Caught in the crossfire of a battle between the Osun State government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) opposition, native doctors must be wondering about a cross they have to bear. It is a heavy cross indeed.
The weight of the cross was highlighted by the Osun State chapter of the PDP which alleged that Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was planning to sack striking doctors in the state and replace them with traditional healers. The party’s spokesman, Diran Odeyemi, said in a statement on February 21: “Now that all the ill-conceived measures to cow the doctors have failed and the Plan “B” of replacing them with new intakes had been frustrated by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Governor Aregbesola, wants to experiment with the use of native doctors.”
The reaction of the Osun State government didn’t reduce the weight of the cross. A statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, said: “Weird is the logic of PDP and nothing can change the illogical reasoning of people whose illogical ways brought Nigeria to her present predicament. Because of those who abandoned their jobs as a result of seemingly irreconcilable terms, the government has left no one in doubt on its efforts to deploy doctors from the state Ministry of Health, doctors in the Security agencies in the state to complement the consultants and local governments’ doctors who are working.” The statement added: “The native doctors’ idea is in the imagination of those who are touting it and honestly such thoughts can only come from PDP and no other party on earth. It amounts to a waste of time not to ignore PDP.”
This unflattering exchange should fuel the efforts of the National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP) to lessen the burden native doctors carry. Interestingly, NANTMP President Prof. Omon Oleabhiele reportedly called for a traditional medicine bill at an event organised by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to mark the 2015 African Traditional Medicine (ATM) Day in Lagos State. Oleabhiele urged the National Assembly to sponsor a bill in support of traditional medicine and its practitioners in the country. He also argued for the creation of a Traditional Medicine Board in all the states of the federation for the regulation of traditional medicine.
It is an indication of the importance of traditional medicine and traditional healers that since 2003 African Traditional Medicine Day has been observed every year on August 31. Ministers of Health adopted the relevant resolution at the 50th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The special day is meant to promote the critical role of traditional medicine in Africa.
African traditional medicine has been described as “the African indigenous system of health care”. It has been argued that “In fact, the frequently quoted statement that 85 per cent of the people in Africa use traditional medicine is an understatement because this figure is much higher and continues to increase”.
A picture by M. Kofi-Tsekpo illustrates the thinking about African traditional medicine at decision-making levels since the 1970s: “At the Alma Atta Declaration of 1978, it was resolved that traditional medicine had to be incorporated in the health care systems in developing countries if the objective of the “Health for All by the Year 2000” was to be realised. Notwithstanding this strategy, African countries did not come near the objective at the end of the 20th century. Therefore, the Member States of the WHO African Region adopted a resolution in 2000 called “Promoting the role of traditional medicine in health care systems: A strategy for the African Region”. This strategy provides for the institutionalisation of traditional medicine in health care systems of the member states of the WHO African Region. Furthermore, the OAU (African Union) Heads of State and Government declared the period 2000 – 2010 as the African Decade on African Traditional Medicine. In addition, the Director General of the World Health Organization also declared 31st August every year as African Traditional Medicine Day. All these declarations signify the importance and the approval by Governments and international institutions of the need to institutionalise African traditional medicine in health care. Therefore the mechanisms for institutionalisation have to be developed to make these resolutions a reality.”
Clearly, the unfavourable perception of Nigerian traditional medicine reflected in the comments of the combatants in Osun State has to do with its infirm institutionalisation in Nigeria’s health care system. The clash shows that the establishment of NANTMP in December 2006 by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health, although well-intentioned, has not made traditional medicine more acceptable at formal levels of governance in the country. At the time, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the President and Prof. Eyitayo Lambo was the Minister of Health.
A NANTMP communiqué is worth quoting: “We thank the Governors of the states that have formed the Traditional Medicine Board in their states such as Edo, Lagos, Anambra and Bauchi states. We urge other Governors whose Commissioners of Health and State House of Assembly have not created the Traditional Medicine Board to kindly request them to do so with dispatch.”
The body added: ”We also pray the Governors to ensure that genuine and registered members of the NANTMP be made Chairmen and members of the Board to protect the interest of the practice, unlike the present practice in some states whereby Medical Doctors and Pharmacists are made Chairmen of Traditional Medicine Board. What does a Medical Doctor who doesn’t want traditional medicine to be given to his patient want to do in a Board that is set up for regulation and promotion of Traditional Medicine Practice?”
If native doctors are formally integrated into the country’s health care system, there won’t be this kind of politically motivated attempt by the Osun State PDP to ridicule their role as healers. Also, there won’t be this kind of defensive effort by the state government, which had the effect of ridiculing traditional medicine practitioners.
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