MEMBERS of the National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP) have called on the federal government to approve the establishment of traditional medicine institutes to aid the promotion of their craft across the country.  

Nigeria's traditional medical practitioners and herbalists have by and large been relegated into the background in favour of modern Western medicine. However, due to the limited availability of hospitals, clinics and facilities, they are widely patronised, especially in rural areas where they are all that is available. 

Asking that they be offered proper training through the establishment of proper institute, the herbalists have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to fund the sector properly. NANTMP president Chief Andrew Anyanwu who made the call during the inauguration of the newly elected national executive of the association, stated that it would co-operate with the government in the establishment of such institutes. 

Chief Anyawu added that if the institutes were situated in all the 774 local government in the country, it will be a boost to the issue of traditional medicine in the nation. He stated that the association will aid in the distribution of learning and instructional materials to encourage students in the propose institutes, adding that it will also institute scholarship schemes for people who are willing to learn. 

He commended President Buhari for his fight against corruption in the country, while pledging the support of the association in building a good and corruption-free society. Chief Anyawu did not say in what kind of support his association would offer the government in this fight though. 

“Buhari is the only Nigerian leader since after General Murtala Mohammed to take on corruption. The Nigerian state without Buhari will continue to be a gang land presided over by criminal elements whose preoccupation in power is both wholesale and primitive accumulation," Chief Anyawu added.