The recent report that Nigeria needs at least 12,000 medical doctors annually to address the health needs of over 200 million Nigerians has exposed the most telling effect of the brain drain in the health sector. While making the startling revelation, the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) averred that it would take the country at least 25 years to achieve the target of producing 333,334 doctors required to address the nation’s mounting health challenges.

Currently, Nigeria has 24,000 medical doctors practising in the country. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard recommendation is one doctor to every 600 people, Nigeria’s own is one doctor to 8,000 people. On a regional basis, the doctor/patient ratio could be higher. With about 3,000 medical doctors produced locally annually and 1,000 doctors produced by foreign medical schools, Nigeria cannot meet its annual doctors’ requirement.

According to available statistics, about 5,600 Nigerian medical doctors had migrated to the United Kingdom (UK) in the last eight years. In the same vein, over 57,000 Nigerian nurses had migrated abroad in the last five years (2017-2022) in search of greener pastures. Similarly, not less than 5,208 pharmacists left Nigeria in the past five years in search of the good life in Canada, UK and United States (US). In the last two years, over 500 medical and dental consultants had left Nigeria for other developed countries. Other health professionals are also migrating to Europe and America.

The grim revelation by the MDCAN and NMA is perhaps a wake-up call on the Federal Government to train more medical doctors and pay them competitive salaries to retain them. There is need to build more medical schools and even expand the existing ones. The health sector needs to be adequately funded. The current allocation of seven per cent or a little more of the national budget to the sector is grossly inadequate.

For the government to revamp the dying sector, it requires to increase the health budget to 20 or 25 per cent. To train and retain our medical doctors, pharmacists and nurses and other health professionals, we must be ready to pay them competitive salaries. In addition, our health facilities must be well equipped in line with global best practices.

Related News

The scarcity of medical doctors and other health professionals is real. It is also lamentable that we cannot retain our medical doctors. Sadly, our political leaders do not feel it because of their penchant for medical tourism. The unbridled brain drain in the health sector is highly regrettable.

The government should not pretend that all is well with the health sector. The wave of migration in the sector and other sectors is an indication that the country is no longer conducive to its citizens, especially the youths and young professionals. It is sad that we are losing our young ones to other countries on account of mindless migration.

We must stop deluding ourselves that the current wave of migration is a sign of progress. It is rather a sign of retrogression.  The fact is that we are fast losing our youths, the future leaders to other countries, who are appropriating their talents for the development of their countries.

The Federal Government must wake up from its deep slumber and arrest the incipient migration of Nigerian youths to other lands before it assumes an epidemic proportion. While the health sector is dying gradually, our leaders take great delight in medical tourism. It does not occur to them that the leaders of those countries build those medical facilities they access when they embark on medical tourism.

This administration can still do something to salvage the ailing sector before it leaves office on May 29, 2023. Where it fails to do so, the incoming administration must not fail Nigerians in prioritising the sector. The next administration should put Nigeria and Nigerians first in its scheme of things. We need visionary leaders who will make Nigeria attain greatness. We have had enough of failed leadership. The ugly narrative of bad leadership must change.