The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha has denied reports that the Federal Government made a request for the herbal medicine produced in Madagascar for the cure of COVID-19.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, made this known at the daily Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday.
Mustapha said the medicine was offered as a general gesture of ‘brotherly love’ from the Malagasy government to all African countries.
“Nigeria did not ask Madagascar for any solution, the Madagascar government decided to airlift quantities meant for African countries.
“It was taken in the spirit of African brotherly love to Guinea Bissau and we have asked our ambassador there to establish the location, the quantity and he has done that,” he said.
Mustapha, at a past briefing, had noted that the herbal medicine will go through standard validation process before it can be considered for use in Nigeria.
He also said he had received instructions from President Muhammadu Buhari to make arrangements to freight it home, “with a clear instruction that I should subject it to the validation process similar to what will happen to any other medicine or syrup or vaccine that is discovered or created internally.”
“So it will be subjected to the same process before it is put into any form of use. There’ll be no exception for that,” he said.
Nigeria is expected to receive some samples of the herbal medicine which is being used to supposedly treat and prevent COVID-19 in Madagascar.
Though the use of the herbal remedy to treat COVID-19 patients has been trailed by a lot of debates, countries like Tanzania, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and the Republic of Congo have indicated interest in the herbal remedy.
The herbal medicine was developed by Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.
