The Minister of health for State, Adeleke Mamora, has called on Nigerian Universities to introduce Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Degree programme in herbal medicine and incorporate modules on Herbal Medicine in the curricula of Health Sciences Students.
The minister also called on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to support the introduction of herbal medicine as a degree programme. He said the step is necessary for the gradual integration of traditional herbal medicine into the mainstream health system of Nigeria.
Mamora, who made this call at a press briefing on Friday to commemorate the 2019 African Traditional Medicine (ATM) Day with the theme “Integration of Traditional Medicine in the Curricular of Health Sciences Students in Universities in the African Region”, said the theme is a wakeup call to health care professionals to embrace traditional medicine and improve on it for the benefit of Nigerians.
“Time has come to demystify traditional medicine in Nigeria by using science to develop it for health, economic and national development goal,” he said.
The Minister explained that the development of traditional medicine in the country has economic benefits as it will provide jobs in the area of conservation, cultivation, and harvesting of medicinal plants.
“Other benefits include manufacturing, distribution and marketing of medicinal products,” he added.
He disclosed that the Buhari administration was willing to support researchers and manufacturers to formulate and commercialize indigenous medicinal products for the benefit of Nigerian citizens in particular and humanity in general.
Momora, however, decried quackery in the herbal medicine practice and assured that the ministry is working to achieve standardization of the practice and products of traditional medicine in the shortest time possible.
Momora further explained that as part of efforts to develop herbal medicine practice in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Health is currently reviewing the Nigeria Herbal Pharmacopoeia 2008 in order to incorporate more indigenous medicinal plants
He added that the Ministry is also working assiduously to ensure submission of the Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Bill to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval and eventual transmission to the National Assembly for processing into a law.
He further called on all the States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to establish a department of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines. He noted that there are several other corporate and private establishments that are involved in the development of traditional medicine and stressed the need for harmonization of activities so as to develop the sector faster and avoid duplication of efforts.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, also speaking noted that herbal medicine had experienced tremendous progress in the African Region in the last 20 years.
Moeti, who was represented by the WHO country director, Clement Peter, said the majority of the population in the African Region use traditional medicine for health care needs. He said its uses range from 70 percent in Benin and Ghana to 90 percent in Burundi and Ethiopia.
The WHO regional director also commended institutions in Africa already offering traditional medicine courses to medicine and pharmacy students. He said the WHO has developed field-tested traditional medicine training tools with pharmacy and medical students in fourteen-member states which the West African Health Organization has adopted for Universities in the sub-region.
A traditional herbal practitioner, Balosibina Solomon, on his part, called on the federal government to support the growth of herbal products especially the researched ones. He said that the effectiveness of herbal medicine cannot be equalled to orthodox medicine.
Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja
