(Being the concluding part of an interview started yesterday between Nigeria Natural Health Online's editor, Dumbiri Frank Eboh, and Dr Egbaredon Ehis Humphrey, the CEO Of Save Soul Natural Clinic, a Lagos based natural health facility).
Accessing Save Soul
Natural Clinic services
Accessing
our services is very simple. We are leaving in the computer age, in the internet age. It
is possible for you to be anywhere in the world and access any product
or service anywhere in the world. I have various media platforms through
which I could be reached. Besides this, getting the product that I use in the
clinic also has its own side to the whole thing. First, if a patient calls me to
complain of an ailment, I would ask him/her to go for a laboratory test or to a
doctor who will carry out a medical investigation about the ailment. When the result
is out, the person sends me the document and I prepare the medicine, package it
and send to him/her where he/she is in the world. The person takes it and get
well, people have come to put their trust on my medicine because I’m the only
one that gives money-back guarantee. I do it because I know the efficacy of my
medicine.
Terminal diseases can succumb to natural medicine
Let
me take this issue from another dimension, based on my background. I grew up
seeing all these ailments being cured with natural medicine. There is no disease that cannot be cured with natural
medicine, I have never heard of any such sickness. However, we believe that
there are some diseases that can terminate life. But there can be perfectly
managed and the ailer can live for a very long time before he dies of that
disease. I speak of what I have seen, and what I have been involved with and
what I have been practicing for a very long time.
The role of government in promoting natural medicine in Nigeria
Well
I think government is playing a role in the sector but it is not a well
defined role. Government has not done enough for the natural health industry
in Nigeria. We have an office, we have a board, we have a chairman and we have
various board members. They are all there. But the sad thing is that, the board
is being managed by medical doctors, and not natural health doctors. So how do
you expect government role to be visible in the sector? Of course the medical
doctor will always think along the line of orthordox medicine and not in the line
of natural medicine.
The challenges of providing health care in Nigeria
Of
course there are challenges. If you had come on the day that my herbs are delivered,
you would have seen one of the challenges and even experience it yourself. You
would be here all day but would not be able to interview me. Why? Some of my medicines
come from Benin Kingdom, some come from Abeokuta, and some come from Benue,
Kogi and other parts of Nigeria. It depends on the particular ailment I want to
cure. If it is such that demand that I should go across the sea to get the cure,
I go across the sea to get that medicine to cure the patient. That’s why you
can never find my medicine in any shop. They are prepared specifically for
specific patients, on individual examination. I examine you and find out what
is wrong with you and prepared your medicine according Benin tradition. So,
there are many challenges but because I’m from Benin Kingdom, they don’t affect
me as much as they affect other practitioners in the industry.
Herbal medicine as a course of study in Nigeria universities
Yes,
I heard the news when it broke out last year that the government was
contemplating putting herbal medicine in the curriculum of Nigerian
Universities. It was actually a health editor in one of the national dailies
that brought the news to me and I received it with mixed feelings. I was happy
because, it was a step in a right direction. But I have my doubt as to it success. Do you know why? Because it is going to be managed by medical doctors
and not natural health providers so it will be difficult for that policy to
succeed. If they want to develop traditional medicine in Nigeria, they should
pick managers from among natural health practitioners so my advice to government is that if they
create that department, lecturers should be drawn from natural health
practitioners and not from medical doctors.
Integration of orthodox
and herbal medicines
It
is good. Orthodox and herbal medicines can go a long way if they walk hand in
hand. If for instance a patient is brought here with a certain heath condition that
can be cured only when the headache is reduced, I can administer an analgesic to bring
down the headache while I threat the ailment with herbs. That’s a good
integration. I advice my patients, if there’s a need to use orthodox medicine
while they are using my medicine, they should please do so as long as the
medicines are not such that can interact with each other. So the orthodox needs
us as much as we need them.
Those who can access
Save Soul Clinic products and services
Everybody
and anybody can access our product and services; however, you can see that this
clinic is not a small one. It takes a lot to manage it but that does not mean
that coming here would drill a hole in your pocket. It actually depends on the patient's ability to pay. I’m a very considerate person when it comes to
charging my patients. If you talk to me in a way that I can understand, I can
give you premium service at a highly reduced fee. So both the rich and poor can have
access to me. I have treated Governors, company directors and other big shots in the society. I have also treated petty traders, hawkers and people of low income bracket. People also come from overseas, including United States, Germany,
Canada, South Africa and other countries in world.
What differentiate Save
Soul Clinic from others
I
have told you what it is. It is beyond medicine, it is not just about taken tablets or
liquid. It is the ability for you to trace the course of an ailment to
it root and cure it from the source. Sometimes when patients come here, I look
at the source of the problems, whether spiritual, physical or emotional. If it demands that I go to the spiritual to handle it,
I do that. Whether the ailments are physical or spiritual, we cure it from the source. That’s what set us apart from others. In Save Soul Natural Clinic, it is
beyond medicine. It is spiritual
