Though he may not like being in the headline of a newspaper, Dr Michael Olawale Omolayole will admit two things: He is a goldfish that has no hiding place, and his name will help draw attention to the colloquium on malaria that is taking place today in Ijebu-Imusin, his hometown.

The colloquium is midwifed by the Michael and Theresa Omolayole Centre for Community Development, a non-government organisation set up by Omolayole and his late wife, Theresa, for interventions in community development issues.

The colloquium, to be addressed by Prof. Oyeku Oyelami, specialist in paediatric and adolescent medicine, and Provost of Federal College of Medicine, Ila Oragun, Osun State, reflects the theme, “Malaria Ends with Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, and Reignite”, that marked Malaria Day of April 25, 2025.

Dr Titi Hassan, professor of zoology at of University of Ibadan, will respond to Oyelami’s submissions, and ophthalmic surgeon, Dr Kunle Hassan, proprietor of the White Shoe Eye Foundation Hospital, is the chairman.

 The 2025 Malaria Day global campaign is to re-energise efforts, from global to community level, to expeditiously eliminate malaria. Nigeria’s National Strategic Plan 2021-2025 is to achieve a malaria-free Nigeria, by keeping malaria parasite prevalence to less than 10 per cent and reducing mortality to less than 50 deaths in 1,000 live births by 2025.

According to Omolayole, the colloquium will provide “vital knowledge about the prevention and treatment of malaria, which is a dreaded disease in the whole of tropical Africa. It particularly affects and kills millions of children below the age of 5”.

Those old enough will remember that West Africa was described as a “White man’s graveyard” because yellow fever and malaria led to a high mortality rate of Europeans. Some suggest that Caucasian and Arab settlers chose temperate Southern and North Africa to escape the scourge of mosquitoes.

Hinting at his approval of alternative medicine, Omolayole revealed that Oyelami was in a position to “demonstrate… how some herbs and plants that surround us can help considerably in the matter (of battling malaria)”.

He adds that he had heard and read extensively “about neem (dongoyaro), lemon grass and oruwo plants” that are cheaper and more readily accessible for use to combat the devastating scourge of malaria fever.

By the way, ethnopharmacology, which Omolayole seems to be interested in promoting, is the study of what Western orthodox medicine practitioners prefer to derisively label as traditional medicines and their uses.

A more academically arrogant definition of alternative medicine is that it aims to achieve the healing effects of orthodox medicine, even though it lacks biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness.

But, then, any form of medication, orthodox or alternative, must be taken with a pinch of salt. That is probably why doctors suggest that patients should always seek second opinions. Some have even suggested that patients could use orthodox and alternative medicine to complement each other.

Perhaps a more acceptable definition of alternative medicine is that it includes medical practices that are not considered to be part of conventional or orthodox medicine and focuses on holistic approaches, natural therapeutics and alternative systems of healing, many of which are backed by a long history of usage and cultures.

It is also important to stress that there is a need to ensure the safety of the medications and the qualification or expertise of those who will dispense the alternative medicine options, as it applies to the use of Western orthodox medicine.

In addition, the methods of alternative medicine are not taught by regular university medical schools. But it is obvious that alternative medicines have returned with a vengeance, to the extent that vendors of herbal medicines are sometimes allowed to hawk their remedies to patients even in the wards of some Nigerian medical teaching hospitals.

Perhaps the biggest blow to Big Pharma is that alternative medicine gives patients very easy access to exceedingly cheaper herbs. Alternative medicine includes herbal medication, acupuncture, homoeopathy, massage therapy, yoga and meditation and significantly reduces the need to pop pills that come with significant negative side effects.

The lobby for alternative medicine, or at least another approach to the use of medication, was taken to another level by Dr Stella Immanuel, a Cameroonian, who studied medicine at the University of Calabar in Cross River State of Nigeria.

She led an audacious crusade for the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, America’s food and drug administration agency, in panic mode on behalf of Big Pharma, promptly shot the idea down with reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” and other ill-defined health issues.

But Dr Immanuel’s effrontery rang throughout the world as Donald Trump, in his first term as America’s President, seemed to have weighed in on her side. But Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of America’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was on the side of orthodox Western medicine and the financially munificent Big Pharma lobby.

But the world took notice of the debate, and many in the metropolitan economies of North America and Western Europe and the peripheral economies of South America, Africa, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe stampeded in droves to patronise outlets that sold herbal medicines to combat the dreaded Covid-19 grim reaper.

Two state governors in Nigeria, Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, publicly admitted to having been cured of COVID-19 after taking herbal medicine. Testimonies of the efficacy of herbal medicine thus suddenly became more fashionable.

Dr Olorunninbe Mamora, a medical doctor and Minister of State for Health to former President Muhammadu Buhari, even promised that the government would work with herbal medicine practitioners to find solutions to COVID-19.

However, the cynicism of the Western orthodoxy against alternative medicine is so high that the world may miss the little steps that are capable of delivering the great benefits of cheaper and less complicated drugs to the world.

Little do these Euro-American cynics know that South African botanist, Dr. Zimara Dubeni, found out that Moringa oleifera leaf extracts can enhance food safety, reduce synthetic additives and improve public health if used to preserve raw chicken meat that can otherwise breed foodborne diseases.

The intervention of the Omolayoles’ MATOCCODEV is timely, considering the recent report of a breakout of Lassa fever that has caused 138 deaths in 15 Nigerian states. To be sure, Lassa fever is somewhat different from malaria fever.

Lassa fever is a viral illness transmitted by rodents, and malaria fever is a parasitic infection that is spread by mosquitoes. Whereas symptoms of Lassa fever are headache, fatigue, and, sometimes, bleeding, vomiting and kidney issues, those of malaria fever are chills, sweats, and, when it really gets worse, include seizures, fainting, coma and even death.

Today, MATOCCODEV is going to be facilitating the sharing of knowledge on the prevention of malaria fever and distributing, for free, 25 units of treated mosquito nets that were popularised by Rotary International.

Omolayole expects that the colloquium will attempt to explain the nexus between orthodox medicine and herbal medicine that is considered to be more cost-effective and more readily available, especially in rural communities.

Maybe Nigeria’s healthcare policymakers should give more than passing attention to the malaria colloquium taking place at Ijebu-Imusin today.