Adejuwon Adeneye, a professor of pharmacology, therapeutics, and toxicology, has advocated for the teaching of contemporary and alternative medicine courses in the country’s medical colleges.
Adeneye, a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine, while delivering his inaugural lecture titled; Green Medicine: Nature’s Gateway to Sustainable Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria, said there was an urgent need to incorporate courses on alternative medicine in the university. he pointed out that incorporating these courses will help in training, sensitizing, and widening the frontiers of knowledge of young medical graduates on contemporary alternative medicine integration
Adeneye emphasized the need for the National Universities Commission to establish a minimum benchmark for the Nigerian College of Medicine and encourage academic and professional degree programs at all levels.
Establishing such degree programs, he noted, will also give room for robust research into some of the ethnomedical practices and help to fine-tune such practices for the health benefits of Nigerians
Adeneye said the role of traditional medicine practice in Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system could not be over-emphasized
It is reported that 60 to 85 per cent of the population of every developing country relies on one form of contemporary and alternative medicine or another
“The wider acceptability of the practice, especially in the developing country, stems from the fact that, apart from affordability and accessibility, it is believed to be a product of the wisdom and practice of their forefathers
“The university teacher noted that if the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3, which center on Good health and well-being for all, are to be achieved by 2030, more attention must be given to the informal sector involved in healthcare delivery at the grassroots.
Adeneye added that it was imperative to safeguard the already endangered collection of medicinal plants in Nigerian forests and promote their local cultivation on a large sustainable scale
“This can be accomplished by formulating and enacting short- and long-term wildlife conservation protection laws, he said
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