We need to apply medicinal plants in coronavirus fight - Rocky Dawuni

Grammy Awards nominee, Rocky Dawuni, has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to assist and support herbalists in finding a cure for the Coronavirus pandemic rather than relying on vaccines from the Western countries.

About a week ago, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo signed the UNAIDS public letter to make the Coronavirus vaccine free for all when it is finally obtained.

This action by the president has been met with mixed reactions as some believe that it is going to be a way for the Western powers to use Africans as an experiment for their vaccine.

Rocky Dawuni who has added his voice to the debate believes that the country needs to apply the medicinal plants on our lands in fighting this pandemic.

In an interview with Amansan Krakye on GBC Radio Central, he stated that the state shouldn't sit and wait for the Westerners to bring a vaccine in the midst of the rapid spread of the disease.

“My take on it is that I said from the beginning that we should consider the nim tree. Because you don’t just fight disease by washing your hands but we need to strengthen our immune system to fight the disease. We need to apply the medicinal plants that our forefathers used to cure many diseases in the past, so actually we can get the solution to Coronavirus from nature. But what I have realized is that the western powers want to develop a certain vaccine by any means possible,” he explained.

Rocky Dawuni also expressing doubts said, “…we don’t even know where this vaccine is coming from so we can’t allow anyone to just come and start giving us injections. Because we also have people who are well endowed with herbal medicine who we can empower to conduct research in our Universities to find us the cure for Coronavirus.”

He threw his weight behind Madagascar, who recently came up with a drug to fight the virus, challenging government to take similar steps

“I fully support what Madagascar is doing and I expect the government to challenge the Centre for Plant Medicine and our Chemists to come up with a solution. Madagascar took the lead and did the right thing but I’m not surprised it is not globally accepted as the cure because it originated from Africa.

“Even if their medicine is not a complete cure but just a remedy that can support, we have to inspire other African countries to take that path but as for the vaccine, I don’t think it is the solution.”

He further concluded that, “It is becoming always one way that we must be injected with a vaccine whenever there is a disease outbreak. I believe we have passed that way and Africa must stand for ourselves by putting our own destiny in our hands because if someone is planning to cause us to harm it is easy to do that through the vaccine.

“God has given us wisdom and we have been able to survive with plant medicine on this continent for thousands of years despite several disease outbreaks. We can’t continue to use ourselves as anybody’s experiment.”