IN pursuance of its strategic mandate of research and development in traditional medicine, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, through the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), has constituted a technical committee to, among others, research, collate, document and conserve local medicinal herbs, plants, other products and technologies used in traditional medicine practice in the country.

Addressing a news conference in Lagos at the weekend, the chairman of the technical committee, Professor Habbah Coker, said the committee was predicated on the ground that Nigerian scientists had conducted several researches on the medicinal potentials of many Nigerian herbs that could be used in the treatment and cure of human and livestock ailments that were scattered in journals and pamphlets all over the country needed to be documented for references purpose and commercialisation for wealth and job creation.

“Traditional medicine is as old as mankind itself and had sustained our people over the generations. Over 80 per cent of the population uses traditional medicine. It is a source of job and wealth creation. It is gaining prominence worldwide with trade volume of over $62 billion,” he said.

Coker who is also the Dean, faculty of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, stressed that Nigeria was a large country with vast bioresources and biodiversity that could sustained the traditional medical needs of the people, noting that traditional medicine was gaining prominence all over the world and perhaps holding the future solutions for many of the world’s medical problems.

He maintained that in seeking local and international collaboration in all its project, the agency was facilitating the formation of a Nigerian chapter of the International Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicine (PROMETRA).

He said the committees and the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency were poised to ensure that Nigeria adequately responded to the challenges of developing traditional medicine in the decade (2001-2010) in Africa as designed by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU) summit of the Heads of State in Abuja in April 2001.

Tuesday, July 6, 2004