The amount of money Nigerians spend on foreign school and medical bills is as outrageous as it is lamentable. In a recent report, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicated that Nigerians spent $1.58 billion on foreign medical and school bills as well as other personal matters in the first six months of 2023. According to CBN data, Nigerians spent $245.68 million on foreign health-related issues, $896.09 million on foreign education, and $434.63 million on other personal foreign needs.
This is an indictment on Nigeria’s health and education systems. The medical system here, for instance, is not as efficient as it ought to be. Health infrastructure is quite poor. It was one of the reasons the military gave for intervening in the governance of the country in the 1980s. They described our health institutions then as mere consulting clinics. Unfortunately, rather than get better, the situation appears to be getting worse.
Even the Aso Rock clinic was once vilified by the former First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari. In October 2017, Mrs. Buhari lamented the poor state of the clinic, noting that it lacked even basic consumables like syringes and that its services were poor. This was despite huge budgetary allocations to the clinic.
The worst is that members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) are frequently on strike over welfare and some other issues. Part of their demands from the government is a 200 per cent increase in their gross salary. This demand was premised on the fact that the economy of the country has been dwindling just as the value of the naira remains very low. The doctors lamented that the government has failed to upwardly review their Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), despite several engagements with it to do so.
Besides, despite the 2001 agreement by African countries in Abuja that 15 per cent of each country’s annual budget should be allocated to health, budget allocation to that sector, in most cases, has not gone beyond 6 per cent in Nigeria.
Consequently, medical professionals leave the country in droves for greener pastures abroad. Currently, thousands of Nigerian doctors practise in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada and many other countries. This is why some of our hospitals do not have the required medical personnel to handle patients. The doctor-patient ratio, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended to be 1:600, stands at about 1:5,000 in Nigeria.
The rich find it more convenient travelling abroad for any slight ailment. When Muhammadu Buhari was President of Nigeria, he frequently travelled to London for medical treatment. At some point, he spent over 100 days in the British capital. President Bola Tinubu is doing the same thing. He has gone abroad for medical treatment on some occasions. Annually, Nigerians expend over $1 billion on medical tourism. This is sad and unacceptable.
Our education system has a similar challenge. Many lecturers have left Nigeria for greener pastures abroad. This has led to shortage of lecturers in Nigerian universities.
The state of the infrastructure in most of these universities is appalling. Library and laboratory facilities are ancient just as hostel facilities are poor and inadequate.
Disruption in the academic calendar is another major problem. Oftentimes, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) embark on strike to press home certain demands. In 2020, ASUU was on strike which disrupted academic programmes for a full academic year. In 2022, the union embarked on another debilitating strike that lasted for almost a year. The union had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the government since 2009. There have been many other agreements between ASUU and the government. Part of the agreement is that the government should increase the funding of the universities and renegotiate the conditions of service of academic staff. It should also pay arrears of allowances owed the academic staff. But the government has repeatedly failed to fully meet its part of the bargain.
This has pushed those who are financially capable to send their children to higher institutions abroad. The number of Nigerian students in the United States alone reportedly stood at over 17,000 in the 2022/2023 academic session. Parents pay through the nose to sustain their children in these foreign universities.
The money spent abroad is a serious drain on our national economy. We are increasingly losing families and youths to foreign institutions. But you cannot really stop anybody because it is when you have something on ground that you can discourage people from travelling out.
Government should redress the situation. It should encourage those working in health and academic institutions to do their best. Those institutions should be upgraded to world-class standards. We have the money to do it. We only need to get our priorities right and stop wasting money on things that are not essential.