Due to public pressure, the federal government has recently bowed to demands that a local remedy should be found to combat the COVID-19 pandemic which has brought deaths and agony to the human race.
IT directed the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to carry out necessary procedures for the assessment of a plant based cough, mixture as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
AT the last count, no fewer than 2.5 million people have been infected while 350,000 people killed by the virus across the world.
SINCE the outbreak of the virus, many countries and multi national, companies are locked in a racy competition to find a solution to the global health crisis which the pandemic has thrown the world into.
EXPECTEDLY, many Nigerian Scientists, pharmacists, Bio-chemists and herbal vendors have joined the frenzy all in a bid to rid the human race of the agonies brought by COVID-19.
TO date, 89 vaccines have been propagated as potential magic drugs by vendors to heal the virus but none from Africa or Nigeria is among them.
WHILE the black race is still leaking its wound over the inability to join the league of vaccine developers, words came from the tiny country of Madagascar that a local remedy has been found bringing fame and dignity to the country and her nationals .
WE join well wishers and patriots to congratulate the African country for her resilience and courage in finding a local alternative to a pandemic that has held the world hostage .
THE madagascar break through is a big challenge to African countries that it cannot afford to wait endlessly for aids from developed countries which are also overwhelmed by the huge fatalities so far recorded from the virulence of the pandemic.
WITH a soaring population of 200 million people, it is obvious that Nigeria cannot solely depend on orthodox medicine or drugs alone for her health needs.
ALTHOUGH there are no enough data on the efficacy of herbal drugs against a virulent pandemic like COVID-19, the utilitarian value of herbal drugs as dietary supplements from natural resource has long been recognised and utilised by many countries for decades as potent drugs for curative purposes .
IT is against this back ground that we whole-heartedly endorse the federal government’s nod to NAFDAC to give the necessary support to local researchers to find local remedies to COVID-19 and other health challenges facing our people.
LOCAL manufacturers must exploit the window of economic help being offered by the CBN to them to procure appropriate equipment to produce local herbs as countries like China and India where Nigeria traditionally imports her drugs are likely to restrict importation of drugs as they are also feeling the brunt of the lockdown thereby raising prices.
THIS is why Nigerians who are gifted and endowned in traditional herbal medicines and plants must be encouraged the work with researchers to fill the void which importation of orthodox drugs from these foreign sources will cause the country.
NIGERIA must be cautious and weary of the suspicious advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) which had consistently campaigned against the promotion of local herbs while maintaining its support for only scientifically proven drugs.
THE time is now to find alternative herbal remedy not only to COVID-19 but all health problems and at reasonable cost.
HAPPILY Nigeria has the men, women, material and the talent to achieve this objective if only the leadership is mentally prepared to lead this emacipation. Appropriate government officials must ensure that the palliatives being proposed to small scale industries and pharmaceutical companies get to the right people timeously.