‘Agbo’takes over medicine cabinets
analysed samples of the drink known as “paraga” sold in or near motor parks. “There were no formal recipes, production involved no calibrations, or weighing and thus the components and concentration of different batches varied,” researchers in the study reported.
The samples contained as high as 21% alcohol by volume: nine were equivalent to beer; the rest were equivalent to wine or stronger. Recent brews can have up to 40% alcohol by volume.
Herbal medicine permeates all of Africa, but agbo is shifting from its Yoruba origins and invading societies across Nigeria. In Makurdi, 20-year-old Nike Ayoola is well known at High Level Motorpark. Her customers have nicknamed her brew “quick cure” - claiming they get relief faster with it. She measures up shots for as low as N50, enough for three takes a day. Johnson Ede haunts Wurukum area of Makurdi for a daily cup of agbo, every morning and every evening to “clear impurities” in his system. His choice is “wash and set”. “Whenever I take Agbo, I feel so well because it flushes my abdominal system of any impurities, making me fit to undertake any task at work,” he says.
He is confident the roots, fruits, leaf extracts that go into agbo are at their best in the hands of the vendors because they haven’t undergone processing.
Uwem Uwem, another user in Makurdi, was won over after agbo shooed away sexual challenges. “I’m a testimony that Agbo works for men who can hardly impress their sexual partners,” he says. “I have recommended it to some of my friends who have similar problems and they have testimonies too,” Uwem posited.
Tor James hasn’t been won over. He has deep reservations about dosages prescribed by sellers “who know nothing or little about the health implications of the mixture given to their customers to drink,” he says.
From motor parks and mechanic garages to market areas, business premises and street corners, agbo has established its presence in the north of Nigeria. Its travel north is buoyed by its affordability and claimed potency.
In some countries, herbal medicine has been designated interventions as traditional or alternative medicine. The rich go on medical trips abroad, the poor seek out agbo dealers on street corners. People who reside in villages or remote areas where health facilities are not easily accessible in Kaduna resort to traditional herbs for cure of their diseases; particularly pregnant women and children.
One study found women had “positive perception” about safety and efficacy of herbs over conventional drugs in pregnancy. Many involved in the study had used herbs at one point at least during pregnancy. Agbo was the most used. The lack of empirical evidence behind agbo use prompted the study to call for the herbs to under laboratory examination. But it is weak.
Seun Olajide is a staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and a big fan of agbo. “God created these plants for the use of man. Herbal drugs have been in existence since the days of our forefathers and they have been working,” he says.
“Though, some say it is not hygienic, but most of the agbo are cooked before consumption and I believe once something is well cooked, every germ or dirt in it must have been killed. If, truly, agbo is not good, why are people still consuming it?”
Rabi Musa is not about to stop. She isn’t the only patron mixing agbo and orthodox medicine. No matter the quantity of medicines she gets from a hospital or pharmacy, she never gets better until she “crowns it” with herbal medicine. And that’s mostly for typhoid or malaria. “Most times, these orthodox drugs only suppress the ailment but the herb flushes it out of your system,” she says.
Sidikat is one of countless, unregulated dealers of agbo in Kaduna. She spent two years training in the art of agbo under an older woman before relocating to Kaduna to ply her trade. And it is in full swing. “With just N50 or N100, you can buy agbo for malaria, typhoid, sugar disease (jedijedi), and prolonged erection for the men,” says Sidiqat.
“We also prepare herbs for cure of watery sperm, fibroid and infection among others but these are based on order from people who want them.”
Eastern Nigeria has its traditional medicines for common ailments. They are dispensed by their dealers or herbalists upon request. Agbo Yoruba style has recently joined the arsenal of herbal concoctions and is rapidly climbing to the top of the pile.
In Owerri, the sight of young girls and women with a bowl of agbo bottles balanced Gone were the days when our clients were motor park boys or mechanics, who take ‘paraga’ first thing before they begin work,” boasts Hadiza. “We now have bankers, and even lawyers as our customers. All of them testify to the goodness of the herbal medicine and even confessed they get healed faster than conventional drugs on their head is becoming comer. And designated agbo points are taking root. The points are where anyone can get shots of “paraga”, a mix of gin and root or herbal drink, but still 80% gin. For those not wanting a high, there is “gbogbonise” a Yoruba word that literally means “works for everything”.
The silver bullet has gained ground in homes in the east but lost the “shay” sound at its end, replaced by a sharp sibilant “say”. On Douglas Road in Owerri, Hadiza is famous for the efficacy of her stock. And her patron base is widening to include the “high and mighty”, she says.
“Gone were the days when our clients were motor park boys or mechanics, who take ‘paraga’ first thing before they begin work,” boasts Hadiza. “We now have bankers, and even lawyers as our customers. All of them testify to the goodness of the herbal medicine and even confessed they get healed faster than conventional drugs.”
But her customers have a preference. Her biggest selling agbo are brews for malaria and sexual performance. She and her customers call the latter ‘man power’.
Girls like Hadiza are common sight, sometimes in pairs or trios, walking the streets of Owerri. They are eating into the market for patent medicine dealers. Ifeanyi, who runs a patent medicine store, says patronage has dropped. “People no longer just stray in and buy drugs. Even common paracetamol is hard to sell because ‘gbogbonise’ has taken over the market,” says Ifeanyi.
“Apart from young girls, the new method is that it’s being advertised by microphoneblaring vehicles.”
That agbo is natural and nature is a big claim. It is not in doubt. Many drugs dispensed in hospitals have their origins in plants. But Mohammed Ibrahim, of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, draws a line.
“Even though many drugs have their origin in herbs and plants, they have been refined, the toxic components have been removed while experiment must have been carried out to determine the level of consumption for human beings,” he says.
“But the problem with herbal medicine is that we cannot tell whether they are refined or not, we don’t know the plants or leaves used to prepare the concoctions. “We cannot say whether the active ingredient has been extracted or not because experiments have not been carried out publicly to determine the appropriate dose required for the disease as well as the effectiveness. So it becomes difficult to determine whether they are safe or not because there’s no proper scrutiny of the processes involved.
“All the drugs in the markets have gone through various stages of scrutiny but some of those who are into herbal medicine business inherited the business from their parents or grandparents and it continues like that without adequate knowledge of the things involved. So while some of them could be genuine, many others may not,” he said.
For all the potency attributed to agbo, it remains a silver bullet that continues to raise questions.
“Drugs are produced under controlled environments, dispensing them is also controlled,” says Dr Joel Jir. “A woman who just carries herbal drugs and dispenses any quantity to people is doing a lot of harm to people’s liver. This is why we have increased rate of liver-related illnesses like liver cirrhosis.”
Nearly three in four people who took part in a study on pharmacovigilance of herbal medicines claimed they saw no side effects. The other one in four reported side effects to include nausea, diarrhoea and weight loss. Only 19% of side effects reported were documented, but none of the documentation was forwarded to regulatory bodies like the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control or any other pharmacovigilance centre in Nigeria.
The concerns raised by the 2011 study prompted a proposal for a World Bankbacked African Centre of Excellence but traction on that front is uncertain.
“The concern really is the people involved in making it. Some of them don’t have knowledge of dosage regimen. They just tell you you can drink three cups,” said Akande, looking back on the response to the biological evaluation of herbal medicines years later.
“Most of them contain natural products, and many of these natural products are like food. As Socrates said, ‘let your food be your medicine, let your medicine be your food’. But the truth is that the usage - in terms of dosages, are not regulated.”
Like food, a lot of everything may not be the best, doctors warn. “I will explain myself in a layman’s language so that you could understand,” Ibadan-based Okikiolu warns. “Many of our inner parts are very fragile and sensitive. How we use these sensitive parts of our body determines our healthy future. As a trained medical person and a Yoruba man, I also believe in agbo but our people are abusing it.
“We discourage people from taking it because of their indiscriminate ways of consuming it without proper diagnostic process. It is when you know what is wrong in your body system that you will know the drug to use but it is not so in this case.”