Nigeria training doctors for other countries to benefit – Former UI VC, others

A former Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Ayodele Falase, says that the country is training medical doctors only for the benefits of other countries.

Falase, a foremost cardiologist, said this on Wednesday in Ibadan at the University College Hospital (UCH), where he chaired a Special Guest Lecture in Celebration of the 60th Birthday of the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the UCH, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo.

It was reported that the lecture, by Otegbayo’s group of mentees, was entitled: “Gastroenterology Training in Nigeria. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”.

Falase said: “I call the current mass emigration of doctors a second wave exodus, because when I was provost of the College of Medicine, that was the time the first wave took place.

“It was during the regime of the former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, after they devalued the naira and everything went down, everybody just left, cardiothoraic surgeons, neurosurgeons, pathologists, everyone just left for Saudi Arabia and other countries which were waiting to take them.

“How can you be training people and other countries are enjoying them, it’s not right.

“So we need to get the political situation in Nigeria right so that we can create more spaces for young people like you to build this country to what they want.”

Falase said that the brain drain of medical professionals being experienced in the country could result in the collapse of public institutions.

“There will be a lot of strife, a lot of problems, it will get to a situation in which public institutions like Ibadan and other universities and teaching hospitals will continue to atrophy.

“Where private universities and private institutions will continue to improve and that’s not good for the country, especially for ordinary people who cannot afford to pay N6 million to get a university education in medicine,” he said.

In her remarks, Prof. Olayinka Omigbodun, the Provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, described the current massive flight of doctors to other countries as devastating and disturbing.

Omigbodun said that Nigeria is now losing its brightest and most brilliant doctors to other countries immediately after they complete medical school training.

According to her, in the past doctors didn’t leave immediately after graduation unlike the current trend.

“It is a serious disaster, it’s like your best brains are being exported out of the country, the best of the best leaving the country. It is simply a devastating trend for this nation,”

“When I was in medical school, a lot of our teachers left for the Middle East and there was massive brain drain and they never came back.

“With my own generation, I finished medical school in 1985 and about 85 per cent of my class mates are out of this country working.

“At least then they would do a few years of residency training then and leave, now they are leaving enmasse once they finish medical school.

“It is a serious problem and right now, the situation is even worse because they are not even staying back to do residency training, right after medical school they leave the country and I just want to draw your attention to the implications,” she said.

She said that the trend of doctors’ emigration is largely due to underfunding of public health institutions, poor remuneration, job uncertainty and instability in the healthcare sector despite the world-class training they went through.

According to her, many times lecturers have to subsidise the training needs of their students because the facilities and consumables required are simply not available.

Omigbodun urged the government to urgently address the situation and put in place policies that would encourage students currently undergoing medical training to stay back and work for the country at the end of their programmes.

“Currently we are training the best of the best, a few weeks ago looking at the non-final year results of the students in the MBBS (medicine) programme, 78 per cent were first class range at the end of 100 level and about 50 per cent had a perfect CGPA. This has been the trend for several years now.

“Those who are currently coming in to study MBBS are the best of the best and they are coming from all over the country.

“When you have 50 per cent of a class with perfect GPA, you must realise that these are the best minds in the country.

“In a setting where it is understood that they are the best of the best, they will be selected and nurtured and prepared to work to help transform the country and bring rapid development and growth.

“A government who understands this should do everything in their power to keep their best minds.

“They must never be allowed to leave. These are the people that should be given jobs immediately they graduate, given opportunities for further development, given good remuneration for their efforts because the country realises that it takes getting the very best into leadership for transformation to occur.

“Other countries select the best minds from around the world and nurture them with scholarships and opportunities in their countries but it appears that we allow our best minds to leave just like that,” she said.

Also, the guest lecturer, Prof. Oladimeji Ajayi, said that brain drain has significantly affected the training of gastroenterology and other sub-specialties in the country.

On his part, the celebrator, appreciated his mentees and those who graced the lecture held in his honour.

Otegbayo described the mass emigration as a bad omen with devastating consequences in the nearest future.

“Concerning mass emigration, it is not just doctors, other health workers too, nurses and others are leaving.

“This is not a good omen for us in the health sector, because the consequence in the nearest future will be very grave, we are losing our critical manpower on the health sector,” he said.