The National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy,
with a mandate to enhance cultural orientation and promote the culture of Nigerian people globally is collaborating with Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti to commence a postgraduate diploma in cultural pharmacology.
According to the Executive Secretary/CEO of NICO, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, the postgraduate diploma programme in cultural pharmacology at the Nigerian Academy for Cultural Studies (NACUS), which is operated by the Institute is expected to commence this year with students admitted into campuses in Akure and Ogbomosho.
Emphasizing the need to promote the potency of African pharmacology, Ajiboye who described the collaboration between NICO and ABUAD as hydra-headed, said our intelligence as a nation must no longer be subdued and made to look secondary. “We must have a flip at some point. Perhaps, the flip is about now. We’re not seeing you just as a university and we’re not approaching you just as an agency of government. Our relationship is going to be hydra-headed”.
“With the creation of cultural pharmacology department at NACUS, if common sense says panadol is made from leaves, it shows that leaves are important. So, what cultural pharmacology will do is to use the abundance of what is available within our cultural understanding to heal our people the way it was in the past”.
“This collaboration is important so that we can use the modernity you have possessed in orthodox medicine to combine with what we call crude spirituality and make something globally acceptable. Our cultural pharmacology department will issue certificates for postgraduate diploma in traditional medicine so that in the end, the typical babalawo should not seen as someone who is conjuring nonsense. No, he must be seen as a respectable member of society who can put something on the table for the global world to appreciate”.
With Afe Babalola University’s record of profound achievements in traditional medicine, particularly the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccine and other scientific research into areas such as malaria, typhoid, and even cancer, using herbs, roots, and trees, it is expected that the collaboration between the two institutions will greatly elevate the practice of traditional medicine in the country.
Caleb Nor
Media Assistant to Executive Secretary, NICO