… demand capital punishment for culprits

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By Ngozi Onyeakusi—Nigerians and professionals in the health sector have lamented the growing menace of quackery in the country, blaming regulatory failures, obsolete laws and the government’s lack of will to check the evil act.

Experts and citizens raised these concerns during a radio town hall meeting on Public Sector Integrity in Nigeria, organized by the Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development, PRIMORG, at the weekend in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, the President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Dr. Casimir Ifeanyi stated that quackery business is motivated by monetary gain and has continued to flourish over the years in the country over “non-compliance to standard, failure of regulatory bodies to do their job and lack of political will on the side of the government.”

Ifeanyi, while declaring medical quackery and negligence as the highest killers of citizens, lamented the growing number of ‘guarded and protected’ quacks in public hospitals and health facilities across the country.

His words: “Quackery is seemingly lucrative, and regulation has failed. We have regulatory institutions. We have a regulatory framework. Unfortunately, these institutions seemingly lack the idea of how to carry on with the mandate of their office, so that they can’t be effective at safeguarding the lives of Nigerians.

“Secondly, the want of political will on the part of the government to free up the regulatory institutions has been provided in the enabling laws. Every profession has a charter. It is the charter that offers the rights of the practitioner and the duties of the practitioner that serve as a safeguard for the practitioner and those who receive services from them.

“It’s more pathetic when quackery happens in public health institutions. I am more concerned with this kind of guarded and protected quackery that happens under political protection. We need to speak to it.

“I have never seen the Medical Lab Science Association of Nigeria enter into any public hospital to say we want to look at the labs and the credentials of the practitioners. Why is that not happening? Guarded and protected quackery we need to address. It is very important and pertinent.,” Ifeanyi stated.

He urged the government and its institutions to get regulations right if they must stamp out quackery while assuring that AMLSN, under his watch, will continue to engage public hospitals and facilities on quackery issues.

On her part, the Managing Director at Americare Medical Group, Dr. Chichi Iwuamadi, said quackery was seriously ravaging the health sector; hence, Nigerians must be educated on the dangers of entrusting their lives to medical quacks.

According to Iwuamadi, Nigeria’s health industry is already in a state of emergency, noting that the absence of integrity in the society and pervasive corruption were encouraging medical quackery.

She, however, called for more sensitization of the general public on the effect of quacks.

“The ravaging of quacks’ practice in Nigeria cannot be underestimated. What is going on in the country is heartbreaking because people, out of deception, come to trust people who don’t have the ability and the licensing to take care of them. That means you are giving yourself to somebody who doesn’t have the capacity to take care of you,” Iwuamadi stated.

Legal Practitioner Ugo Nwofor called for a review of the existing anti-quackery laws in Nigeria, describing them as old and Obsolete. He stressed that the punishment for quackery should be made a capital offence in Nigeria.

“Quackery deals with everybody’s life, and laws are very obsolete when it comes to quackery.

“The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria act, particularly section 17 that deals with quackery, is not even detailed. It states that if you are not licensed and you practice as a doctor or in a related field, you pay a fine of 5,000 to 10,000 naira, and you go to jail for five years. That should be a capital offence. What’s the minister doing there? Nwofor queried.

Chris Obiaro, a disability inclusion expert, called for standardization of Nigeria’s public health system against quacks, disclosing that Persons with Disabilities (PWD) are very much affected by the menace of quackery.

He said, “Quackery has contributed to causes of disabilities because taking the wrong medication has led to so many people being persons with disabilities today and even applying wrong treatments prescribed by quack nurses or quack doctors has also led to some disabilities today. So PWDs go through a whole lot, and as you know, you cannot separate disability from poverty

“I think the government needs to do more on the strict laws against quackery. Again, there should be a lot of public enlightenment so that those who patronize them will actually make the decision to stop. This would go a long way,” Obiora said.

The PRIMORG’s Town Hall Meeting Against Corruption series is aimed at calling the public and government attention to specific issues of corruption in Nigeria.

The syndicated radio program runs with support from the MacArthur Foundation.