Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
Former Governor Kayode Fayemi has warned that the mass migration of Nigerian medical doctors is now not solely a healthcare problem however a rising risk to medical schooling, saying that the nation dangers shedding its capability to coach the subsequent technology of specialists if the pattern continues.
Fayemi referred to as on the federal authorities to barter binding bilateral agreements that may compel wealthier nations recruiting Nigerian-trained medical doctors and different well being professionals to compensate the nation for the large public sources invested of their schooling and coaching.
Delivering the convocation lecture on the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun, Osun State, titled ‘Rethinking 21st Century Specialised Medical University in the Nigerian Context: Are the Challenges Surmountable?’, the previous governor mentioned the exodus of skilled medical doctors is steadily eroding the inspiration of medical schooling in Nigeria.
According to him, the departure of skilled physicians is depleting the pool of consultants and specialists required to show medical college students, supervise residency programmes and maintain the nation’s specialised medical universities.
He argued that Nigeria couldn’t proceed financing medical doctors’ schooling just for developed nations to reap the advantages of their experience with out contributing to the price of coaching substitute professionals.
Fayemi disclosed that greater than half of the 50 pioneer medical graduates of Ekiti State University employed by his administration in 2019 had since relocated overseas searching for higher profession alternatives, describing the event as a stark reflection of the rising “brain drain” confronting Nigeria’s well being and schooling sectors.
He attributed the migration to poor remuneration, insufficient working circumstances, restricted alternatives for skilled development and the absence of a secure atmosphere for healthcare professionals.
Fayemi maintained that proscribing medical doctors from leaving the nation is neither constitutional nor sustainable, stressing that the answer lay in making Nigeria’s well being sector enticing sufficient for professionals to construct rewarding careers at dwelling.
He advocated moral worldwide recruitment insurance policies beneath which vacation spot nations would contribute financially to the schooling and coaching of substitute well being staff each time they recruited Nigerian professionals.
The former chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum recalled that Nigeria canvassed the identical place on the Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum held in Accra, Ghana, in May 2026, urging the federal authorities to pursue the proposal vigorously in future bilateral negotiations.
“I have seen this in real life. More than half of the 50 pioneer medical graduates of EKSU that we employed in 2019 have left the country in search of greener pastures,” Fayemi mentioned.
While noting that medical doctors naturally search higher alternatives overseas, Nigeria should create circumstances that encourage them to remain by way of aggressive salaries, fashionable medical services, expanded residency and fellowship alternatives, clear profession development, and sensible incentives corresponding to housing and transport assist.
He urged policymakers to cease viewing the departure of healthcare staff as a person profession alternative, insisting it has turn out to be a strategic nationwide problem that might weaken each Nigeria’s healthcare supply system and its medical schooling ecosystem for many years to come back.
