Presidential aspirant taunts INEC ex-boss on drugs for politicians

A Presidential aspirant under Coalition of Opposition Parties (COP), Adewole Adebayo, has taunted former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, that in all his reforms at the commission, he forgot to formulate herbal therapy for politicians.

Adebayo, who chaired the public presentation of a book, “Healing Plants of Nigeria, Ethnomedicine and Therapeutic Applications,” written by Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Anselm Adodo and Iwu in Abuja, said Nigeria is facing leadership crisis because politicians need some herbal remedies.

According to him, trado-medicine, if properly harnessed, can generate $100 billion revenue and create three million jobs.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians to invest in traditional medicine, describing it as a major revenue boost if properly developed.

Adebayo, who lamented that the country had over the years expended huge resources on spiritual matters but failed to invest in development of ethnomedicine sector for good of the people, said Nigeria could generate over $100 billion from plant medicine industry if it pays serious attention to it.

He regretted that the herbal medicine sector was suffering from the same years of neglect and lack of focus to develop various sectors in the country.

He said: “What has happened to the traditional medical field is what has happened to almost every aspect.

“It is the same reason why we don’t have electricity, why lecturers are on strike and why we are importing fuel that we should be producing.”

The presidential hopeful vowed to do the opposite of what the government is doing instead of adding to the lamentations of why the government has failed if elected as president.

According to him, “Nigerians know already, so, they want me to bring solutions. The solution is that we are going to do opposite of what the government has been doing.

“We are going to encourage industrialisation, science, technology, research and development. We are going to encourage local production of goods.”