…Says ‘the more progress people say we are making, most of them are retrogressive’
She has had over fifty years in active practice in Medicine and Optamology with trainings both in Nigeria and the United Kingdom where she had her Specialist training in Optamology in 1976.
Since her return to her alma mater same year,Professor Adebukunola Adefule-Ositelu has contributed more to research and training and by the time she retired in 2016 ,she had reached the peak of her career as pioneer head of department of Optamology of the College of Medicine,Lagos University Teaching Hospital and as the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences of the CMUL.
Throughout her period of service she deepened her knowledge and that of students under her and this resulted in her discovery of Orogbo, as treatment for glaucoma and other related health issues. She also successfully patented it.
Upon retirement,she was dragged out of retirement and appointed Chairman of Lagos state Trado- Medicine Board.
In this exclusive interview with Newdawnngr.com she shared her experience and how she came about her discovery of Orogbo as treatment for Glucoma and other health challenges.
As for her,Africa has all what it takes to adopt local care for her varied health challenges if the elite could shed their colonial mentality and encourage research by her experts.
Excerpts from the interview:
Prof, can you briefly give us an overview of the health situation in Nigeria?
Took a long silence and busted into laughter before saying, as far as I known, by the time I grew up, we had people they called ‘wole, wole’ sanitary inspectors in those days . I remembered that they would come around where we stored water and they will make sure they come into the house to make sure we are not breeding mosquitoes and gutters, everywhere must be clean . So at the age of five plus, I was used to sweeping the compound. When your environment is clean, part of your medical problem is solved; that is one thing I have missed a lot. It is quiet unfortunate. Even, though, we have three arms of conventional health systems – primary, secondary and tertiary health systems, we did not have these problems then. I was born in Massey Street Hospital and going to the hospital was not burdensome for health workers because people will not troop there, already the hygiene has taken care of some of the issues and those specialist/health workers were not over worked, they had human blood flowing in their veins, the relationship between them and patients were so smooth, so cordial, very respectful. The confidentiality was such that there was no doubt about what they say, if you like go elsewhere and check what they say, you will get same result. There were not very many but the few that were around did very well and I cannot remember when I was rushed to the hospital for any problem except when I had dental problem. I was in Lagos and had dental issues and there was no dentist in Lagos and my dad had to drive all the way to Abeokuta to procure healing for me and in a twinkle of an eye, they attended to me; no big queue and we came back same day, I also had a boil in hand and what they did was to spray local anaesthetic on it , it became very cold and solidified and a surgeon just came incised the boil and squeezed it and that was all and 30 minutes later, I was relived and the dressing was from home. It was well organised and not only that, I think that those at the helm of affairs, were able to judiciously spend what was available. There was no pilfering going on, no fake drugs and things were going on smoothly but with modernisation, and neglect of our tradition and culture, things are going from bad to worse. There is corruption everywhere. Where there is corruption, things will never run smoothly because righteousness exalts a nation and it is true. Very, very true. Immediately you allow corruption to get into a system, that system is destroyed and that is exactly
What we are having now. Our culture is so rich, we are so endowed that I marvel at creation. There is scarcely any leaf in Yorubaland that does not contain some levels of antibiotic and or antiviral properties. Though, some are more effective than others, but there is scarcely any of our leaf that is not supportive of good health; we are so endowed. In those days, I was brought up with the ideas of farming, because my mum had her okra, ewedu, tete, shoko in the compound, even yam. And then we had farmers who were so dedicated and we were eating organic, we did not need all these fertilisers that they are now using. Some of the fertilisers are even adding more problems to our health. And I learnt from the Bible how God has written it out how we should do some farming. Plant, harvest, plant, harvest, plant. harvest. Then leave the ground for sometimes to regenerate and then you go back and plant again. Everything becomes organic and it is so good for health. Now we have more of cancers, kidney problems. What you eat determine how healthy you are. If, you are eating all sorts of rubbish, the health degenerates, and that is why life expectancy is getting shorter and shorter. Our hospitals were there then, well maintained and drugs were available, there were never crowded. You needed attention you get it immediately. My mum told me that those immediately after me – there were twins, a boy and a girl, there were sitting down in the womb, the first female gynecologist, Mrs. Awoliyi, was the one that treated her, the two were okay, one was sick but within 24 hours, he got okay. Unlike we do now, we call it modern medicine, the more research we are having, the more progress people say we are making, most of them are retrogressive .
