From Tony Osauzo, Benin
leadership of the Nigerian Association of Physicians of Natural Medicine (NAPNM) has lampooned the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) over its stand against the proposed Bill establishing Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM) Council.
The NMA in a communique issued at the end of its August National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Gombe, had chided the Federal Government for sponsoring the Bill on the Establishment of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Regulatory Board.
The communique which was signed by the NMA President, Dr. Uche Ojinmah and the Secretary-General, Dr. Jide Onyekwelu, alleged that the components of the Bill would be in conflict with the statutory functions of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
But, NAPNM, in a statement after its emergency meeting warned NMA to desist from interfering and threatening to sabotage the Bill.
The statement signed by Dr. Johnson Elechi and Dr. Usman Ahmad, president and secretary of NAPNM, respectively, noted that the MDCN 1992 law recognised five major forms of alternative medicine, namely, Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Acupuncture, Naturopathy and Chiropractic.
“There are over 25 forms of Complementary/Alternative Medicines been practiced in Nigeria; and so the need to have all these therapies and healing modalities together in a separate Council, as initiated and being currently championed by the Federal Ministry of Health, with the full support and endorsement of stakeholder’s of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Nigeria.
“Since the MDCN law of 1992 was put into effect, only very few Alternative Medicine Doctors have been registered by MDCN,” the statement said, adding that “Alternative Medicine is a standardized medical practice outside the scope of conventional orthodox medicine.”
The statement pointed out that there was no part of the world where alternative medicine is regulated by the same body that supervises conventional medicine and wondered why “such anomaly should be accepted and tolerated in Nigeria.”
It appealed to members of the NMA to reflect on and reconsider their position and to give way for the Bill to be passed into law.
Besides, the statement assured the leadership of the NMA of closer collaboration in dealing with the health challenges facing myriads of Nigerians, even as it called on all angered practitioners of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to remain calm and continue to abide by the standard code of practice.