Worried by the growing trend of supposedly incurable ailments and the corresponding financial weight incurred by individuals and governments, the Kwara State Council for Arts and Culture has perfected plans to promote traditional medicine practitioners as a way of providing an alternative to healthcare delivery.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald Arts, the Director of the Council, Comrade Bisi Oyewole, revealed that "this initiative is aimed at looking for ways whereby the state government, practitioners and the general public can benefit immensely from the pool of traditional knowledge the creator has bestowed upon us in this part of the world.

"There are some ailments like prostate cancer, stroke, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and so on. We have realized that people spend so much to cure these ailments whereas there are so many claims -I would call them claims because we have not been able to verify and establish any of these claims- that these ailments can be cured traditionally.

"We therefore decided to reach out to the Association of Traditional Medical Doctors (ASTMD) and see if there is a confirmation of their products. Our plan is to establish a particular ailment from a reputable hospital especially a government owned hospital and get a traditional healer who can cure such ailment. Then we will go back to the hospital to cross check whether the ailment has truly been cured."

Comrade Oyewole stressed that "if these claims can be established and affordable treatment made available to our people the government can save much money and who knows we might also grow into exporting this knowledge thereby creating much foreign exchange for the government."

Buttressing this assertion, the BoT Chairman of Association of Traditional Medical Doctors (ASTMD), Alhaji (Dr.) Sheu Tijani Power, told this reporter that "the time of relaying on oil as foreign exchange for government is fast coming to an end and it would be good if government looks towards the area of traditional medicine because it is cheaper and natural."

Power also revealed that "I once had stroke whereby half of my body was paralyzed. My family members were already crying and many had thought I would soon die but Alihamudullaihi, all praise and glory be unto almighty Allah who saw me through.

"We went to the hospital and within the few days I spent there much money went down the drain without any significant improvement. It was at this point I decided to go back home and apply the knowledge of traditional medicine. And I can tell you that within months of using these herbs there was much improvement and as you can see I am very healthy now."

Also speaking on the occasion, the national Chairman of the association, Dr. Saheed Isiaka Awopegba, revealed that "there is no new ailment on earth. All these so called new ailments have always been with us, it is just that orthodox medicine is just discovering them that's why they term them new. For an example, HIV/AIDS has always been with us and our fathers had their own way of curing it."

Awopegba further revealed that "the science of our forefathers is a gift of nature which must not be allowed to waste away. There are many child spacing methods which our fore fathers practiced and which are very safe, cheap and has no side effects. These methods do not aid fibroid like the conventional ones our women are now using."