Inside Gombe’s herbal medicine market

Jummai Lawan, a 45-year-old housewife and mother of five children who lives at Daban Fulani, a village in Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State, was living a healthy life until five years ago when her husband married a third wife, who was a divorcee. Not long after the new wife settled in the house, […]

Jummai Lawan, a 45-year-old housewife and mother of five children who lives at Daban Fulani, a village in Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State, was living a healthy life until five years ago when her husband married a third wife, who was a divorcee.

Not long after the new wife settled in the house, Jummai began to experience serious itching in her private part, painful sexual intercourse and offensive vaginal odour.

At first, she took antibiotics, but they were ineffective. When she couldn’t bear the pains anymore, Jummai confided in her friend, who directed her to a herbalist in Gombe.

She told Weekend Trust that the herbalist said she had Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), popularly called ‘ciwon sanyi,’ in Hausa.

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To her astonishment, shortly after she commenced treatment, both the pain and itching subsided, as well as the unpleasant odour.

Recounting her ordeal she said, “I spent over five years taking all sorts of antibiotics but couldn’t get rid of the infection, but just a few weeks of taking the Islamic medicine, I was cured of the illness that almost cost me my marriage.”

Also, a 31-year-old woman, Zulaihatu Yakubu, who got married at the age of 20 in 2012, spent over eight years in her matrimonial home without conceiving.

During that period, her husband’s first wife gave birth to two children, in addition to the five children she already had before he married Zulaihatu. Worried by her situation, she visited several hospitals and conducted numerous tests but couldn’t conceive. All the results were positive; and she was not diagnosed with any disease.

Relief came to her when she revealed to her elder sister that she had been experiencing excessive itching in her private part since she was 17 years of age.

“My sister took me to a traditionalist who gave me some herbs and some capsules. Within two months of using that medicine, I conceived for the first time in the eight years of my marriage.

“Unfortunately, it was an ectopic pregnancy. Three months after a surgery to remove the pregnancy, I conceived again, and after 9 months, I delivered a baby boy through a caesarean section,” Zulaihatu narrated.

Sani Saleh, a 35-year-old man at the Tumfure area on the outskirts of Gombe metropolis, developed Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), which was a result of haemorrhoids, no thanks to hours he spends on the road conveying passengers to different parts of the country and using contaminated toilets at motor parks.

Also narrating his ordeal, the father of three said, “When the condition persisted, making it difficult for me to work and provide for my family, I decided to visit a hospital for treatment, but after several tests were prescribed which would cost me a lot of money, as a low-income earner, I opted to patronise local herbalists for treatment. To my surprise, just a few weeks after visiting a traditional medicine seller, the herbs prescribed for me treated the haemorrhoid, and within two months of the treatment, I was back on my feet to continue my work.

“I usually take herbal medicines for fever, typhoid and yellow fever and I have never had any complication. It is also more accessible, affordable and easier to use.”

On his part, Umar Usman, a 40-year-old resident of Gombe metropolis, said he found out that herbal medicines mostly cured some diseases faster when compared to orthodox drugs, especially infectious diseases and fever.

He said sometimes, even medical doctors recommend some herbs as remedy for some diseases.

“A fever that lasts for days usually gets cured when one steams his/herself using guava, banana and mango leaves. It is faster than several injections.

“You will find many people, even those that are educated practising such method to treat high fever. Using herbal medicine is less stressful; it doesn’t require screening and tests. You don’t have to spend the whole day queuing to see a doctor. It is also very cheap,” he said.

Habib Sani, a 38-year-old middle level public servant, also said that using traditional medicine for some health problems was effective. He, however, added, “But not all the time; sometimes they are ineffective.

“I patronise traditional medicine; but to be frank, most of them were not effective. I would later go to the hospital and look for orthodox medicines and I would get cured. This is even for the ailments some people claim only herbs can cure.

“I can remember vividly that when I was a child, I took a traditional medicine for yellow fever and the man who gave it to me told me that I would vomit the disease after taking the substance, which would mark its end. As he said, I vomited after taking the medicine and got cured. Since then, I never had yellow fever again. But aside that one, none of the subsequent traditional medicines I used were effective. Therefore, I can only give testimony of the one that cured my yellow fever.”

The above scenarios are similar to stories of many Nigerians said to rely on traditional medicines for their basic health needs. 

A former minister of state for health, Joseph Ekumankama, had during the 20th African Traditional Medicine Day held in August 2022 in Abuja, said that 80 per cent of Nigerians relied on traditional medicines for their basic health care needs.

He said that many people, mostly those in the rural communities, patronised traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) as their main source of health care.

It was gathered that the availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability of the TCAM makes it popular amongst the communities.

Also, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended the utilisation of orthodox and TCAM towards ensuring the realisation of the Universal Health Coverage (UCH).

Alhaji Saidu Wanzami, the chairman of the Gombe State chapter of the National Association of Nigeria Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP), said over 80 per cent of the people that patronised them were diagnosed with either PID or UTI.

“People mostly come to us to seek cure for either PID or UTI. They may have other ailments, but you will find out that most of the time, it is related to ‘ciwon sanyi.’

“We noticed that people usually contract such diseases as a result of unprotected sexual intercourse, especially outside wedlock. Others get it from bacteria after using dirty public toilets because whenever someone with such disease uses the toilet, it can easily pass to other people,” he said.

Wanzami said people trusted and patronised them because they modernised the system and brought a lot of innovations that improved the practice of traditional medicine.

“We no longer operate in such a way that a single herb or root is prescribed for all kinds of diseases. We now have a system whereby, whenever a patient presents a case, we would study it and refer him or her to an appropriate person that specialises in that particular area.

“In the past, we didn’t do that; we mostly administered herbs or roots based on trial and error. We have reformed the system in such a way that only a person that specialises in a particular disease will attend to such case,” he explained.

He, however, admitted that they didn’t have the equipment to diagnose diseases as obtained in the hospitals; and added, “But based on experience over the years, we know the system through interacting with the patients. And usually, after visiting the hospital, doctors confirm our diagnoses.

“What we normally do now is to ask the patients to go and conduct test in hospitals before we prescribe drugs for them; just like traditional bonesetters who now ask for an X-ray before attending to a bone fracture patient.”

 

Prescription of dosage

One area people are concerned about herbal medicine is lack of specific dosage. On this issue, Sa’isu Wanzam said, “We have introduced dosage to our prescription to ensure that the patients don’t over use the herbs and roots. We also ensure that they are prepared under the best hygienic condition.

“Herbal medicines are now sold in tablets, capsules, powder, tea, extracts, as well as fresh or dried plants.

“We also want people to know that it is not possible for one herb to cure all diseases. However, what is happening is that sometimes, a particular root of a tree can be mixed with herbs to produce a medicine for different diseases. Sometimes it is the method of administering that varies, depending on the nature of the ailment. For instance, even in the orthodox medicine, antibiotics are used for various diseases.”

He, therefore, called on the public to desist from patronising quacks who claim to possess herbs and roots that cure all ailments, adding, “It is either misconception on the part of the public or fake traditional medicine sellers. This is because only a quack will make such claims that a single herb will cure all diseases.

 

Traditional medicine practitioners working with orthodox doctors

Wanzam said they had a good understanding with orthodox medical doctors, adding that they meet through the Board of Traditional Medicine, an agency established by the Gombe State Government to regulate the activities of traditional and ‘Islamic medicines’ in the state.

He said, “We always seek their advice and that of the Ministry of Health on areas we need more clarification. We also collaborate with them in organising seminars and symposiums for our members to sensitise them and update their knowledge in traditional medicine.

 

Fishing out bad eggs

Wanzam decried the activities of fake herbalists, who he said are in the profession for the sole aim of making money.

“We are having problems with fake herbal medicine sellers – people that don’t know anything about traditional medicine but would start giving medicines just to make money. But we are sanitising the system, in partnership with the Board of Traditional Medicine. Now, one has to register with the board before he or she can be allowed to sell medicine in the state.

“They usually send them to us for screening and to ensure that such person is a genuine traditional medicine seller. We are also regulating the activities of those selling drugs in the open market with loudspeakers. We always monitor to ensure that the messages in such advertisements don’t go against our religion and culture. So, we have a mechanism in place, that whoever is caught would be arrested and handed over to the appropriate authority,” he explained.

 He, however, said that one doesn’t have to be from a family of traditional medicine sellers before one can practise the trade.

He added, “But he or she has to learn from someone knowledgeable before he can be allowed to practise in Gombe. Being born by a traditional medicine seller is not a guarantee that one automatically knows traditional medicine.”

 

Leveraging on the media for customers

Wanzam further said they were utilising the social and traditional media to get access to people across all backgrounds.

“The advent of social and traditional media has given us a voice and won us more people who believe in our medicines. In the past, people, especially the educated, shunned herbal medicine because of the old system where sellers did not practice good hygienic condition and there was no dosage.

“We have rebranded our mode of operation and are now using the media, especially the social media, to reach out to different groups of people. This has attracted people that hitherto were not patronising us,” he added.

 

How they get the herbs

Speaking on how they get the herbs they use as medicine, Malam Abdullahi Abubakar, a 70-year-old seller at the Gombe Main Market, who has been in the profession for the past 30 years, having leant the trade from his father, said herbal medicines were made from plants. 

“The active ingredients are extracted from parts of plants to prepare herbal supplements or medicines, which can come in many forms, such as pills, tea, extracts and powder,” he explained.

Advent of Islamic medicine

Apart from the traditional medicine, which has been in practice for centuries, a new brand of non-orthodox medicine has become popular in the last two decades, namely, ‘Islamic medicine.’

According to one of the practitioners, a branch of traditional medicine is referred to as Islamic medicine because most of them are imported from Arab countries and few others from Asian countries.

Malam Saminu Isa, who has been selling Islamic medicine for the past 15 years, said it was described as such because some of the medicines could be traced to the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

“We have similarities with traditional medicine because we are all non-orthodox. Our major difference is mostly in the packaging and dosage. Our medicines are mostly packaged and we get supply of the drugs from Indonesia and China, as well as other Arab countries.

“We treat diseases such as ulcer, typhoid, malaria, haemorrhoid, but ulcer and ‘ciwon sanyi’ are the most predominant that patient seek cure for,” he said.

He also said medical doctors sometimes refer patients to them. 

 

In Gombe, it is illegal to sell traditional medicine without registration

The director of administration and finance at the Board of Traditional Medicine, Abdullahi Adamu, said it was illegal for anyone to operate as a traditional or Islamic medicine seller in Gombe State without proper registration.

 “The board was established in 2003 to regulate traditional and Islamic medicine practice in the state. Anyone that wants to practise in the state has to register with the board and he will be issued an identification card and a certificate, which officially recognises him as a certified traditional medicine seller and free to operate in the state.

“We have the data of those that registered with the board. About 130 practitioners have so far registered. However, the number is small due to minimal awareness of board’s activities by members of the public.

“It is an offence in the state to operate without registration. This is to check the activities of quacks. People should always ask for the identification card of a practitioner before visiting or receiving drugs from him or her. This is because there are fake people selling herbs under the guise of being members of the traditional medicine sellers,” he said.

Malam Adamu added that the board is periodically sensitising the activities of traditional sellers on the need to register for them to be legally recognised by the government.

“We are still finding it difficult to get their cooperation. However, a task force will soon be constituted to ensure that they register with the board,” he said.

He disclosed that the board had mandated practitioners to present their herbs to their laboratory for effective check before they would be allowed to sell in the market. He also said the board was encouraging a synergy between traditional medicine sellers and orthodox doctors to ensure that there is mutual understanding between them so that members of the public would get the required health care.