/AIDS cure developed by the Dean, School Of Medical Sciences, University Of Benin, Professor Isaiah Ibeh.
While addressing newsmen in Abuja, the then Director General of NAFDAC, Doctor Paul Orhii said, Professor Ibeh’s herbal drug had never been presented to the agency for vetting, adding that the ‘bogus claim’ by Professor Ibeh was capable of misleading the public especially those that have HIV/AIDS infection.
“We have started with disassociating ourselves from the so-called cure. We will decide the appropriate sanction. We have invited him for further investigation.
“If our laws don’t have appropriate punishment for such persons who don’t follow scientific protocols in making such pronouncement, we will review the law and ensure that such do not occur again.
“The agency wishes to state that this herbal drug which is claimed to have undergone a series of successful tests has never been presented to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control for evaluation of efficacy and safety,”Orhi said.
The traditional African Science
Dr Abalaka
In 2015 Jeremiah Abalaka, a surgeon and immunologist, said he had developed a vaccine for the treatment of Human Immune Virus (HIV).
Abalaka repeatedly said he would willingly work with various interested government agencies to ensure his discovery was put to good use.
Mr. Abalaka said categorically said his vaccine could cure or prevent HIV but not to cure AIDS but he was abused and ignored.
“The point must be made clear again and again that I have never claimed to have discovered cure or prevention for AIDS.
“I have only developed safe and effective vaccines for the prevention and treatment of HIV, the causative agent of AIDS.”
Because of his vaccine, the man was persecuted both by his compatriots and his invention rubbished by 16 years of litigations.
“I am prepared to move on after 16 years of legal hurdles.”
Dr Jacob Abdullahi
In 2007 Armed with a B.Sc in Medical Laboratory Science and a M.Sc in Immunology, Dr. Jacob Abdullahi, said, “HIV research has been done. We discovered the treatment for HIV/AID in 1998, and since then, over 50,000 cases have been treated with a success rate of over 80 per cent which far exceeds the 1 per cent the world is looking for. What this product needs is awareness that it is available in Nigeria and can be obtained irrespective of your country or continent.
“If Dr Abalaka could not defend his scientific findings and stopped along the line that was probably his decision. We in Winners lab have been able to defend our scientific findings for this treatment option anywhere in the world. As I speak to you, I am an immunologist, and I can tell you that this is possible, and there is no professor of medicine or researcher that can disprove our findings.
“…On July 15, 2000, the American government sent a-five-man delegate from Congressional Tax Force on HIV/AIDS, to meet me in Abuja. They were led by Hon. Jim Mcdermott, a US Congress man. When they came, I explained to them everything about our products and they asked lots of questions. That prompted our own House Committee on Health led by Hon. Ogbeide Willie from Edo state to conduct an open hearing on August 8, 2000, where 16 claimants appeared. There was a White Paper by the Ministry of Health, to further investigate my claims and those of Dr Abalaka, out of the 16 of us that appeared. About 200 million naira was released for a further investigation of our findings. But along the line, we did not know what happened to the money that neither I nor Dr Abalaka was further investigated to prove the authenticity of our claims. The money was supposed to be used for further clinical trials but those that represented the federal government did not show up, and consequently our products were not further investigated.”
Professor Maduike Ezeibe
Ezeibe, a professor of Veterinary Medicine and Clinical Virology at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, had said that he had discovered a new drug for the cure of HIV/AIDS.
The don said the drug, produced with “Aluminium Magnesium Silicate” was tested on 10 persons living with HIV. It has a clinical ability to “reach all cells” and making HIV “a conquered organism”, he said.
But Nigeria treated his discovery as one coming from a clown and ignored him.
Professor Isaiah Ibeh
In 2013, NAFDAC dissociated itself from the claim of an alleged HIV/AIDS cure developed by the Dean, School Of Medical Sciences, University Of Benin, Professor Isaiah Ibeh.
While addressing newsmen in Abuja, the then Director General of NAFDAC, Doctor Paul Orhii said, Professor Ibeh’s herbal drug had never been presented to the agency for vetting, adding that the ‘bogus claim’ by Professor Ibeh was capable of misleading the public especially those that have HIV/AIDS infection.
“We have started with disassociating ourselves from the so-called cure. We will decide the appropriate sanction. We have invited him for further investigation.
“If our laws don’t have appropriate punishment for such persons who don’t follow scientific protocols in making such pronouncement, we will review the law and ensure that such do not occur again.
“The agency wishes to state that this herbal drug which is claimed to have undergone a series of successful tests has never been presented to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control for evaluation of efficacy and safety,”Orhi said.
Dr Sugar
Recently another Nigerian, Dr Sugar, the chairman of traditional medical practitioners Association of Nasarawa local government area of Nasarawa state told Blueprint that herbs have the apotency to cure modern ailments such as HIV/Aids, diabetes, hepatitis, cancer and other life threatening diseases which the modern hospital has no power to heal.
Dr sugar said he inherited the practice from his grandfather though he said a person could be apprenticed to a native doctor to learn it, but not all could be subjected to proof.
“You know as the names suggest, there are different ways of administering drugs to patients. Traditional or orthodox medicines each works better in its own area of specialty. There are some patients taken to us who need drip or blood transfusion, these ones are not within the traditional medication. In such circumstances, we refer them to modern hospital. After that we can administer our own drugs.
“If you go to modern hospital find that they don’t help come to the traditional clinic or herbalists. We have cured hepatitis, diabetes, HIV AIDS, cancer and other terminal diseases.”
