The advent of the deadly coronavirus pandemic that has infected millions of people around the world with several casualties recorded in the wake of the spread of the virus, has opened yet a flood gate of claims and counter claims in finding a cure to check further spread of the dreaded disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO), has since distanced itself from the avalanche of claims, insisting that it has yet to validate and authenticate any of these traditional or orthodox medicines said to have been produced or formulated to cure the disease. Agreed, the World Health Organization, the recognized international body saddled with the responsibility of providing statistical services in the event of the outbreak of epidemics, control and eradication of communicable diseases, appears not to be in a hurry to subject these herbal medicines said to have come out of Africa, to scientific test, using the World Health Organization standard.
For us, the quest for an indigenous cure for COVID-19, from the African perspective, should be intensified. One hard lesson the COVID-19 pandemic has taught Africa and the developing world, Nigeria inclusive, is that we should look inward to profer solutions to the numerous challenges that confront us as a people, rather than look up to Europe and the US to provide the answers. Some of these interventions, come as Greek gifts to further deplete the little gains Africa may have made in her strive to catch up with the rest of the world, leaving her poorer and dependent.
It therefore, came as a big relief when indigenous institutions and research centres such as PAX Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories led by a Catholic Priest and Monk, Rev.Fr. Anselm Adodo said it has formulated the herbal cure to COVID-19 pandemic. The Edo State-based Ewu Monastery Monk gave the indication that although the herbal medicine will still pass through NAFDAC, it is leaving nothing to chance to ensure it gets the necessary approval and that the product would be made available for sale around June or July this year. And from far away Madagascar, the tiny Island nation in the Southern part of Africa, comes the report that the COVID-19 organics medicine from there, which Nigeria has ironically imported and that it would subject the product to further investigation to prove its efficacy, contains Artemisia- a plant the tiny Island country said it used in the fight against malaria and could prevent and cure patients infected with the virus
. These feat are among other individual and institutional advances so far recorded in finding an indigenous cure to the fast spreading killer virus. They should be applauded and commended instead of outright condemnation of the laudable step taken to save Africa and indeed, Nigeria from depending perpetually on the advanced nations to solve its problems. It is a dangerous trend that Nigeria being Africa’s largest economy must avoid, but rather should look inward to consolidate its position as the leading light in the continent.
