THE prospects for a comprehensive national health scheme became brighter recently with the kick-off next session of a diploma programme in herbal medicine by the University of Lagos and the recent presentation of a bill to establish the Traditional Medical Council of Nigeria.
Coming shortly after the Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo announced the presentation of the bill seeking the establishment of the Traditional Medical Council of Nigeria, the Unilag initiative is both timely and commendable.
The diploma programme by the Department of Botany and Microbiology will educate traditional medicine practitioners, and those seeking the knowledge, on such areas as nomenclature (naming), taxonomy (identification), and extraction of active ingredients from medicinal plants.
Dr. Toyin Ogundipe who heads the project echoed the views of millions of Nigerians when he rationalised the Unilag diploma initiative by pointing out "the ignorance of most traditional medicine practitioners on identification, naming and preparation of herbal products."
We could not agree more. For too long traditional medicine practice has been invaded by charlatans, outright ignorant quacks, and sundry characters whose practice was partly ritualistic and partly herbalistic.
In most cases, the herbal cures were unhygienically processed, packaged and prescribed. Standards were non-existent. And though herbal medicines are non-toxic, dosages were not always specified.
The result has been such that though traditional medicine has the potential to offer quality non-surgical cures for the citizens' ailments, many shunned that alternative.
But given that, by World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, 60-80 per cent of the third world rely on alternative or traditional medicine for their healthcare needs, the Unilag initiative will go a long way to complementing the moves by government to establish a Traditional Medical
Council that would more effectively monitor training, registration and accreditate practitioners in the country.
Beyond that, the programme in herbal medicine would have spill-over effect beyond the codification of medicine for use but also for export that would involve not just botanists but agriculturists, agronomists and economists in the private sector.
Given that even in orthodox medical practice most of the drugs in use are synthesised from plants, and trees, the private sector should be interested in the Unilag example as a source of business interest.
Though there have been past individual efforts to train herbalists in the fine points of their trade, the Unilag example offers a model that other institutions of higher learning and state governments should borrow not only to train native doctors but also create jobs in the areas of the cultivation, processing and sale of herbal products.
In our income-shrinking times, the better and more scientific use of our natural resources, as the Unilag example represents, will not only keep Nigerian citizens healthier, it will make them wealthier also.
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