Minister of State for Health, Sen. Adeleke Mamora, has released his first policy on education. I will initiate a bill to seeks to empower Nigerian universities to offer Bachelor of Science degree in herbal medicine.
”Offering degree in herbal medicine will better healthcare delivery,” he said.
Mamora said he supports the idea of traditional medicine during the 2019 African Traditional Medicine Day in Abuja.
African Traditional Medicine day is celebrated on Aug. 31 annually. The theme for the 2019 event was “Integrating Traditional Medicine in Health Sciences Curricular in the African Region.”
Varsities tasked on Incorporating modules of herbal medicine in curricular
Mamora tasked universities to incorporate modules of herbal medicine in their curricular of health sciences. According to him, ”Herbal medicine could be achieved with support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.”
The minister also unveiled the ministry’s report on curriculum development for the training of herbal medical practitioners and medical schools.
He urged agencies and departments working on traditional medicine in the country to work together for the development of the sector.
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He said the ultimate goal of government in the sector was to derive maximum economic benefits from traditional medicine. Mamora cited countries like China and India as typical examples.
The minister therefore urged the Federal and state governments to establish traditional medicine departments for healthcare development.
He suggested that such department should be complementary to medicine department to provide opportunities for rapid development. And integration of traditional medicine into the healthcare delivery system.
Minister seeks traditional medical bill for approval
He said the ministry was working on a traditional and complementary medicine bill to be submitted to the executive for approval. And forwarding to the National Assembly for passage.
Reacting, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rashid aligned with the minister suggestion on health. He said the commission would collaborate with the ministry to improve knowledge of undergraduates of health sciences on traditional medicine.
Mr Loveth Iwuzu, representative of Nigeria Traditional Medicine Practitioners, appealed to government for supports. He said government should initiate a policy to guard the intellectual property rights of the traditional medicine practitioners.
In his remark, Dr Clement Peter, Officer in Charge of World Health Organisation, Nigeria lauded theMinister of Health’s initiative [n health.
He restated the WHO commitment to support the federal government to integrate traditional medicine into national health system.
