Health
Nigerians Cry Out Over Quackery In Health Sector
………. It’s A Major Cause Of Disabilities, PWDs Lament
Federal and state governments and regulatory agencies have been tasked to adopt more stringent measures to curb medical quackery bedevilling Nigeria’s health sector.
The President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Dr. Casimir Ifeanyi, led the call for the Federal Ministry of Health and their counterparts in the 36 states of the federation to intensify the fight against quacks during the anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by PRIMORG, on Wednesday in Abuja.
Dr. Ifeanyi, who was reacting to an investigative report by Daily Trust exposing several cases of Nigerians suffering different kinds of deformities as a result of widespread quackery in the health sector, noted that “medical quackery is a major health menace in developing countries and a big illicit business in Nigeria’s health industry.”
He blamed the quackery in Nigeria on the government’s failure to protect citizens, lack of political will to follow through with the legal framework, and failure of regulatory bodies to play their roles effectively. Adding that “the problem of quackery in the health sector is not the lack of punishment. Rather arresting quacks is a bigger challenge”.
On what government and regulatory agencies must do to stem the tide of quackery, He said,” a whole lot needs to be done by the regulatory agencies and by the Federal Ministry of Health and the State Ministries of Health.
“We need to educate people on signs that an individual is a quack and how to credential the facility or individual so that I can have the confidence to receive service. All that is not being done and what makes us professional is because, inherently, we can decide to regulate. Anytime the systemic regulation is compromised, quacks will have a field day.
“Regulation needs to be more effective and more periodic, and there has got to be public health education.”
The medical practitioner picked holes in the law guiding the operation of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), saying, “There’s some lacuna in the powers of MDCN If so far the council cannot walk into a hospital, particularly a private hospital to check the documents of the practicing doctors, then something is wrong because right now they can only do that through the state ministry of health. That is a major lacuna”.
“Our problem is that we have legal frameworks and institutional frameworks for unfortunately, there is the scarcity of political will to give effect to the provisions in our laws, to the policies of the government that we have. The problem we have here is that these regulatory agencies are not doing enough. They are not living up to the mandate that set them up,” Dr Ifeanyi stressed.
On his part, a disability inclusion expert, Chris Obiora, while urging for a stiffer penalty against quackery in the health sector, disclosed that the ugly act has contributed to the number of millions of persons with disabilities in the country, adding that people are getting deformed due to quackery and negligence by health practitioners.
On the reforms needed to address medical quackery, Obiora said, “The Ministry of Health and some of these associations like the Medical Laboratory Association of Nigeria should take it more seriously.
“The government should take the arrest of quacks more seriously because, as far as I’m concerned, they have done more harm than good, so they should have more penalties for such actions, and by that, I mean penalties that will be more serious than what we have already.
Obiora called for awareness of the dangers of quackery in the health profession, stressing that awareness must be created for people to be able to understand and know how to identify quacks, especially in rural areas.
Speaking earlier during the radio programme, Daily Trust reporter Usman Bello Balarabe blamed regulatory failures for the booming quackery business in the health sector. He stated that unlike what is obtainable in other countries, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) portal does not show licensed medical practitioners, which can aid in identifying certified doctors
“When compared to their counterparts in other countries like Kenya who have published the lists of every licensed medical practitioner in the country and have a mechanism where confirmation of a medical practitioner’s license is possible and easy, Nigeria Medical Association’s portal doesn’t have the list of licensed medical practitioners, and this encourages quackery, Balarabe stated.
Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program PRIMORG uses to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.
The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.
Featured
Alternative Medicine Can Bridge Unemployment, Naira/Dollar Gap – Professor Says
By David Maxwell
A university don who has taken a vibrant interest in phyto-medicine research, Professor Benjamin Amodu, says Nigeria can reduce unemployment as well as bridge the forex gap between the Naira and Dollar through Traditional, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, TCAM.
He said this is very possible if both the government and the people join hands to project the vast potentials of the country to the foreign world.
Speaking to our reporter, he said: “My message. is that let us have a very huge hope in our herbs which God has endowed on us based on our location on the geography of the earth.
“This is a huge blessing God has given us and some of us have researched into them. It is just left for us to believe in them.
“So let us join hands with the government and move this country forward and get people all over the world to make Nigeria the destination for medical tourism as we reverse the incessant trips to India, China, Egypt and all the other destinations. “I can tell you categorically that TCAM is the best way to go. In fact’ if there is political will on the part of government, the Naira/dollar ratio will level up.
“The bulk of importation of drug products will fall and we will conserve our foreign exchange and channel it into other sectors.
“Government should even stand in the gap because there are a lot of things that can be done in this sector.
“Let us depend more on whatever we produce and forget about over-dependence on importation. When that happens, this huge youth unemployment ratio will be closed up as our subsistence farmers will go into extensive farming and production of the needed raw materials. And in so doing, you know they will employ many more hands to enable them to do this.
“You can imagine that the United States of America projected to make $30bn dollars in 2023 alone from alternative and complementary medicine,” Amodu said.
He then called on the Tinubu administration to build on what the previous administrator started and make Nigeria the hub for medical tourism.”
The huge government investment into this untapped multi-billion dollar industry however remains to be seen. Amodu is a 1980 graduate of Industrial Pharmacy from the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, and a professor of phytho-medicine from the Triune Biblical University, USA.
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