- Oyesina Fadare
Here was none of the telltale signs of an impending rainfall before the heavens opened up. It was at Iyana Ipaja, one of Lagos’ most popular bus stops. People ran in different directions for cover from the sudden downpour, with the majority taking refuge under the flyover bridge.
The reporter was among the crowd, waiting for a bus that would take him to Oshodi. Suddenly, he noticed a horde of commercial bus drivers, conductors and other people trooping to the direction of a female seller of branded herbal drinks.
Mama Seki, as she is popularly called, had a big plastic bowl placed on a stool in the midst of the crowd where all sorts of herbal drinks were displayed with brand names like Coco Samba, Japata, Pakurumo and Ogidiga, to mention a few.
Decked in a nylon-made, waterproof attire, the rain meant little or nothing to Mama Seki as she shuttled between the spot and her makeshift warehouse nearby to restock her big bowl as buyers exhausted her wares. In the twinkle of an eye, she would rush to the neaby kiosk and return with a fresh stock of the bitter stuff her customers drank like water.
As the rain subsided, the reporter felt an urge to engage Mama Seki in a conversation about the brief business she had just made under the Iyana Ipaja bridge, and her response was revealing. “On a cold day like this,” she said, “bitter herbal drinks are the best item for customers, particularly if the weather is cold cold.
”When there is rain or cold weather, my customers, who are predominantly motorists and drivers want to keep themselves warm and they cannot do without these bitter herbal drinks.”Mama Seki, who asked if the reporter was new in Lagos because these varieties of drinks are virtually everywhere, particularly at bus stops, looked straight into the reporter’s face and said, “If you are doing the type of job these drivers are doing, you will be familiar with all these bitter herbal drinks that ginger them to work, particularly when there is rain like this.”
On a normal day, Mama Seki said, she makes close to N25,000 sales; a figure that jumps to between N30,000 and N35, 000 on a rainy day, depending on how heavy the rain is.
She explained further that whenever it rained, she would move her ware to the spot under the Iyana Ipaja bridge, where she can guarantee good sales.
”I have raked in N8,000 during the short period we were under the bridge. If I was not inside the rain, I could not have made such a sale,” she said jubilantly.
For weeks, the reporter took it upon himself to comb popular Lagos bus stops including those of Ile-Epo, Alakuko, Pleasure, Obalende, Oshodi, Ajegunle, leventist, Balogun, Isale Eko, Ijora, Ketu and Ojota with the same discovery: bitter herbal drinks are the popular choice of those who felt the need to sip a drink.
Intriguingly, in most regular beer parlours and other drink joints visited by the reporter, the outcome was the same.
A distributor of herbal drinks, Mr. Stephen Okereke, told The Nation that majority of beverage marketers were forced to concentrate on the herbal brands because of their huge turnover which he said was in millions of naira on a weekly basis.
“We just have to concentrate on what the customers are demanding for. Herbal drinks are a huge market that is expanding everyday notwithstanding the presence of fake products.”
Okereke said he had to abandon other products he was selling before and concentrate on the bitter herbal drinks because “na there money dey (that is where money is)”.
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One thing the herbal drink market has going for it is the cheap nature of the products whose prices range between N100 and N300. Specifically, the one in sachets range between N100 and N200 while the ones in small plastic bottles sell for between N200 and N300.
The foregoing accounts for the sporadic consumption of the products by motorists and drivers who literally deploy them as energizer for the day’s work, particularly the ones blended with alcohol.
Sharing her experience, Rukayyat Mustapha, a liquor merchant who had her shop at Agege area of Lagos State, said the mad rush for varieties of bitter herbal drinks in the last six years has resulted in a huge turnover for her. Besides the fact that the consumption of the products cuts across age, sex or tribe, it yields good returns every day,” she said. The huge crowd at her shop on a daily basis is a testimony that the products sell like hot cake.
Domestication of brand with local names
The Nation investigation revealed that the producers of these bitter herbal drinks adopt local slangs as brand names to entise their targeted customers, and this brings in huge profits for them. That is why virtually everyone has followed the trend and the result has been spontaneous acceptance of the names, particularly among motorists and drivers, the major consumers of the product.Most of the brand names are only funny without any serious meaning as they are only adopted because the targeted consumers are familiar with them. They include ames like Pakurumo, Igboya, Je ko mo, Senu e bo, Pe lori e, Ja pata Nan pa, Koboko, O le koko, Erujeje and Bo soju e, to mention a few.
The Nation gathered that majority of the bitter drinks are blended with alcohol in order to extract the needed potency in the roots used. Most of the drinks claimed to be antidote for back pain (jedi-jedi) a common ailment among motorists and drivers whose jobs entail sitting for long hours.
Speaking with The Nation, a brand expert, Mrs. Eunice Adepoju, noted that the name of a product has a lot to do with its acceptability in the market, adding that the producers of majority of these herbal products picked the names to attract the peculiar consumers who most of the time want to consume products that will make them active while having fun, which is peculiar to virtually all the herbal products.
She explained that while it may look local and funny at times, the domestication of it to the environment makes it a selling product in big cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Kano, Kaduna and Enugu, to mention but a few.
She however frowned at the fact that most of the products find their ways to the market without passing through NAFDAC or any regulatory agency to ascertain that they are safe for consumption. “Unfortunately, people still buy them in droves, not minding the consequences,” she said.
Apart from the large market at bus stops, a lot of other people take these herbal mixtures because they believe that it is good for their body. Investigation revealed that some of the consumers of these bitter herbal mixtures take them for particular reasons and go for brands that suit their purpose.
In a chat with Mr. Jegede Bello, a mechanic, who has his workshop in Ketu, Lagos, said he takes his preferred brand among the local herbal mixtures whenever he wanted to engage in sex romp with his partner.
“My brother, I take it to satisfy my wife and it has never disappointed me for once. One of my friends introduced it to me and it is very reliable,” he said.
Another lover of local herbal mixtures, Mr. Joseph Bada, who resides in Ikorodu part of Lagos, said he fell in love with his preferred choice because it has been of help whenever he needs to detoxify.
He said further that his choice mixture is relatively cheaper than others in the market.
On his part, Mr. Kareem Jinadu, who stays in Gberigbe on the outskirts of Ikorodu, said as a devout Muslim, who never engaged in alcohol, he adopted a particular brand prepared with local herb and water.
He said: “I was very happy the day I discovered my preferred herbal mixture, which is produced without alcohol. As a good Muslim, I go for it anytime I want to play a match with my wife.
“I must tell you that it is very reliable and the herbal mixture is made for non-alcoholic takers to enjoy life with their partners.
Another user of a brand containing alcohol said he had been taking the herbal mixture for more than two years and it had proved to be a good remedy for pile and back pains. The middle aged man, who is resident in Ojota, Lagos, said the herbal product in question had been his saviour from chronic back pains.
Another of the herbal mixtures is made with water and honey, and the users claim it is a remedy for pile and backache. One of the users, Tosin Badmus, who claimed to be a regular consumer of the product, said he fell in love with it simply because it does not have alcohol and honey blended with it, which made it unique among others.
Investigation revealed that a particular herbal mixture made primarily to enhance sexual urge in men, is made with local gin with a touch of Indian hemp. Some users of the product, who spoke with our correspondent, said it was mainly produced to enhance sex activity in men, and it has been a wonderful help for users.
The Nation also found out that the consumers of these herbal products are not peculiar to the menfolk. Some ladies who spoke with our correspondent admitted that they also take herbal mixtures to fight pile and back pains.
A housewife, who reside in Okokomaiko, Ojoo in Lagos State, says she uses a herbal mixture made with alcohol to fight pile. “Yes, it has been my major product to get away from pile, and it is also useful to fight back pains.
On her part, Mrs. Fausat Bello, a resident of Agege, says she loves a particularly bitter herbal drink made with water and honey. “It is my favourite and it is very reliable for fighting pile. I also use it any time I need to purge,” she said.
Regulation of the herbal products
The Nation gathered that in spite of the existence of the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), fake herbal products are still flooding the market.
The reason for this is not farfetched. Investigation revealed that it requires stringent procedure before any of the agencies, particularly, NAFDAC, approves a product. Apart from a registration fees that ranges between N200,000 and N300,000, the environment in which the product is produced is also the agency’s primary consideration to avoid contaminated products.
A former Chief Regulatory Officer with NAFDAC, Mr. Emmanuel Ajayi, told our correspondent that if the so called herbal products must contain alcohol, it must be ethanol, which is okay for human consumption, and not methanol.
According to him, if it is going to be water mixture, it must be borehole water or treated water from the water corporation, and not just any kind of water. NAFDAC, he said, must vet the so called roots to ascertain the duration it can last after package so that it will not turn into poison. A certificate of advertisement, labeling and codification must also be issued before the product would be allowed into the market.
“When all these criteria have been met after the inspection of the factory, which must be isolated from where people can just enter at will, there must also be Certification of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) certificate which will be issued to the producer before NAFDAC numbers can be issued,” Ajayi said.
The Nation gathered that after the manufacturer has paid the required fees, the above-mentioned steps could take months to perfect with additional spending. But a small scale manufacturer who knows the efficacy of the roots and how to get it to the market would bypass this procedure in his desperation to make ends meet, and that is why the market is flooded with fake or harmful products.
Speaking in the same vein, the Director General of Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), Prof. Martins Emeje, said the agency was set up to harness the potentials in all our traditional medicines and healing in order to export the technology outside the country and use all the traditional medicines developed for mankind.
Emeje pointed out that there are lots of fake herbal products in the market because a lot of the producers did not want their products to pass through the needed scientific purification either with NAFDAC or NNMDA. They therefore flood the markets with their products.
“It is the responsibility of my agency to study those things so that the ones that is good will be preserved, conserved and promoted for future generation,” he said.
The Nation however gathered that all the agencies saddled with the responsibility of curtailing the excesses of herbal mixture producers lack the human resources to police the large market for fake products.
More worrisome is the fact that most of the herbal products that find their ways into the market without certification do a lot of advertisement on radio and social media to the point that people believe in their efficacy.
Efficacy of herbal medicine
The Nation investigation revealed that NAFDAC numbers are issued for herbal mixtures not necessarily on the basis of efficacy but because they do not contain toxic elements.
Ajayi explained that the primary objective of NAFDAC in approving any product is that such products do not contain toxic materials which can be poisonous to the body. He explained further that good manufacturing practice, good location and a laboratory test that ethanol and not methanol is used for root extraction are factors considered before a product is approved.
Before the advent of orthodox medicine, most cultures had depended on herbal medicine. China and India have excelled in the development and use of herbal medicine, and they earn a lot of foreign exchange from it.
Prof. Emeje said Nigeria can tap into this huge market like China to create job opportunities. ”There are more than 45,000 different types of plants in Nigeria alone with different healing properties,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of my agency to go round Nigeria to identify all these plants and the types of diseases they can cure so that we can make fortune out of it.
“It is estimated that in the next 30 years, the market value of herbal medicine in Nigeria will be over 5 trillion US dollars.”
Speaking in the same vein, a Professor of Pharmacology at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Moses Akanmu, called on stakeholders to collaborate and work on the research and development of traditional medicines in Nigeria in order to make a fortune out of it.
Akanmu, who spoke at a recent scientific conference organised by the Centre for Herbal Medicine and Drug Discovery at the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, added that it is essential for Nigeria’s indigenous herbal products to be manufactured in the local industries and packaged well to meet international standards, hence the need for the collaboration of all stakeholders.
He said: “African traditional medicine is a breakthrough in the drug discovery process as some of the drugs being used in conventional medicine were originally derived from plants.
“Some of these herbal medicines act as lead molecules for the synthesis of various potent drugs. Reports have shown that there are many hidden mysteries that need to be learned from African traditional practices by the modern world.”
According to the don, “there are strong proofs to show that there is a renewed interest in African plant-based medicines in the prevention and cure of various pathologies, and medicinal plants still play an important role in the healthcare system in African countries.
“We need to maintain a very strong connection with the traditional knowledge regarding the collection and processing of herbal medicines so that the greatest majority of herbal medicines that are produced are consistent with those used historically. This will ensure optimum harvest times, drying times, and processing conditions for producing high-quality herbal medicines.”
The Professor of Pharmacology pointed out that “there is the need for the political will on the part of African leaders to pay serious attention to global trends in traditional medicine dialogues for the benefit of all and sundry. This would require that both traditional and modern doctors acknowledge their areas of strengths and weaknesses.”
The President of Association of Herbal Medicine Practitioner in Lagos State, Chief Salawu Oloro, said there are lots of mystery in herbs that even science cannot unravel.
The Basorun of Shao said that beyond all the orchestrated advertisement of herbal products on radio these days, herbal medicine can be used for a lot of illnesses where orthodox medicine is found wanting.
According to him, mere incantations can solve stomach crisis, not to talk of snake bites and other related sickness. He added that where science ends, herbal medicine starts and vice versa
“There is efficacy in the power of herbs which are peculiar to various area in the country, to the extent that if all these are harnessed together as the government is trying to do, within the next few years, Nigeria will join the likes of China and India to export their local healing prowess and herbal products,” he said.