MINISTER of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu has officially presented a four-bedroom bungalow alongside one brand new car to a renowned traditional medicine practitioner, Pa Aliyu Giwa Ejivade at Adavi-Eba community in Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi state.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the Head, Public Relations Office (PRO) of the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Peter Mashem, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja, on Tuesday.
While presenting the gifts to Pa Giwa, the minister reiterated the need to patronize locally developed herbal products rather than flood the Nigerian market with traditional medicines, especially from Asian countries.
He said Pa Giwa has distinguished himself as a herbal practitioner in his ability to cure diseases that appeared incurable by orthodox medicine.
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Dr Onu, therefore, assured that the Federal Government and other relevant government ministries and agencies such as the Federal Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) would work closely to develop herbal medicine.
The four-bedroom bungalow was constructed by one of the agencies under the supervision of Dr Onu- the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) using its low-cost housing technology.
However, the project from inception was meant to be built within six weeks but due to some logistic delays, it was started and completed within a period of three months. It includes a courtyard, sitting room, kitchen and 4 conveniences.
The final handover of the house was in fulfilment of the minister’s promise towards ensuring the expansion of Pa Giwa’s herbal clinic to enable him to accommodate more patients and a means to enhance mobility.
In his response, an obviously elated Pa Giwa thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and Dr Onu for the benevolent gesture and promised that it would spur him to do more to humanity.
On the entourage of the minister were top government officials including the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Professor Stephen Ocheni; representative of the Minister of Health, Director General, Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency, Dr Sam Etatuvie; representative of the Director-General, NBRRI among others.
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