A former governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, and the President, Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, have called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to halt brain drain in the health sector, saying the trend was longer sustainable.
They spoke at a two-day national conference held on Thursday and Friday in Abuja. The programme was attended by pharmacists, nurses, radiographers, dieticians and medical lab scientists.
Mimiko said the reason many Nigerian doctors and other health professionals were running to other countries was because the country had not given its health sector the needed attention.
He stated, “Former United Kingdom Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said at the 70th anniversary of the NHS that the National Health Service is the greatest invention of the British nation.
“To develop this nation, we must make the necessary investment in the health sector. Let me address the theme of the conference, the alarming ‘Japa’ phenomenon in the health sector. You call it an emergency and I cannot agree less. It is not only an emergency but a major one.
“At the University of Medical Sciences in Ondo State, we inducted the first set of 34 medical doctors two weeks ago, but the tragedy is that one of the consultants held a meeting with them and asked ‘how many out of you want to remain in Nigeria?’ About 29 raised their hands to indicate they want to leave. That is how serious the situation is.
“Whether we like it or not, if we don’t do anything about the situation of our health professionals’ education in this country, we will all be at the mercy of traditional healers (Babalawo).”
The doctor-turned-politician also urged the President, Bola Tinubu, to channel his planned palliatives and part of the money saved from subsidy payment to the health sector if it hopes to curb the brain drain syndrome.
Ogbonna in an interview with our correspondent described the trend as worrisome.
He stated, “Over the years, many of our members are leaving the country for greener pastures because of economic and environmental insecurity. We will not blame them because if you are not valued in your country and you see an opportunity in another country where you will be valued, won’t you go?
“For instance, from the records made available by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and Pharmacy Council in the past two years, about 2,000 pharmacists have left this country.
“The medical laboratory, on the other hand, lost 1,345 scientists in the last one year. In 2023, we have observed that health professionals are still leaving in their hundreds. There are 5,000 radiographers in Nigeria but as we speak, 1,343 had left. It’s an alarming situation. We called on the government to do something drastic because we are losing some of our best hands.”
He said it was disturbing that some of those leaving were leaving who had garnered experience.
He added, “So if the younger ones don’t have people to mentor them, their skills will not be well sharpened. They need to learn on the job, with those who are experienced supervising them. We are calling on the government of President Bola Tinubu to focus on the health sector to ensure the infrastructural and structural decay as well as the unfriendly attitude exhibited by the former administration should not repeat itself.”
The dietician urged the government to address the issue of welfare and remuneration.
“Secondly, there is a need to address the security challenge, because recently our members have become the target of kidnappers. There should also be an enabling environment both in the workplace and outside the workplace for our people to thrive,” he added.
