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By  Kayode Ojewal In Nigeria , the open sale of drugs – both traditional and pharmaceutical— through unregistered outlets is a major concern.  It is not strange to see unregistered ‘doctors’ and ‘pharmacists’ advertising and selling medicines in commercial buses and by the roadsides. These drug hawkers are sometimes seen selling prescription-only antibiotics and other powerful painkiller drugs. They do not only prescribe drugs, but they also go as far as recommending the dosage to be taken to these unsuspecting commuters.   Some street hawkers have their shops, stores and makeshift ‘clinics’ located in motor parks and market places where they offer ‘general body checkups’ and also display their medicines for sale. It is observed that people who opt to patronise these drug hawkers do so from time to time to treat common illnesses like malaria, stomach upset and general body pains chiefly because it saves time, effort and money going in search of doctors and drug stores. Th...

By   Kayode Ojewale “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.” – Hippocrates (460 – 370BC), Greek Doctor. Audu Ogbeh, agriculture minister, sometime ago in a piece published by a national daily titled, ‘ Nigeria , Global Standard In Food Production And Trade,’ wrote “What you eat, if you eat well, will determine your state of health and your longevity as a human being. Unfortunately, most of the time nowadays, we are actually eating poison because of the way we handle our food production.   From the seed we cultivate, to the fertilizer we use, to the chemical we spray, to the way we process the food, or even preserve the food, or package the food, we are determining whether we are eating well or eating badly.” No doubt, we are what we eat! We are a reflection of what we daily take in as food and water. To a large extent, a man’s health is determined by his nutrition – nourished, undernourished or malnourished. The reason is not farfetched. The Gre...