Founder of Ayodele Herbals, Dr. Isaac Ayodele spoke candidly on his 20years experience in herbal medicine practice: “When I started herbal medicine 20 years ago, it was regarded as voodoo, satanic because everything black was regarded as evil and anything white is good. You know it is a colonial mentality, God is white and satan is black. Then, those of us practicing herbal medicine were called Babalawo.”
“We had to do a lot of enlightenment about what herbal medicine is all about. I was the Bureau Chief of Democrat Newspaper in Abuja and was an Editor with Radio Nigeria. So, I used my journalism experience to start a campaign in educating Nigerians about herbal medicine. Then, the elites and the churches did not believe in herbal medicine. Infact, a member can be ex-communicated if the church gets to know that he or she is taking herbal medicine. It was the media that I used to give new information order to Nigerians by looking at the components of herbal medicine and what herbal medicine is capable of doing. NAFDAC now came with Prof. Dora Akunyili.”
“You see, some people thought that NAFDAC was coming to destroy their business. But it was NAFDAC that modernized our herbal medicine, the agency did a lot of work by asking herbal medicine practitioners to bring their products to their laboratories for proper analysis so as to give Nigerians confidence to use herbal medicine.”
“However, my heart bleeds today because Nigeria is losing a lot of medicinal plants, thousands of our medicinal plants are wasting away and these plants are needed in the advance countries of the world. Infact, there was a plant I was looking for and I saw it on the floor of somebody’s compound. I am different from other heberal medicine practitioners because I came into herbal medicine with a vision and passion. I lost my father in the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War. He was killed in Ogoja, Cross River State. 46years after my father was killed, my family have not been compensated by the Nigerian government. As the only child of my father, I was maltreated, I cried every January 16th when they say that the labour of our fathers shall not be in vain. But my own father’s labour for Nigeria was in vain. After 20years in herbal medicine, Ayodele Herbals have moved from concoction to syrups and also from powder to capsules and tablets. We have also gone digital at Ayodele Herbals as our products can be ordered from anywhere in the world, I equally went back to school and I am now a doctor of public health.”