Posted on: Fri 18-04-2025

It is nothing short of heartbreaking to watch Nigeria, once a beacon of promise for medical talent in Africa, bleed out its healthcare workforce at such an alarming rate. Over 16,000 of our brightest minds — doctors trained with public resources and family sacrifices — have packed their bags in search of better prospects in the UK, the US, Canada, and beyond. And who can blame them? They are simply chasing the dignity, stability, and respect their home country has so consistently denied them.

This is not just a statistic to sigh over — it’s a loud, blaring alarm for anyone who cares about Nigeria’s future. With only 55,000 doctors left to serve a population of 220 million, the doctor-to-patient ratio now stands at an unacceptable 3.9 per 10,000. The World Health Organisation recommends at least one doctor for every thousand citizens — Nigeria isn’t even close. When this gap is measured not just in numbers, but in human lives lost or crippled by preventable illnesses, the true cost becomes unbearable to ignore.

What’s even more troubling is that it’s not just the doctors leaving; our nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals are following the same path — driven by a toxic cocktail of poor pay, insecurity, dilapidated hospitals, outdated equipment, and a lack of professional respect at home. Why should anyone stay when their skills are valued more abroad, where decent pay, security, and humane working conditions are guaranteed?

The Coordinating Minister of Health, Prof. Ali Pate, rightly pointed out that this unrelenting migration is rooted in the search for greener pastures — and the truth is, the grass is greener elsewhere. Nigeria has systematically underfunded its health sector, trapped in an endless loop of broken promises and misplaced priorities. Year after year, the budget allocations are laughably insufficient. In the most recent budget, the health sector received just 4.99% of the total — barely a shade better than previous administrations, and far from the 15% pledge African leaders made in Abuja back in 2001.

The result? Nigerian doctors are topping the charts as the largest group of foreign-trained medical professionals in the UK and the US. And every time another doctor boards a flight, what’s leaving isn’t just a person — it’s years of investment, hope, and the potential to save lives here at home. The average cost of training one doctor in Nigeria is over $21,000. That’s money spent by a country now scrambling to fill the void left behind.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The federal government must act decisively and treat this crisis as the national emergency it is. Enhanced, competitive wages are not a luxury — they are a necessity if we want our doctors to stay. Hospitals must be properly equipped, modernized, and made safe, so health workers no longer have to gamble with both their careers and their lives. And beyond money, Nigeria must restore the dignity of its healthcare professionals by creating work environments where talent can thrive, not wilt.

Private sector participation should be encouraged to foster competition and innovation, while government must ensure that rural communities — the most abandoned victims of this exodus — aren’t left to suffer in silence. Only a holistic approach can truly reverse the tide of this dangerous brain drain.

Nigeria cannot afford to lose any more of its healers to foreign hospitals while its own citizens struggle and die in overcrowded, underfunded wards. The time for talk has passed. What’s needed now is action — bold, deliberate, and urgent.

Because every doctor that leaves carries away a piece of Nigeria’s future.

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