The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi
Chukwu, recently disclosed the Federal Government’s plan to introduce herbal medicine studies in the Nigerian universities curriculum.
By this, herbal medicine often regarded as esoteric science, studied and practiced by a select few, will be studied by all interested, qualified students in Nigeria.
How do Nigerians react to this development? Our Chief Correspondent, Calista Ezeaku and Photographer, Dele Obinna sought the views of some Port Harcourt residents on that.
Dr Ibitrokoemi Kurubo-Chairman Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Rivers State Chapter
You see, we need to understand the issue in the right context.
We must understand that even outside this country, herbs have been known to have medicinal properties and what the minister is trying to say is that there is now the need to properly regulate herbal medicine so that those that are interested in extraction of herbs for medicinal uses will be properly trained on how to use them. That is different from when you have herbalists that are like magicians, producing things that can cure every thing, no. What they are saying now is that we do have herbs that have medicinal properties and that there will be a system of extracting them to know those qualities and all that. That’s a good way to go. It is not a bad idea. If you are saying that you want to introduce scientific  approach to the use of herbs, I am for that.

Mr Gentle Oge- a navigator
I think it is a right move. For sometime now, herbal medicine has played vital role in the health sector in terms of maintaining good health of the citizenry.
Herbal medicine makes use of natural herbs from the bush which is very healthy. People who are narrow minded look at herbal medicine as being dirty and diabolical, but people who have  travelled far and wide know that herbal medicine is a key to the treatment of diseases like stroke and others.

Hon. Brilliant Amadi-Politician/Businessman
I think it’s a step in the right direction because herbal medicine for now has come to stay in Nigerian and a lot of people get themselves treated through herbal medicine. So I think it will be proper for government to assist in making it a known treatment rather than the way it has been  before now where a lot of quacks are into it. But if it is studied in school I think more and more professionals will come into it and professionalism will be introduced. Rather than us seeing the quacks we are seeing now, we will  begin to see professionals.
I know very well that all medicines come from herbs and roots but then the way they do it is a bit worrisome. You know everybody is looking for money, so a lot of fake herbal doctors are using this means to make money for themselves, But we are saying if it is introduced in schools and people study it professionally, more persons will come into the field as professionals and then medicines from herbs will be gotten and will be used to treat people professionally and not what we see today.
For instance one person will come on television and say we have one medicine that  cures a lot of sicknesses. How true is that? What are the scientific proof to show that these claims are true?
But if it is introduced in our Nigerian universities curriculum and people are studing it, for God’s sake, there will be scientific proofs to this effect. And when you are introducing a drug that is scientifically proven, people, the society will feel confident taking your drugs, knowing too well that it cures malaria, stroke or as the case may be rather than what we see today. And I believe that is the reason why a lot of people do not come out to say they are patronizing herbal medicine dealers because there is no proof. So I feel it is a step in the right direction. Government should go ahead and introduce it in universities, and let professionatism be introduced in the field. A lot of herbal medicine practioners today carry out diagnosis on patients when they are not trained to do so and studing herbal medicine in universities will equip them to do so.
But I will advise that government should not rush in introducing this course in the universities. They should be gradual about it. They should take one or two institutions as a case study and see how fast it will grow and how good it is before they can bring in other universities.

Mrs Chinyere Nwachukwu-Business woman
It is a very good initiative. Orthodox medicine is no longer reliable. There are a lot of fake medicine in the market. The people that deal on these drugs go to China and produce nonsense for us. These herbal doctors go to the bush, get the herbs and roots, prepare their medicine and when you take it, you will see it working while the one we buy from all these foriengners are nonsense. When you take it there is no improvement. You continue to take drugs without getting better but when you take  herbal medicine, you see changes in your body. And don’t forget that herbal medicine has been in practice since the olden days even before the introduction of orthodox medine. People relied on the herbal doctors for diagnosis and treatment of their illnesses. And if we can properly train people to study herbal medicine, it will be better for us. That will take Nigerian herbal medicine to a higher level.

Mrs Ngozi Victor-Ogolo – Herbal medicine practioner/Biochemist.
It’s a good idea. When you see what is happening in the world this time around, most times, the orthodox drugs are not really  helping. Most times you see so many patients come into our clinic who have been disappointed using orthodox drugs. Some will tell you that they’ve been taking orthodox drugs for a very long time but to no avail but after taking  herbal medicine, you’ll find out that they get what they want.
So I think introducing herbal medine in universities will really help us to know more. It will help us to have more doctors. Some of us that are currently in the practice still read books on herbal medicine. It does not really follow that one must learn herbal medicine from his grandfather who was a herbalist and all the rest. If you want to devote your mind to learning it, you can.
But a way to help in realizing government’s dream is to liaise with the main herbal practitionals, those that know the field well and have been into the practice for a long time.
Government should co-opt them in teaching some courses because you see, herbal medicine is good. I love it. It has really helped me and my family. And herbal medicine in Nigeria today has really developed. Contrary to some people’s believe that herbal medicine is fetish and being practiced by uneducated people, there is nothing fetish about it and as you can see most of us in this clinic (Emione Clinic) are graduates. We have our own factory, we produce the medicine under high hygeinic condition and all that. What is required is just getting the right roots and herbs and knowing what to do.
So I think introducing herbal medicine in our universities will help our health sector to grow.
It will help our people greatly in future.

Dr Nnanna Victor Onyekwere, Director, Public Health, Rivers State Ministry of Health.
The herbal practice or traditional practice as we know it here is something somebody got from his grandfather, his grandfather got it from his great grandfather and so on. It is a family thing and everybody keeps it a secret. And that has been the problem. Let the traditional medicine practitioners tell us what they are doing, let other people try it and document it so that it becomes approved for use by all but they say, “no it’s my remedy.”
So what the minister now said is like, rather than allowing us practice in this crude way of tradition hidden and shrouded with some secrecy and some kind of spirituality, let us formally study what is with us and see how they could be useful.
If you remember those days, leaves like dogonyaro were used for malaria. You ’ll find that the chewing stick we chew contains some chemicals that clean the teeth. Traditionally before now, we have always used even charcoal, ash to clean our teeth. So what they are saying now is, let us now study these herbs that we have to know their medical efficacy. Once that is known it becomes useful for pharmaceutical companies to see how they will use those herbs in treatment.
That’s the essence of it. Let’s study how useful all these herbs, leaves and plants are for medical treatment, Once that is confirmed, it means that pharmacy shops will start using them to produce drugs on larger scale. It means  that we can now start cultivating them and using them for treatment.
So it is not as if it is encouraging traditional practice, remember that even in orthodox practice, most of the drugs come from herbs. It’s first of all discovered from herbs, then they try produce it artificially. But the original ones are almost, always from herbs. So we are now looking inward to study the herbs we have with us to see what we can use them for medicinally, not necessarily in the usual traditional way. You know that in any plant, there are more than  one or two other drugs, in using it you extract the one that is useful and remove the other ones unlike when you put dogonyaro or back of tree into Kai Kai, it extracts every thing both useful and non-useful and even harmful ones. But now we will extract the useful ones, remove the harmful ones. It will almost look like a pharmaceutical study.
It will look like a school of pharmacy where rather than looking at theory, you’ll be concentrating on trees, plants and schrubs that exist locally and see what they can be used for.