OpenLife Editorial dwells on how government failure, high drug costs, fake medications leave Nigerians at the mercy of dangerous herbal remedies
49 Nigerians are dead. 182 others are fighting for life, some blinded permanently, in Ondo State. Their crime? They were poor and sick, and they sought cure in a bottle they could afford.
This is not just an Ondo tragedy. It is a national indictment.The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has confirmed what we feared: the herbal concoctions that killed them contained high concentrations of methanol – a substance that burns the optic nerve, destroys organs and kills.
Of 15 samples tested, 11 also contained Cannabis indica. Laboratory mice fed with the drinks recorded 50 percent mortality.But the real poison is not only in the bottle. It is in the system. Nigeria is today a country where orthodox medicine has become a luxury.
A drug that sold for N5,000 last year now sells for N40,000. A malaria treatment is beyond the reach of a minimum wage earner. Diabetes, hypertension, antibiotics – all have priced themselves out of the common man’s pocket.
When a patient walks into a hospital and cannot afford the prescription, what does he do? He walks to the herbalist on the street corner, whose mixture is cheap, available, and culturally familiar.
We have created a two-tier health economy: expensive, regulated medicine for the rich, and cheap, unregulated death for the poor.
This editorial board asked: Where is NAFDAC? The agency itself confessed its helplessness. Its Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, told Nigerians that NAFDAC has only 2,000 staff to police 240 million people. She said she needs 10,000.
How can 2,000 people inspect markets in Lagos, Kano, Onitsha, check border posts, monitor factories, and track over 200 illegal traditional medicine associations issuing fake certificates in the South-West alone? They cannot. Where is the Federal Ministry of Health?
Where are the State Traditional Medicine Boards? The National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP) itself alleges that over 200 unapproved associations are operating, issuing documents to anyone who pays.
Registration with Corporate Affairs Commission is now confused by the public as NAFDAC approval. A laminated certificate on the wall has become a license to kill.This failure has global parallels, and global lessons.
In India and China – two countries with deep herbal traditions – traditional medicine was not left to quacks. India created the Ministry of AYUSH, standardized Ayurvedic drugs, funded laboratories to test dosage, concentration and toxicity, and exported a $18 billion herbal industry.
China subjected Traditional Chinese Medicine to clinical trials, DNA barcoding of plants and strict manufacturing practices, and today its herbal products are sold in Western pharmacies.
Nigeria did the opposite. We abandoned regulation and abandoned affordability at the same time. We deregulated drug importation and left prices to market forces, and we deregulated herbal practice and left safety to fate.
The consequence is predictable: In the United States, the opioid crisis was driven by overpriced prescription drugs pushing people to street fentanyl. In Africa, the equivalent is under-regulated herbal drinks laced with industrial alcohol and psychoactive substances.
The logic is the same – when legitimate healthcare is unaffordable, the black market fills the void with something more dangerous.Ondo’s 49 deaths are not isolated.
This is how public health collapses start – quietly, in poor communities, with unlabelled bottles.What must be done?First, the Federal Government must declare drug affordability a national emergency. If we can negotiate fuel import, we can negotiate essential drug prices.
The National Health Insurance Authority must be forced to work for informal sector workers who constitute 80% of Nigerians.Second, NAFDAC must be funded and staffed. 2,000 staff for 240 million people is not regulation; it is pretence.
The National Assembly must approve emergency recruitment and equip state labs to test herbal products within 72 hours, not months.Third, herbal medicine must be formalized, not demonized.
Every herbal product must have NAFDAC listing: plant species, plant part, concentration, dosage, expiry date, batch number, and contraindication.
No listing, no sale. Every producer must show proof of facility inspection. Every association must have Federal Ministry of Health approval, and that list must be published.Fourth, the Ondo tragedy must be prosecuted to the end.
The 15 persons arrested must face public trial, and the production and distribution chain must be traced and destroyed. Public enlightenment is not enough; deterrence is needed.Nigerians are not turning to dangerous herbs because they are ignorant.
They are turning because they are poor, and the state has left them at the mercy of merchants of death.
If government cannot make safe drugs affordable, and cannot make affordable drugs safe, then what exactly is government for?
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