Temporal Fixity of Patronage of Traditional Medicine in Kaduna State, Nigeria

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ABSTRACT This paper present result on the temporal fixity of Patronage of Traditional Medicine in Kaduna State Nigeria. The aim of the study is to assess the temporal fixity in patronage of traditional medicine in Kaduna state. Data from the study was derived from the administration of a structured Questionnaire and data from herbal medicine clinic. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey of a sample of 400 respondents of the study area. Descriptive statistics, the ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis were the techniques used to summarize the data and test the hypotheses. The results of the findings shows that there is a difference between the nature of patronage of traditional medicine that is whether the patronage is arranged, planned, routine or unplanned and its temporal fixity. It is evident that the nature of patronage of traditional medicine determines its time fixity. Therefore, 85.2 % respondents could not have done anything at that time and the time taken to reach the healing centre is 1-2 hours while 67.6% could have done something at that time. That shows how strongly attached people in the study area are to their culture, tradition and the belief in traditional medicine regarding patronage to traditional medicine services in the study area. Temporal fixity of patronage of traditional medicine also varies based on whether you have visited him at some other time? It shows that majority of the respondent’s 87.4% say no while 64.7% respond yes and the time taken to reach the healing centre are 1-2 hours. This implies that greater percentage of patrons of traditional medicine patronize their services at an agreed time and cannot afford to patronize them at the wrong time. Therefore, 15.9% respondent’s whose time taken to reach healing centre is 3-4 hours answered in the affirmative and 7.8% say they cannot. All these go to establish that most of the patronage of traditional medicine is fixed in time. Therefore, it is recommended that traditional medicine should be patronized at an agreed time of the day or night, morning, afternoon and evenings.