The Kwara state House of Assembly, Wednesday urged the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to rise up to its responsibility of regulating the activities of radio stations in the state with regards to advertisement of traditional medicines.
The House also called on the association of traditional medical practitioners in the state, to call to order their members involved in mobile advertisement who constitute public nuisance in the society.
These were some of the resolutions passed on a motion on the need for government to regulate advertisement, sale and practice of traditional medicine in Kwara State raised by Hon Magaji Abubakar Olawoyin and seconded by Hon Owolabi Olatunde Razaq, Wednesday.
The House also urged the state governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, to direct the state Ministry of Health to allocate a dedicated centre or camp to traditional medical practitioners, where they can practice and where interested members of the public can patronize them.
The House further directed the House committee on Health and Environment, to liaise with the state Ministry of Health for drugs and medicine regulation and be alive to its responsibilities.
Hon Magaji had while presenting the motion said the traditional medical practice which has enjoyed wide acceptance in the state, lacks standard of dosage.
He observed that the way a medicine is prescribed to cure more than five diseases was alarming and was not verifiable in most cases, adding that “the practice of mobile advertisement was disturbing as it amounted to noise pollution in areas where they operate.
Hon Magaji also berated the role radio stations play in this as according to him “airtime is being allotted for the purpose of advertising unregulated traditional herbal medicines.”
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