Chairman of the Edo State Traditional Medicine Board, Thomas Omo-Oleabhiele, in this interview with Benin Bureau Chief, Francis Onoiribholo, bares his mind on issues of HIV, Ebola virus and presidential recognition for traditional medicine practitioners in the country, Africa and World Health Organisation. He also speaks treatment of mental illness, broken bones and sickle Cell anemia constitute some of the cures already certified by appropriate regulatory bodies. Excerpts.
Edo State Traditional Medicine Board has just been inaugurated of which you are the chairman, how do you see the state government’s disposition towards traditional medicine practitioners?
Very satisfactory, the Comrade Governor is interested and did not relegate the traditional doctors to the background and what he is supposed to do in order to give adequate recognition and promotion without discrimination against traditional medicine and its practitioners is what the Comrade Governor demonstrated in the presence of everybody as he inaugurating the board. I am grateful to him and all the traditional medicine doctors that were there and heard about what he said about traditional medicine and we are all grateful to him.
For many years now, traditional medicine doctors have been recognized; can you name any breakthrough you have made in the field of research into traditional medicine in Nigeria?
Sickle cell is cured by us with guarantees and the people that are treated are changed from AS or SS to AA. I do not have the number of those we have treated in the genotype change. The people that we treat; if we finish treating them and the people who use to be SS or AS marry each other they never give birth to sicklers, that is one. We cure mad people, you know that I have many of them, some of the people that were mad before are great men and women today, some are in America having their careers in different fields, married and became the breadwinners of their families. In addition, the people we treat, we make them to learn trade and they become responsible to fend for themselves at the beginning and then become co-contributors to the nation’s economy without becoming a liability again. We have treated infections, including HIV, which everybody is refusing to accept and because of the stigmatization, people who we treated cannot come out and begin to proclaim that we treated them but they bring other people for treatment because their own has been cured. Also, the people that we treat on broken bones can play novelty matches any time any day. Some of the people I treated on mental illness went to school; passed and graduated as lawyers and they were able to work without having any mental problem again. We have medicine for tuberculosis and asthma. All those with asthma, if we treat them the person will stay in a cold area, in a wet area or in an area where they are frying anything and they can do jogging in the rain or climb a multi storey building and not be victims of asthma attack again or enslaved to the usage of inhaler, he is healed once and for all. How many can we name, they are many.
Do you have any evidence to show the government that all these things have been done and the government now certifies it as authentic?
Yes, otherwise I am employed by the Edo State government to be treating mad people, is it when they saw that I cannot treat mad people that they bring mad people to my place? When some Cubans came to Nigeria on a business trip some time ago, they were directed by the President to come to Edo State and when they got to Edo State, the Comrade Governor directed them to the Commissioner of Health, Mrs. Eregie, and the Commissioner for Health and the Hospital Management Board Chairman and all the others brought the Cubans to my place and they saw things for themselves. We have treated and discharged so many and the government knew of it, the government pays me. I have been employed since 1985 by the government. Do you think every month government is paying me and does not see the result and they will continue to pay me? I do not go to the ministry to work, they bring people to my place here, I treat them, when they get well, government is called upon to examine them after which they discharge them. Government even has their records, not only me. So, records are many and abound.
On HIV, up till now, nobody has claimed to have made any breakthrough on it and you are just saying it now that you treated some patients with HIV, if your claim is correct why have you not been recognized by international body such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) by now?
I was appointed by Obasanjo’s government to be treating HIV at Abuja and I was attached to National Hospital, Abuja, where I was treating people. I was working in the National Hospital and the government was bringing patients to me, I was in City Capital Hotel, I was being paid so much amount at that time but when the medical doctors saw that I was making a breakthrough, because my medicine for HIV was testified upon by Prof. Nwabueze and then I was employed to treat HIV. But when the medical doctors ganged up and said that the things which they themselves were not able to cure, why are they telling traditional doctors to do it. The government then cancelled the traditional doctor’s treatment. That was what led to the formation of National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP), which I am the president by the grace of God.
After making such breakthrough in HIV, why didn’t you push forward for recognition especially as President of NANTMP?
You do not know the meaning of politics, what is the meaning of pushing forward for recognition, when you are seeing me and the President, can you yourself be with the Head of State, is it easy? I am not there as a visitor, that is the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, in the photograph there with me, that is the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. If I am not recognized, why am I with all these people? I am recognized, were you in the hall when the Edo State Traditional Medicine Board was inaugurated? The Comrade Governor talked much about me in the hall, the Comrade Governor even went as far as to tell how people to line up in my place at Kaduna that I am a national figure on traditional medicine and nobody can say he did not take my medicine. So, to ask why they did not recognize me, I am recognized that is why I was employed since 1985 during the military administration in Bendel State, when Ejoor was Commissioner for Health, during the 1985 jamboree. I am the first to be licensed in Nigeria, all these photographs you are seeing, licences in my house, awards, if you see them, everything here is award on traditional medicine, can somebody enter this office and begin to ask of recognition?
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