Prof Maurice Iwu, former INEC Chairman on Thursday called on the National Assembly to ensure the quick passage of the bill that sought to protect traditional medicine and regulate access to genetic resources.
Iwu, who is the Chairman of the Bio-resources Institute of Nigeria, made the appeal during a mini national stakeholders? forum on the draft legal document on the Act.
The Act is to provide? for “The Protection of Traditional Knowledge Regulation of Access to Genetic Resources and Related Matters''.
He said if the bill was passed into law,? it would ensure proper regulation of trado-medicine practice in the country, thus leading to the creation of jobs for millions of Nigerians as well as wealth creation.
Iwu said the passage of the bill would enable Nigerian traditional medicines to compete favourably with their international counterparts, as the process of producing them would meet the international standards.
The Chairman said the country was blessed with rich bio-diversity but lacked regulatory framework which had hindered the ability of trado practitioners to tap from it.
He said African traditional medicines were different from the Western nations as it remained a science just like other fields of science.
He said the proposed bill would lead to establishment of Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources Management Board to grant authorisation for the exploitation of genetic resources and associated knowledge.
Iwu said the board would also ensure honest, transparent and equitable contracts on genetic resources for both owners and users of traditional and genetic resources.
Earlier, the Director-General, Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency, Mr Franklin Okujagu, said the bill would enable traditional medicine practitioners and Nigerians to benefit immensely from the country’s rich biodiversity.
The forum adopted the legal document expected to be presented to a national workshop before being submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology for transmission to the National Assembly. (NAN)