My name is Asiwaju Babatunde barmus,. I’m from lagos. My both parents are form lagos; my dad from lagos island and my mum from mushin. I had my early education in Lagos before I came to Ibadan in 2010 where I was admitted into UI after about ten years of staying at home.
After secondary school, I learnt herbs from my grandmother. After ten years of learning herbs, I had to come to UI and fortunately, I became the student Union president in UI first of its kind from my Department: Threatre Art and since I left they’ve not been able to provide a candidate not to talk of somebody winning. I pray many of such come so that as a person who took the first batoon, I will be able to hand over to another. So I started my first degree in UI and my second degree but because of my nature of activism, I had a great rift with the then VC, Olayinka and that admission was terminated not because I was thug but because of my activism.
I was opportuned to work with late governor Abiola Ajimobi during his eight years in office, I was an appointee of the governor, the Liason Officer Information, Culture and Tourism. But before that I was working in his community relations scheme. I started the community relation. If you were familiar with his first term, there was nothing like community relation. I was the one that wrote the proposal when the bridge at apete collapse and some students died then will interfaced with the people and we brought the result to the governor and he was impressed.
Then Olowofela was their chairman in Ido local government. The governor inaugurated it in front of the 33 local government chairmen and the SSG. We started working toward his second term and we delivered. We brought community relations into his second tenure but unfortunately because things worked the way they wanted it to work.
I’ve been in the political system for some times and activism, and a lot of people asked that Asiwaju, you travelled out of the country for some time and then you came back all we now saw is that you started doing herbs. Well, I didn’t answer the question.
Then something struck my mind that what would answer the question when it is time. Then when result started coming out, some people bought the products and testimonies started coming in, then people got the answer they were looking for directly or indirectly. So what brought me into herbal therapy was that in 2014, I met a woman at Skye bank bodija where we were eating Amala, a woman was talking to her husband, she had fibroid and she wanted to do surgery and was asked to bring about 200,000. She was telling the husband that she won’t be able to go to Sabo to change money that her husband should send Naira direct. So I overheard the conversation and I told the woman that if it is fibrod operation that you wanted to do, please don’t do it because I give you five years, it will regrow but I have something to give you, you’re not paying for it, prepare it and use it, I’m very sure the fibrod would go. So I gave the woman that in 2014. She doesn’t have my number and I didn’t have hers too because probably she thought I was a 419 so we didn’t exchange contact so I saw her back I. March 2020 that was six years after and she had one three years old Baby and she was backing one. She was the one that called me ‘booda e ranti mi ni’ (brother, don’t you remember me) and she explained the scenerio and i was amazed. She made a statement that I didn’t know the kind of work you’re doing but that herbal therapy stuff, please take it as a job.
The woman told me this March, the same day we were coming from Gov Ajimobi’s house. The last meeting we had with Gov. Ajimobi of blessed memory when we were coming back with some of my friends. She said after I gave her that recipe that she gad given three other persons who had also given birth too.
So I was touched. I got home at bodija, I created a WhatsApp and telegram group and was teaching people herbs for free given them recipe. So I always tell them that anything I give you, if it works share the testimony let people know about it. If it doesn’t tell me, I will give you another one because our bodies are the same.
So when I started seeing a lot of Testimonies in few days not up to two weeks, the guy that sang my jingle when I was contesting for Student union president paparazzi said he needs some herbs, he gave me 10,000. I prepared four; I gave him one, sold one to Prince and sold to two other people, I made another forty thousand naira from it, then the journey started. Then my friends in the UK, in Germany and many other places I’ve travelled to started ordering for herbs too because they know that I won’t do what would tarnish my image that what I’m not sure if I won’t dabble into it. So they started ordering for the herb and the herb became an international brand in less than two months. Then we started carving out names for products, approach NAFDAC and all. That was how I started, so I would say that it wasn’t I planned to do in 2020 not even in 2050 but the woman spoke. If I had not given the woman what I gave her that helped her, I wouldn’t have gotten the message God gave her to give me. So it just that the help I gave came back to put me in line of what I should have been doing for a very long time, cuts in, on the path of Destiny? Yes. So that was how I started.
So how has the journey been so far?
So far? I was telling somebody four days ago that I’ve been in politics for over 12years actively and the people I’ve met in politics all in my life they are not up to the people I’ve met in my herbal business. Today I have over 100,000 contacts in the US that we talk, in a month, all of us we tall though I have never met them physicall except through video calls but I met them through this business. Currently, I’ve treated 4 house of rep members for high blood pressure, 2 senetors for diabetes and a Governor’s mother from the East. So all these people are in my contact, j didn’t know them while in politics. So far so good, this business has made me to even have contact with Ooni, so I believe that when you sell the truth or you do the truth every other thing will come. I started by giving out recipe to test what I gained from my grandparents that are these things still working. I din’t start by selling products. It was the testimonies that came that came back that gave me the message that I’m carrying a gold mine which I must explore. And ever since then, it had been from one great story to another. Recently, I got a testimony from a woman in the US who sent me a video not text. She was cured of diabetes and for over six months, she has not been using insulin and she’s eating everything and she’s been treating diabetes with orthodox medicine for over six years. So these things she kept telling people and other people also tell others. So I’m seeing this that a lot of us have what we can do better than what we are doing, young people rushing into politics, being used by political gladiators. I said something to Mr dayo Iyaniwura that if we use half of the time we spent on the governor media on our respective businesses, it will strive than we can think. Up till this present moment since last year that I started this business, I’ve been the one doing my media myself. So the same time I will spend that somebody will call me siwes boy, the same time I will spend defending government policies that are antihuman, the same time I will send trying to write articles for people to believe that this government is doing fine, I spent out of that time on my business. I write advertorials, I do videos and a lot of things, when you saw all these lights and you were asking whether I’m now into media, no, I bought all these because I studied threatre arts and I was in technical, i deal with light, set and all, so you understand. So did the construction of this office in three days when I rented it, so it also a message to young people who are still in school and out of school. There are a lot of things that we’ve gained from our parents and grandparents that could help but we’re ain’t looking that side.
What are the Diseases You Specialize In Controlling?.
When I was growing up, my grandparents taught me a lot of things. They didn’t even teach me, I lived learning a lot of things from them, I had no choice because I lost my parents when I was in primary four, so i had no choice than to live with my grandparents. So, while staying there, when I wake up, I wake up handling herbs and sleep handling herbs. So while growing up I learnt a lot from them; diabetes, weak erection, high blood pressure, premature ejaculation, hymeriod, menstrual seizu6, fallopian tube blockage, infections, skin rashes, brain tumor, daimentia, a lot of things. When I was now growing up after the demise of my grandmother and other person except for one person who’s still alive, Alhaji S.A. Adeokin, I still saw him yesterday, he’s also one of the people that taught me, and I now went into research that okay all what I learn from my grandparents are what they do in Yoruba land, what are they doing in the north, east, China, what are they doin5in Cameroon? How can I integrate these things together. I went into research and it afforded me the opportunity into knowing about forty more ingredients that they use for diabetes in different part of the world. So I ordered little percentage of the forty then we went into the lab to do laboratory experiment, toxicology report to know which one can we combine together that will not be harmful to the body. After the report, we combine and we did a test run about diabetes remedy. It was given us 40 -50% result then i was using our herbs alone but when I introduced other ones into it, we were getting about 70 – 80% percent. Then I sat down that what could be happening, we should get 10p% before we start selling the product out. Then I called someone in Thailand, so they recommended about 5/6 time and I bought them, we now use it to be part of these powder. If you see this diabetes herb, you will see that there’s powder inside this and there’s no powder inside this one, so we integrated and include those 6 and we started giving it to people and we got 100% result. So that made to say that now that’s we’ve gotten a tested and trusted diabetes herb, then we started selling it out. One of the reasons people don’t know about it yet is because NAFDAC will not give us approval for something like this because it is herb, it is not processed. They can give us for a processed one but this alone cannot cure them, so we have to process this either to turn into powder or turn it into syrup or liquid which is on the way, we’ve gotten the machines. Complete combo of 6 herbs will cure diabetes and will never show up again. What it will do is to revive the pankrise, when the pankrise is fully revived it will be able to produce insulin to mop up sugar in the body that is what it done. All of us that doesn’t have diabetes is because our pankrise secret insulin. So what they give them in the hospital to manage the diabetes when the pankrise is faulty is insulin injection or coated tablets insulin. So what this will do is to crash the sugar at first and after crashing the sugar, it will now start working on the pankrise. So those food they restrict patients from eating, we will now start introducing them. They said you should not eat eba, eat it once a day, they said you shouldn’t eat pounded yam after two weeks eat pounded yam and eba the same day, let’s see what we happen. I will paly a testimony here and let’s hear what the Woman said about this thing I’m telling you. So we started not just for this. A lady can eto my office, she’s a twin and she said her twin sister is not seeing her period and all for like four five months and I gave her this and she said she has use the menstrual seizure herb in two days and the period has come. These things are natural herb not tablets. So for people saying that herbs don’t work, then let’s take back to the pre Colonial era, how do they midwife? We don’t do surgery which Yoruba calls ‘Ise Abe’ and it means open surgery. Moremi Ajansoro did surgery for a lot of people. She was an Herbal therapist. If you have hymeriod and use our hymeriod herb with coconut water, it will be totally cured. If you have ulcer, let the person use ‘Tiponla leaf’ grind it and mix with honey and be using it, the ulcer will be cured. So all these things are our heritage they are things that make people call us Yoruba or Africans, so it is even an insult when they can it alternative medicine, it is an insult, it is our own medicine, we should not call it alternative. The white can call it alternative but we should call ours main Medicne and theirs alternative but generally these days they call it alternative or Supplementry or auxiliary or something that that is ‘by the side’. That is what they’ve labelled our herbs to be.
What are the challenges you are facing as regards the regulations of these herbs which has been labelled alternative medicine because it has not been subjected to medical testing and what are you doing with other colleagues in the industry to ensure that herbs are acceptable as main medicine and brought back to the forefront?.
You see when we were growing up, we get to know that when they qoute herb in our various homes, out grandparents or parents will tell us to drink herbs like water, drink it in the morning, afternoon and evening, they do not tell you the measurements. But when we started we felt that there’s nothing that’s taken in excess without side effect even orthodox Medicine. If you’re given 500MG of Ampiclus becham and because you’re feeling hard the pain or the infect and you now use three or four, then the person will land in the hospital because the person has failed to heed to the prescription. So on the regulations and the challenges we face. Cuts in: how do you determine the quantity that a patient will yake? Yes, very easy. I said something the other time that we do toxicology report and laboratory analysis. We have about 43 herbs some of which we got from Cameroon, the north, the East, China, etc but before we combine the 42, we have over 80. We now did laboratory analysis, if we combine these and these together, the chemical reaction, what will it give us. I’d it still good? So after doing that we know the composition of each herb/plant we combining and the level and the quantity you should take as an individual. So the same way we do toxicology report and laboratory analysis the same way pharmacologist do when a drug is to be made. So I’d you want to make this in tablet or capsule or syrup, what we do is to take that teaspoon inside capsule, the number capsule the teaspoon give us us the number of capsule you take daily. We just get out geratin, we put the powder inside it and tell you take two in the morning two at night. You’ve taken a teaspoon. So that’s on the dosage. On the challenges, you see the amount of money that has been use on research of orthodox Medicine or that are still been spent cannot be compared to anything in the world, so they do more research and the research give them more knowledge to know what and what could be done to avert some other ailments and cure the existing ones. That was what gave them the knowledge of vaccine to prevent. So in Yoruba land, whoever they do not want to give birth to a bastard, there’s a ritual they do, the ritual is the prevention of bastard because we do not have DNA test. This ritual will be done before a woman gives birth and after giving birth and if the child is a bastard, the child will die and something bad may even happen to the woman. Because we have these things here in Yoruba land, the issue of DNA wasn’t rampant when we are growing up. So on the challenges, the lack of funding has made a lot of people to relegate in herbal therapy. Apart from that a lot of people will just go jome, get a book of medicine and they cannot identify these herbs and leaves, they do not know what these herbs do individually, they just say my Father wrote down some leaves to be mixed together and then they will start selling. When there’s a side effect, they do not know what to use to control it. So half knowledge is also part of the challenges we face. Number three, attitude of the government to it. There’s a point I would love to stretch. You see the Alaafin of Oyo is doing the oranmiyan festival in Oyo to orientate our people about our culture. Though I was not born when oranmiyan was alive, I knly read about him.through literatures but I can see physically how it looks when I go for the festival in Oyo. The Ooni of Ife is doing ‘Odun Olojo’, ‘Moremi Ajansoro’ annually. A these things are cultural embedded programmes same way we are doing African medicine. These people are at the Frontline of embracing alternative medicine as a they it and preaching it to the government that we have so out local environment herbs and leaves that work. Whatever topic they are discussing, African alternative medicine should be part of it. So when they do that, there custodian of our culture. We have the Oyo state primary health care, Hon dada Awoleye was the chairman. So I was planning to make a proposition to him that indigenous wdwi es should be incorporated into the primary health Care. What we just need to do is to modify them, build a very big lab for them to text the toxic level of each herb they are bringing down. Look at what’s happening in the Asian countries Japan, China and the likes, they have the oldest population in the world because they take their hens ahead of any other thing. So if we Incorporate this at the local and state level, the federal government will be floating when we go back to the regional government. Charity begins at home they said right, so if we can do that, I’m very sure in the next 10/15 years, things would have changed. A lot of people who have the knowledge of herbs die daily and as they die, their knowledge and manuscripts go with them. They are not leaving anything behind. I’m not the only onein my family who has the knowledge of herbal therapy but as of today I’m the only one practising. What if after I went to the UK in 2019 I didn’t return, I was there living my lives. The number of lives I have saved would just be there, may be they’d get their cure somewhere else. So the government should set up committees that will go into villages, gather the people that know about herbal therapy, gather their knowledge, get their manuscripts, test how viable these things are, let us have a data Bank of our local herbal knowledge which would help us. There was a way they do miwife intjise days, right. Done even said that if anyone has a wound that is not healing up, it is caused by diabetes (if it not caused by supernatural means). So if the diabetes that made a wound not to heal up can be cured, then the wound can be treated and it will heal up. So these things are local herbs and we have a lot of people that coulhave know more but their grandparents have diesd and most people now deals with the wicked/negative part of the herbs.
On the unique selling point?.
Well, the unique selling point is very simple and is the analysis I’ve been given. We are not a road side herb seller. Number two is that we’re educated at ‘Asiwaju Elegbogi herbal therapy’. Number three, we don’t just combine herbs, we do laboratory analysis and we have toxicology report on every of those herbs. And aside form that we have a serene environment where we produce. Also because of our exposure, we’ve travelled far and wide outside the shores of Africa, it gave us what is happening in the other part of the world and it gave us how we can improve therapy the landscape of Africa. God instance if someone comes to us to complain nofnlow sperm count, we tell them please do your sperm analysis test and bring the result. There’s what they call culture, it is what led to theblow sperm. It will tell us the morphology which indicates the low sperm and the mortallity rate, the colour and the shape. When we know all thag, If it is a infection, a bacteria or fungi, we know what to give prescribe first, when they use it, it cures the infection then we take care of the sperm count. But how many herb sellers knows about that. When a woman complains about sperm leakage. Many people don’t now what causes sperm leakage, it is blocked fallopian tube. When a fallopian tube is blocked, what leads to that is long time untreated infection when an infected sperm is released into the virgina of a wona, it passes through the cervix to the uterus from the uterus to the fallopian tube, it is from there it goes to the ovary for fertilization. But when the infection nis there, it will block the tube and when the tube is blocked, when the sperm is travelling upa ND there’s no passage then it comes down. When a woman complains this to us, we ask you to do your test, bring the result, we treat the infection, treat the fallopian tube and the person gets pregnant, very easy. We don’t say Ogun Esu, Ogun Aye, pray. Yes you can pray but I God has given use what to use. If we are hungry, the antidote for hunger is food. So we can be hungry and be praying that God should fill us, no. So that’s are our unique selling points. We integrate orthodox and science to what we do because it is very easy. Now the three phases of herbal therapy are: divination aspect, the ritual aspect and the medicinal aspect which is what we do. So instead of now using divination, we just fontonthenlab and do test to know what the problem is. Those are our unique selling points.
So what are the efforts you are putting in place to ensure NAFDAC approves your products?.
All our products can be approved. What I’m saying is, okay we just got an approval from NAFDAC for our alcoholic bitters. The alcoholic bitters is the extraction of some combo and it is like root. But after we extract what is inside mixed with water and alcohol, it give us the alcoholic bitters, which has been approved. We have the certificate. For this one too, we have to extract them. So when NAFDAC come for visitation, we show them the extraction process, we give them the plant in it, when will do the report, we give them the report. So they will tell us that now these are the roots. What do we do. Then we tell them that when we douse the water with chlorine, we get the water sterilized and we put it in a boiling point, we add water, after boiling for six hours, we extract, we take it to the mixer where we mix it and put it into the filling vessel, cock it and it becomes a processed liquid that treat diabetes. But this one how do we get the powder. We get the herbs directly from the bush we wash it after washing, we oven dry it then out it into Miller, it is the Miller that will grind it into powder. If we have 20, we will grind the 20 differently, after grinding, we’ll measure and put it into the mixer, the powder mixer mix it together. After mixing together, it will become like this were we package and that is what NAFDAC wants to see. When they now see the process and the machines, what we do is, we submit for their own laboratory test to see if it correspond with what we submit after then we know that nature of the Nigeria system, it will take some times probably a year or some months, then you will get your number. All these things are highly capital intensive. So you have a production process about 5,6,7. If you’re producing syrup, it has its own production unit, likwise paste, liquid, powder and each production unit, we have not less Dow 3-4 machines which cost not less down 4million naira and you’re buying 4 which means you need 16million to do one. So but we’ve gotten for anything that has to do with powder and syrup already. So we started this business June last year and we’ve gotten NAFDAC number for a product after a year, NAFDAC gives approval per product not the company. So if you’re making. 10 products, 10 different supervisions will be done. We are new and fresh in the business. We do not want to rush so that we will not because of the money start making inferior product for people to consume.
As a member of the herbal therapist association, what is the association doing to curb indiscriminate selling of herbs
Sincerely, the Nigeria system needs to be overhaul generally. I’ve been part of the association for over ten years whether active or not active. I was born to be a member of the association. I followed my grandmother to different places and actively I got my certificate too as an active member and I will tell you since I’ve joined, no single election has been conducted successfully and that tells you what is happening in the association. But we young people are coming on board with our education and exposure and I believe that fee years to come there will be a great level of improvement. A lot of people has been calling me that they want to learn online, I told them you can’t learn it online. There’s no University that will teach you medicine and surgery online. If you want to know about herbal therapy and you want to impact lives, you need to know about human anatomy, how body respond to these things, a bit of laboratory technology, a lot more about plant identification, usage and functions. All these things they want to learn it within three months and start selling online. So that’s why a lot of people nbuy herbs and get complications afterwards. That’s why people say don’t buy anything online, since we started, we use a year and 2months to sell online, no place to pick up. This office was just gotten 2months ago, strictly online without any physical office and we face the challenges. It has been a successful journey. If ten people message us in a day that they want to buy our product and nine didn’t buy because it was online, the only one will refer ten people later and we will get one new customer daily. We give customers s boutique style of attention and interaction, they continue referring more people to us
Any relationship with the Nigeria Medical Association?.
The African alternative therapy has been demonized by the western culture, even by the religion settings we have. For instance, if you enter my office or my house, and you see cowries and clay pot, you may not want to to come again. Whereas cowries are use to beautify. Some claybpot are used to cook in some parts of Abeokuta but if you come to my house and I cook with clay pot, then offer you a meal, would you accept it. The African alternative medicine and the African culture has been demonized. Yes, there’s no doubt about the ritual aspect but not everybody that practices the ritual. All these threatre people that you see around that they would act Sango, they use fleat, kerosene and all, they are not breathing out fire, it is just the entertainment aspect the do. Since alternative medicine has been demonized, the doctor will you not to use herbs, use orthodox medicine. I have even heard of a guy who has diabetes and was given injection but later got his erection affected as he had erectile dysfunction. He was introduced to me and I prescribe herbs to be used for high blood pressure and diabetes. Since last year till today, he has not used anything and he’s doing well with his woman and he’s not using any drug again. So i think the NMA if have people like Ooni, Alaafin who are Yoruba Leaders propagating African alternative medicine, this would help to reshaping the ideology and mentality of our people. And when they are doing this, the governor of Oyo is different from other states. If because of Alaafin, Olubadan, Soun, the governor of Oyo incorporated herbal therapy into the health system and same happen in Osun because of Ooni, Alake will not sleep in Ogun State and some other Kings too. By so, the way they started Amotekun, by so the mentality will change. When doctors sees that as he’s resuming to his own office, a trado medical person is also resuming to the same office, there will be synergy. When a doctor is treating a patient and there’s no result. He will call the herbal therapist if there’s anything that could be done with herbs. And if with the herb, there is result next time, any patient with such issue will be referred straight to the herbal therapist and he synergy will start just like that. So we need our traditional rulers to bring back, because some of them are using it in their homes while some of them go to abroad for treatment. They know the efficacy of our herbs and they should help propagate it.
Considering your experience in the industry, what would you on a final note give as advice to the government concerning the industry?
Advice to the government is very simple. I read yesterday that president Muhammadu Buhari is tasking University lecturers to Lok for cure for covid but this can’t be achieved by mere talk. The university that has always been going on strike for over 12/15 years. There has never been 2 admission sessions that ASUU will not go on strike because of low funding and you’re tasking them to go into research. The ones they did have not been properly rewarded. If they want to go into that research, they call their botanist, pharmacologists and all they will still go back to what, our herbs and the people practising herbs are not carried along, I have four people interning with me, they’ve studied botany if I put leaves on ground, they cannot identify them. They only know the botanical names and use it to write exams in school. After the botanical names, nothing. So the government should try and work with the traditional institution and bring to life our traditional medicine. There’s one thing in Hausaland they call it ‘Burantashi’. Burantashi is one root. If you take ‘Agunmu’ from all this local herbs sellers, ‘Agunmu Ale’ is always white. It that ‘Burantashi’ and ‘Agunmu Ale’ that Yoruba grinds together. It delays ejaculation without any side effect even if you have high blood pressure, you can use it. Another thing they add to it is ‘poroporo Hausa’ it works on the bloodstreams, it opens your veins for blood to flow very well and isn’t the inability of the blood to flow well that causes stroke? And this works on the blood vessels. So I will advise the state government not just the federal to please look into alternative African medicine. It is the best kind of medicine you can think of because it is green and organic, it is nature nothing is added to it.
