Doctors without degrees: More Nigerians rely on
alternative medicine for health solutions

Customers patronising a herbal
practitioner. Photos: Peter Emiola In a bid to finding lasting solutions to their ailments, many are now seeking alternative solutions to orthodox medicine as reported by Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare.

When one tunes in to his or her favourite television or radio station nowadays, what one is likely to see or hear is an advertisement of a traditional medicine or a programme sponsored by a traditional healer. The airwaves are agog with many of such; whatever the theme of the programme, traditional healers who refer to themselves as doctors are ready to stake their money.

Before, people had the consciousness of the advertisement of herbal medicine at strategic locations such as roadsides, markets, moving vehicles and motor parks in major towns and cities where the attention of passers-by could easily be attracted. A major channel of reaching prospective consumers at such settings was the suspension of blaring loudspeakers on the top of stationary vehicles. Although this advertising channel still exists, a new trend in the advertisement of herbal medicine in modern times is the aggressive marketing drive in both the print and electronic media.

This innovation has a lot of advantages for the traditional doctors. It revives the interest of people in herbal healing and its effect in modern-day health care delivery. Also, the choice of the mass media channels of radio, television and news magazines as opposed to the traditional channel ensures that it reaches a wider audience.

Daily, a new herbal doctor emerges and is made popular by his sponsorship of media programmes and advertisements. They make sure presenters hype their herbal outfits and what they can do. Local traditional medical practitioners have made many dramatic claims of successes that could not be verified in the media, yet, many people in Nigeria including policy makers believe their claims. A lot of interests and attention have been drawn to the curative claims and ethics of traditional medicine practitioners in Nigeria by many headline news in the print and electronic media.

In many cases, the use of the titles is closely linked to the advertisers’ pride and belief in their pedigree as herbal doctors. The advertisers usually claim to have inherited the art from their forefathers whose healing artistry is always described as unrivalled in their days. This appeals to the audience a lot as anything that is inherited is generally believed to be more enduring than that which is learnt.

Herbal drugs and mode of treatment are handed down by the tradition of a community. It is the knowledge and practices used in diagnosis, prevention and elimination of physical, mental or social imbalance and it relies mainly on practical experience and observations handed down from generation to another. In a large country like Nigeria with many ethnic groups rich in herbal medicine, there are many respected traditional healers to take care of the teeming population.

Health is a very precious commodity. A common saying states that, ‘health is wealth.’ It is therefore the foundation of all happiness. Herbal medicine has developed in various communities in Nigeria in response to the health needs of the people. Many communities have since creation, developed various traditional systems of using locally-available resources for the alleviation of their health crises. The development of herbal medicine in Nigeria has led to various categories of healers, healing methods, strategies and medicines or remedies now known and packaged like orthodox drugs.

Aside the huge sum of money invested on adverts by the traditional doctors, another reason for the popularity of herbal treatment is the fact that most Nigerians, especially those in the rural communities do not have access to orthodox medicine or cannot afford the treatment. Where such access exists, the rising cost of imported medications and other commodities used for treatment have posed a big problem. It is estimated that about 75 per cent of the populace still prefer to solve their health problems consulting traditional healers. The fact that many rural communities have great faith in traditional medicine, particularly the inexplicable aspects which orthodox medicine seems to neglect is a bonus.

A herbal practitioner mixing
a concoction. Due to the influx of traditional doctors’ adverts on the airwaves, some states of the federation have taken the development as one which if not monitored can lead to serious crisis; they established traditional medicine boards to monitor the activities of the herbal ‘doctors’ in order to prevent false claims. Yet, the so-called illiterate and semi-literate self-acclaimed ‘doctors’ could not be stopped; they still struggle to out-do one another with various claims of their unrivalled healing powers. The trail-blazing or landmark efforts that the advertisers claim to have made in their own rights in the bid to chart a new and noble course for herbal therapy are usually summarised in slogans and catchphrases that are attached to their herbal homes; Yemkem International: The Pathfinder and Leading Name in Curative Medicine; Kolaq: The pacesetter and Ayodele: The Pioneer in African Naturopathic Medicine, just to mention a few.

An interesting aspect of these developing herbal clinics is the fact that a single drug works for almost all ailments while the doctors themselves are all specialists in all diseases. Monisola Osho, an accountant told Midweek Tribune that she is usually amazed at the claims of the herbal doctors. “I listen to radio especially the FM stations a lot. This ensures that I hear a lot about herbal medicine and healers because almost all the programmes I love are sponsored by these self-made doctors.

“I’m used to it but I still wonder why they now struggle to scream about themselves and why they all seem to cure the same diseases. For example, all of them specialize in the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),” she said.

Also speaking, Omo Benson asked rhetorically: “Why do all their diseases have the same symptoms? There is no variation at all in what they all say. The symptom for staphylococcus is the same as that of bacterial disease and hypertension. I believe these people are just misleading Nigerians and will send many to their graves early if their claims are not monitored especially since people believe whatever they hear or read in the media.”

Also interesting is the fact that they claim that their drugs have been certified by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC. Many believe that this claim needs to be critically examined since most of them, even those that seem not to know the difference between headache and muscular pain claim that their products have been certified by NAFDAC and, therefore, carry NAFDAC registration number – a ticket of excellence in Nigeria’s food, drinks and drugs industry today. Most of them now attempt to legitimise their products by attaching the ritualistic NAFDAC number as the seal of marketability and clean bill of health for consumption to them. The fact that NAFDAC has a directory of certified products does not stop desperate manufacturers faking the NAFDAC number to deceive consumers who do not know the difference.

Traditional healers also give attention- catching names to their drugs which are now packaged like orthodox drugs to enable them stay in the market: YK Formular; Energy 2000; Hero; Vision 2010; M&T capsule; Wiper. Also, they claim to conduct tests on patients free of charge as an incentive for patronage.

Manufacturers of herbal products in Nigeria give an amazingly short time frame within which their clients would be healed of various diseases and give an attendant tone of finality even when the condition of the patient has not been determined, they use great exaggerative powers in their advertisements too. It is a fact that herbal medical healers do not present their products as those that can control, manage or suppress diseases; it is permanent cure at all times while they also do not tell their clients the side effects of their products. Rather, they embark on the spirited effort at challenging the efficacy of western medicine, thereby creating discontentment with the conventional products that the audience already knows.

Modern-day technology, innovations and education have made a lot of impact on the herbalists and their practice in Nigeria. The general populace now wants to compare the herbalist with the orthodox medicine practitioner. Herbalists are daily encouraged to improve on the quality of their output and practice and to identify correctly the medicinal plants and other ingredients used in the preparation of herbal products in the bid to ensure safe medicines.

The fact that traditional doctors may not have the powers they claim to possess or that no one can prove whether their healings are true has taken the back burner with the concern people now have about the manner in which they go on air without censorship and the rate at which they offer incentives to prospective clients in the way of bonus. That traditional ‘doctors’ have taken their trade a step ahead by competing with orthodox medicine is a recent fad but should they be allowed to control the air waves?