Posted on: Mon 22-12-2025

One of the clearest signs of a true professional elite is not just who escaped hardship, but who turns around to pull others up.

Sadly, among Nigerian nurses, what we mostly have is not an elite class, but a mass of survivors.

For many Nigerian nurses, the singular goal is escape — escape Nigeria, escape poverty, escape the system. And that desire is understandable. But what is troubling is what happens after they leave.

Once abroad, many nurses retreat into silence. They do not share pathways. They do not mentor. They do not break down processes. They do not advocate for those still stuck. Instead, information becomes hoarded, access becomes gatekept, and success becomes something to quietly protect rather than openly reproduce.

The mindset is simple: “I’ve made it. I must never go back.”

This is not driven by wickedness; it is driven by deep financial and professional insecurity. Even abroad, many Nigerian nurses live with the constant fear that one wrong step could send them back to the very system they fled. So decisions are shaped not by collective uplift, but by self-preservation.

In healthier systems, professionals who succeed abroad form networks, influence policy, fund training pipelines, share exam strategies, expose recruiters, and deliberately make the road easier for the next person.

But among Nigerian nurses, success often ends at the individual level.

Just like Nigeria’s so-called elites, many nurses abroad define achievement narrowly:

• A foreign license
• A visa
• A paycheck in dollars or pounds
• A quiet withdrawal from Nigerian nursing realities

There is rarely a higher, long-term vision of transforming the profession back home or even systematically exporting others out of the struggle.

And so we end up with thousands who have “escaped,” but very few who have built ladders.

• This is why the system remains brutal.
• This is why misinformation thrives.
• This is why many nurses still suffer in silence.

Until Nigerian nurses abroad begin to see themselves not just as survivors, but as stewards of a profession, the cycle will continue.

Not because the door is locked but because those who found the key refuse to copy it

Jude Chiedu writes from Ontario Canada

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