ISSN 2360-7998
Abstract
Accepted 7th September, 2020.
The paper A Phenomenological Survey of the Challenges of Tiv Traditional Medicine in 21st Century is motivated by the fact that several scholars and researchers have in the past presented the challenges confronting Tiv Traditional Medicine (TTM) without any illustrations to back up their claims thus making the issue sound so far and remote in the imagination of their readers. This paper attempts to deviate from the past by presenting pictures gotten from field work over time. The paper uses the phenomenological and descriptive methods. For data collection, both primary and secondary sources were used. In the primary source Tiv Traditional Medical practitioners were engaged in oral interview; while pictures were used for illustration in the Phenomenological Approach. In the secondary source data was obtained from published sources including journals and books. The paper established that although TTM has made inroads into the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria, it is still bedeviled by certain challenges. Some of these challenges presented pictorially include: Lack of gurneys/stretchers, unregulated sharing of pastes/sharp objects, and the absence of sterilization of medical equipments. Other challenges are unhygienic environment, lack of ambulances/air ambulance to convey patients, accommodation amongst others. All these challenges have pooled a combined force that has greatly impeded the smooth growth and development of TTM from reaching its full potentials in the healthcare delivery system. The paper suggests that to enhance the practice of TTM towards its contribution to the healthcare delivery system, these challenges are to be tackled by the regulation of sharing pastes, sharp objects, the sterilization of traditional medical equipments and censorship from the National Agency for Foods Drugs Administration and Control {NAFDAC}.The paper concludes that not everything ‘traditional’ that is bad and to be done away with. In this perspective the un-warranted attacks of Traditional medicine from orthodox medical practitioners and the modernizing agents of Christianity and western education should cease.TTM is Tiv indigenous knowledge system which should be allowed to develop to its full potentials like Japanese, Indian and Chinese medicines. Undoubtedly, TTM has contributed to the Heath care delivery system in Nigeria. TTM is available, affordable and cheap therefore; a synergy should be sought between TTM and Orthodox medicine to complement each other. TTM the paper believes emphatically is efficacious despite the challenges confronting it.
Key words: Challenge, Tiv Traditional Medicine {TTM}, Phenomenological, Survey, Medicine.