How many Nigerian lives are being lost to quackery and isn’t quackery taking its ugly toll?

The purpose of this essay is to report on a personal experience with quack medicine in Nigeria. On a recent visit to Nigeria, this writer ran into and had conversations with a “nurse” who practices her profession at a Nigerian maternity hospital under a “doctor” who says he graduated from a Nigerian medical school.

The writer had conversations with the so-called doctor/medical director of the maternity , but had no way to determine legitimacy or qualifications, but it was a large house built with cement blocks and shiny marbles.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The nurse delivers female babies for 7,000 Naira. She delivers male babies for 8,000 Naira, and is charging extra 1,000 Naira for circumcision of boys.

The nurse says she practices nursing but has neither the training nor the required license. She makes  10,000 Naira (28 dollars)  monthly and lives in a two-rooms place for which she pays 2,000 Naira ( 6 dollars) a month.

Quack medicine  is endemic, widespread, prevalent, rampant, pervasive in Nigeria. The government is aware of the practice, and even persons engaged in medicine are aware of quackery. However, they ignore it or are unable to do something about it.

Quackery is a fast-money maker. Quackery cannot be stopped. Everyone is into quackery. It is quackery. Quackery is here. Quackery is there. Quackery is everywhere.  Quack! Quack!

Quackery is practiced in all parts of Nigerian among all tribes, including the Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba. In fact, there are quack doctors all over my country.

Traders import tons of quack drugs from China, India, and local Nigerian quack producers. The fight against quackery is tough, tougher than the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier boxing match.

A Nigerian medical doctor, travelling from Nasarawa to Awka to attend a medical convention, was beaten to coma for opposing quackery, an unprofessional medical practice,  by owner of a pharmacy he  had stopped at to pick up over-the-counter medications for a travelling companion. Read more:  https://www.tori.ng/news/107814/shocking-lawmaker-beats-doctor-into-coma-for-oppos.html

Upon observing the employees of the pharmacy perform treatment the doctor considered to be dangerous and unprofessional , the doctor complained about quack.

Because the doctor was trained in Western medicine and opposed quack and its practitioners, the quack employees called the owner of the quack pharmacy to report what was happening.

The owner came, and after discovering the identity of the medical practitioner and being told about the unprofessional medical procedure being complained about, took the law into his hands

Pharmacy owner complained that the doctor was attempting to destroy his business and then descended upon the doctor whom he  beat up and sent to the hospital. with a broken vein in the brain as well as a crack in the spine as a result of battery by the pharmacy owner who is also a lawmaker.

What followed was unfortunate. The doctor, Dr. Umaru, chairman of the NMA (Nigerian Medical Association) called to report the pharmacy’s quackery.

The owner of the pharmacy,  Honorable Emenaka, House of Assembly member who was reported to have accused the doctor of trying to ruin his business, started to pull strings with higher ups and fellow politicians to keep the crime under rock carpets.

The incidence showed the total breakdown of the rule of law as well as a lack of respect for life of the average Nigerian. Why does a “licensed” pharmacy engage in unprofessional procedure that endangers life and isn’t it to make money?

Years ago, while the writer was teaching primary school in Benue State, he  observed quackery practiced at its most deplorable stage.

Local traders would purchase what looked like penicillin from Lagos, Nnewi, or Onitsha markets, then come to the villages to inject unsuspecting farmers.

Injection syringes were unwashed, environment unhygienic, and diseases transferred from one person to another . God must love Africans greatly; otherwise they would have been wiped out in a second. Wham!

The farmers were usually poor, uneducated, and easily fooled. They were too trusting. Illiterate. Illiteracy  can enslave one and usually does.

One farmer was injected with drugs meant to cattle. The drug was so powerful it knocked the farmer unconscious. Upon regaining consciousness, the farmer agreed that he had received the best treatment.  and was asked to pay top price.

The question to ask is:  How many Nigerian lives have been lost and continue to be lost as a result of quackery?

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Dr. James C, Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com; jamesagazies.blogspot.com