Harmonize Traditional Medicine Before Our Dying Moments

By

Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa

faroukomartins@aim.com

 

 

There are lessons to learn from Nigerian movies because for the first time some of the fetish practices were brought into open. Once it is transparent, it can be observed for monitoring and regulation. Before these movies, many people heard about shrines with all sorts of exaggerations, myths and innuendoes. Each time we hear the police discover a shrine anywhere in Nigeria, we are surprised at the caliber of people who patronize them.

 

I must confess that I am one of those skeptics who do not want anything around me until it is proven in the laboratory as genuine. The only exception is poison. Many people in their desperate need for a cure of exotic diseases have met their untimely deaths in the hands of unscrupulous mythical traditional doctors. Others have sought their help in time of difficulties, need or want of that precious baby, wealth or fame.

 

However, in these desperate moments, after all known proven treatments have failed, we have tried many unorthodox treatments that we dare not be caught with while sane and in good health. Apart from rich Africans who would go out of the country for headache, medical check ups or serious problems; Americans and Europeans have sought treatment in every country where they can find hope. So they have gone to Mexico, India, Africa and China for experimental or any form of treatment that sooths their ailing souls.

 

Unfortunately quackery is not limited to traditional heelers. An Abuja medical doctor did boast of cure for AIDS. We also witnessed some crooked researches in USA and Japan in the race to be recognized and respected among medical scientists. So is the problem of fake drugs from India, China and other countries that have been taken to task by Dr. Dora Akunyili. Chalk, powder and flour in capsules passed as HIV and malaria drugs.

 

It is for these dangerous and unproven treatments that Dr. Jimoh Salaudeen of the Nigeria Medical Association, Asaba branch wants to enforce the ban on hawking of traditional drugs on radio and television. They used to limit it to side streets and buses. Many cases are brought to the hospitals at the tail end of their lives and the poor nurses who are the ones usually accessible are blamed and sometimes even assaulted by family members because of the death of their loved ones.

 

Dr. Lambo who was the head of World Health Organization at one time was also known as Babalawo in harmony with traditional medicine. We may note the training between him and Professor Abimbola, also a babalawo who was the Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University. Today, acupuncture from the Chinese traditional medicine has entered mainstream medicine. Actually both India and China are known for the barefoot doctors in order to reach the number of people who need primary health care in villages.

 

Nigeria has not tailed behind these countries in trying to assimilate traditional medicine men into primary health care. Indeed, about 25 years ago as I have written before, efforts were made to recruit children of the medicine men as health officers, nursing assistants, nursing aides and community counselors. If this type of effort was made 25 years ago, you would think that Nigeria would be a major power in Primary Health Care today. But progress needs a constant sustained effort to cope with increase in population.     

 

For good reasons, the children of traditional medicine men were targeted for training then as the amount of people who were patronizing health centers established by government were low compared to the houses of established traditional doctors in their communities. In order to gain their confidence and lure people away into primary care centers in the same villages, their own children were trained.

 

Moreover, some of the traditional medicine men who agreed to attend primary health care training were awarded government certificates which was suppose to be a feather in their caps. No matter what was done some abuses were not eliminated and some health centers still could not compete. There were also some competitions between registered nurses and health officers in terms of who was the boss. While the doctors and the nurses could move out of the villages or even out of the Country, health officers were Country specific and more reliable in the villages. So they were a sure bet for local medical training.

 

During a field visit to a pharmaceutical company while in school, we were all amazed that it started from a miracle drug discovered under petesi building by a medical scientist who had lost his job. Usually every drug is labeled a miracle drug until time makes it so.

 

The literature is full of African traditional drugs that became miracle drugs in the western world like antibiotics and aspirin. Yet, there are more of them still being hawked on our streets. We know some of them work because we have used them ourselves and for our children against some of those skin infections, dermatitis; and for thrush, a fungal infection of the mouth. As soon as children get some of these infections, mothers tell one another what their grandmothers used. Many of these drugs are highly concentrated but without specific dosage for use resulting in kidney and liver damage when ingested.

 

If Nigeria had built on some of these successes in primary health care then, had made an inventory of some of the local drugs instead of depending entirely on free or subsidized drugs from abroad, some form of progress could have been made. No amount of ban will eliminate all these traditional drugs. They will only go underground mainly because some of them worked for the population they serve. 

 

Many of our pharmacists are not in the profession. They have taken to small or big contracts like other professions and are making better living at that. While I do not expect the Government to subsidize too many of us, it can at least provide enabling environment for the take off of these drug industries dislocated in many pieces all over the Country. We can demystify many of these drugs in the market by putting our pharmacist to work on them in the open, let them make the profit instead of quacks and collect taxes.

 

Our children must go to school and also dream of being an entrepreneur in their fields. There are many drugs in Africa just waiting for young men and women to be purified, translated into mainstream and patented for worldly distribution. We are not sure if those on our streets are made by traditional medicine men or our pharmacists who do not want to reveal family formula secretes passed down through the generations. If we do not take the bull by the horn, someone will come to Africa, as always, to discover the next miracle drug.