Herbal Practitioners to Gani Adams: Facilitate Inclusion of Trado Clinic in Govt Hospitals

Jonathan Eze

Herbal practitioners in the country have urged the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, Mr. Gani Adams, to facilitate the establishment of the department of traditional medicine and healing in government hospitals and schools.

This was disclosed when they visited him in his Lagos home recently under the aegis of Phytotherapists Association of Nigeria, with Alhaji Fatai Yusuf Oko Oloyun as the President, and Alhaji Kolaq, national leader.

Oko Oloyun implored Adams to use his office as a foremost promoter of the Yoruba tradition to ensure that department of Yoruba traditional medicine and herbal healing are created in government hospitals and institutions of higher learning.

Making a case for his plea, the herbal practitioners’ president said Botany and pharmaceutical students are usually sent to his clinic for Industrial Attachment and believes the partnership arrangement should be taken a step further with the establishment of a department for herbal and traditional cure in government hospitals.

They added that there are instances where difficulties in childbirth for instance would be addressed with mere incantation which can only be useful if there is no problem of proximity.

They claimed that there have been life threatening medical situations that defied western medicine treatment but got cured through traditional cure.

Responding, Adams who was also made their patron, thanked them for their support. He urged the group to maintain a high standard of dispensing their medication, adding that because there have been results, giving their trade, the kind of government recognition it deserves should not be a problem.

He said in Cuba and Brazil, both traditional and western medical practice are accorded equal recognition.
He lamented the rate at which people distance themselves from tradition and herbs whereas they use oil and wear cloth among others things made from plant.