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One might not be wrong to say Nigerian doctors form part of the president’s health protocols in London. I mean doctors trained either in UI, Ahmadu Bello, Nsukka, Lagos or somewhere in Nigeria – Pastor Itua Ighodalu
Which mother would be proud to lend her brightest children to other families of the world after nurturing, training and feeding them? The unfavourable, seeming hopeless situation is pushing the country to lose her best brains to other countries. In the various countries where they now reside serve with their best knowledge, skills and expertise in different areas from health, engineering, academia, industrial to corporate and public sector governance with proficiency. Their efforts contribute to the economic growth of those countries. While that happens, the country of their birth, Nigeria, their motherland, wallows in poverty and under-development. The simple reason is that our nation is not providing the right environment for them stay back and give their best.
All across the political landscape of the country, what you see is insensitivity among the ruling elite, who by their conduct, body language and misappropriation of state resources (in fact bold looting of the public treasury) do not care about the socio-economic condition of the country. The result is the clear evidence of bad governance which juts out everywhere like sore fingers.
Sometime ago, the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, went on strike to press for vital working tools and better remuneration, both of which are basic for the delivery of quality healthcare to the generality of the citizenry. Yet again, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, was compelled to resume the long strike that ushered the country into the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, but which was later suspended after almost eight months, to allow the government to do the needful. When that was not forthcoming, ASUU resumed the strike and declared it indefinite.
The bottom line is that the response of the government to the deficiencies in the health sector is the primary reason Nigerian doctors trained at great expense in the nation’s medical schools are leaving the country in droves, to deploy their valuable skills in the service of the healthcare system of Canada, Britain, Austratlia, New Zealand and other English speaking countries. They are also migrating to the Middle East and anywhere else their skills are needed, where the remuneration is attractive and working tools are very available.
It is only against this background that you can appreciate the story told about a senior medical doctor from the South-South zone of the country who travelled to Saudi Arabia on sabbatical leave, where he was embraced with open arms. He was made a mouth-watering offer that he could not refuse. The doctor came back to Nigeria and pulled out 25 other colleagues, male and female, who happily relocated to Saudi Arabia. Today, they practice in hospitals which have the needed modern equipment, environment conducive for work, spiced with good remuneration; they earn up to N7million every month. In their new abode, they have peace, security, healthy work environment and steady income. They are not owed salaries and neither would they ever need to go on strike, for any reason.
Just like that 25 medical doctors resigned from the hospital. The hospital suffered an immediate shortage of qualified and experienced doctors. Public hospitals in other parts of the country are also affected by loss of medical personnel. It is a haemorrhage that ought not to be, but unfortunately, that is the reality, and regrettably so.
Who will replace them and how soon? While the community was lamenting the mass exodus of their colleagues, another set of doctors close to the same region, including consultant nephrologists, consultant orthopaedic surgeons and consultant paediatricians, were similarly head hunted and incentivized to relocate their skills to Saudi Arabia. It is on record that in the good old days, a certain king of Saudi Arabia before he died used to come to University College Hospital (UCH) for treatment. How are the mighty fallen?
No less a person than the Senior Pastor of Trinity House, Pastor Itua Ighodalo, while commenting on the state of health infrastructure in Nigeria, told me in an interview: “It is for the ones on top to note that key to developing a country are education, food sustainability, health care and infrastructure. Once people are educated, fed, protected with health, they would not be weak. Indian health sector picked up because they came together and told their government to give them enabling environment and the government listened to them; that is why Nigerians also to go India as medical tourist centre. Nigerian doctors in America are also saying the same and no one is listening to them; if government does not invest in health infrastructure, it’s a time bomb. My first advice is to call out all doctors in foreign country to come back and state what they want. Nigerian doctors remain the best in the whole world, if they are removed from foreign countries, their health care will collapse. For a long time, the whole of Saudi Arabia health sector was manned by Nigerian doctors even till recent times. Nigeria trains and exports ther doctors and others gladly receive them. Let the government provide the facilities for our doctors to come back home and practice here. One might not be wrong to say Nigerian doctors form part of the president’s health protocols in London. I mean doctors trained either in University of Ibadan), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Univerity of Lagos, Lagos or somewhere in Nigeria.”
Nigerians spend millions to train their children in foreign countries. When I was growing up, it was not fashionable to school or work abroad because of the belief that Nigerian degrees were superior to foreign degrees, especially certificates from some American universities. That is why you Nigerian trained doctors excel overseas. The question is, how does a country make progress? Is it by losing its best medical practitioners to other countries, to sustain their own health systems? So when they have used their productive years to serve other countries, should they come back home in retirement when strength and energy have left them?
Consider this viral social media story that in certain British hospital, a day came that all the healthcare personnel on call that weekend, ranging from medical doctors, nurses and physiotherapists to laboratory scientists were all Nigerians. All of them were trained in Nigeria. What a shame!
Nigerian healthcare professionals in the Diaspora are doing excellently and tower like giants in various fields. One of them, Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu is an associate professor of Medicine, Yale University. He is an alumnus of the University of Calabar, who played a significant role in the development of COVID-19 vaccine under the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration. Another doctor, Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife is a foetal and paediatric surgeon in United States. In 2016, Olutoye led a 21-man team to perform surgery on a baby who was removed from the womb at 23 weeks after ultrasound investigation revealed a tumour. The tumour was removed and the baby was returned to the mother’s womb to complete the gestation and delivered at term. He is currently the Professor and Chair of Paediatric Surgery in Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Prof Iyalla Elvis Peterside graduated from University of Ibadan, Oyo State and is today a professor of Neonatology and Paediatrics in Pennsylvania. He was recognized as one of America’s Best Physicians 2020. Elvis Peterside was a resident doctor in University of Port-Harcourt before he left for the US in the early 90’s.
Dr. Njideka Udochi is the first black female to emerge as Family Physician of the Year in Maryland, USA. She graduated from University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu State.
Worthy of mention is Dr. Emmanuel Ohuabunwa, MD, MBA, who is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine. In 2012, at the age of 22, he emerged the best graduating student in John Hopkins with a CGPA of 3.98 out of 4 which remains the best CGPA since the inception of John Hopkins in 1876. Same CGPA won him a scholarship to Yale University to study Medicine and was inducted into the Phi-Beta Kappa society, an academic honour society that features 17 US Presidents, 37 US Supreme Justices and 136 Nobel Prize Winners. Meanwhile, Ohuabunwa was born and raised in Okota, Lagos State. He completed his junior secondary school at Air Force Comprehensive Secondary School Ibadan. His father won the US visa lottery and relocated his family.
What about Deji Akinwande, a former student of Federal Government College, Ido Ani, who is a professor of Engineering at University of Texas, Austin. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. In 2015, he created the first transistor out of silicene, the world’s thinnest silicone material. All these ones have followed in the footprints of Dr. Ngozi Okonji-Iweala.
Dear Nigerian Leaders, I plead with you to listen to the advice of Pastor Ighodalo and do what the Indians did: call back our medical practitioners and fix the healthcare system. For how long will our country continue to lose our best and brightest professionals to other countries?
