COVID -19: Let us explore Indigenous medicine ― Kekemeke

The pioneer Chairman of All Progressive Congress(APC) and one of the governorship aspirants in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Isaacs Kekemeke has advocated for indigenous medicine in treating the deadly Coronavirus at the Infectious Diseases Hospitals and Isolation Centres across the country.

Kekemeke who stated this in Akure, Ondo State capital, advised government at all levels to work on generating data bank for the citizenry, saying the creation of data bank would make it easier for government and other institutions to project on how to arrest situations like COVID-19.

The former Commissioner for Justice in the state noted that the nation is facing serious challenges in cushioning the effects of the lockdown on the citizenry due to lack of accurate data.

He advised the government to start looking inward into how to empower the people rather than sharing food items which are not even sufficient, saying that the distribution of palliative was a means of empowering some individuals while the vulnerable suffered.

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He said: “Let me give an example. I told my people that Ondo State has a population of about 4.5 million people. To give a Kongo(measure) of rice to these 4.5 million people, you need 150, 000 bags of rice times N18, 000. It’s N2.7 billion, for just a Kongo of rice. And how does that solve the problem?

“All these ideas of palliatives for a repentant politician like me, for a player of new politics like me, is a waste. It’s a way of providing money for some contractors and opportunities for some politicians to cheat the people the more. So I am not a fan of palliatives.”

Kekemeke who promised to domesticate solution to the COVID -19 pandemic in the state if elected as the state governor in the forthcoming governorship election said exploration and exploitation of indigenous medicine would be one of his cardinal programmes.

He said: “We will also develop what we call indigenous medicine as opposed to what they call it, alternative. It’s no alternative; it’s Indigenous Medicine. So, we would establish a mobile hospital and a research and development unit that would continue to develop, research into and regulate the development of Indigenous Medicine would be established.”

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