By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
The coordinator of Nwaneri Botanic Centre in Rivers State, Dr Eugene Nwaneri, has justified natural medicine practice, revealing that Jesus Christ healed people with herbs, leaves and mud.
In a chat with TPCN today in his office at Ikwerre Road, Mile 1, Diobu, Port Harcourt, Dr Nwaneri said that native medicine is encouraged by scripture, adding that Jesus, at a stage, healed a blind man with mud.
He advised those who see native or traditional medicine as fetish to change their thinking.
“Jesus treated people with native medicine. Jesus never gave an injection. When some blind people came, Jesus could collect leaves, squeeze it and use it to rub their eyes and they see clearly. Sometimes Jesus used mud. Jesus healed many people with herbs and leaves, not in the medical line, not with Paracetamol. So, this native medicine started with Jesus Christ. He gave every leaf, every root, every herb power. Every one of them has its own job to do,” he said.
According to Dr Nwaneri, some of the English medicines were made with herbs and roots, adding that he has severally seen some medical doctors buying the same roots he buys in the market.
He explained: “Most of the medicines they use are from roots and herbs. Some cough medicines are made with palm wine. When you’re tapping palm wine, there is something that comes up that is like gum. I’ve seen a medical doctor collecting that thing from a palm wine tapper. There is a tree used to manufacture Folic acid and B-Complex. That tree is called Erumeru. I’ve seen them carrying a Pick-up load of it. When they scrape off the bark, they process it and use it to produce those drugs. No medicine is chaff; no medicine is chalk. Most of them are produced with roots and herbs.”
Dr Nwaneri, who said he was the first herbal doctor to establish in Rivers State in 1987, dispelled insinuations in some quarters that herbal/native medicine is dangerous and does not have dosage.
He said he had treated medical doctors in his office as proof that traditional medicine is potent and widely accepted.
“I have treated medical doctors –qualified professional medical doctors. I have treated many of them here in my office. Since I started this business here in 1987, I have never had an accident in my treatment. I have never given anybody medicine and he falls and dies on the way. I have never given anybody over-dose. Nobody has taken my medicine and have a problem.
“Since 1987 that I started this treatment, nobody has taken me to any police station to claim that somebody I treated had a problem or did not wake up. Native medicine has started before Oyibo medicine came. Some women have taken native medicine and take in and have many children. I wonder how some people criticize native medicine,” he said.
Dr Nwaneri appealed to the government to encourage native medicine in Nigeria as it is done in some countries like China and India whose citizens he said to live longer and stronger for using natural medicine.
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