Former President of Nigeria (served from 1999 to 2007), Olusegun Obasanjo, has revealed a system that can help prevent medical personnel from leaving the country.
Doctors are exiting Nigeria for other countries “looking for better conditions”, Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo, who ruled Nigeria as Military Head of State, from 1976 to 1979 recommended, if Nigeria wants to keep its medical personnel, then, the country will have to “give them a bit of incentive”.
There are numerous reasons why Nigeria’s medical workers leave the country, encompassing, “salary delays, non-payment of insurance benefits, unsafe working conditions; other issues that affect the system such as, inadequate health programmes, inferior healthcare delivery” among other reasons.
According to a 2024 report by Globalisation and Health:
Nigeria is witnessing a mass emigration of its active labor force to more advanced economies, just like other developing countries
Approximately half of licensed medical doctors in Nigeria have emigrated, contributing to a widening doctors-to-patients ratio.
Numerous push factors compel Nigerian medical workers to emigrate, including salary delays, non-payment of insurance benefits, unsafe working conditions and systemic issues like poor healthcare delivery, inadequate health programs, and inefficient resource utilization.
Obasanjo said: “For hospitals, especially when many Nigerians who have been trained as medical personnel are ‘japa-ing’, which is going out of the country, looking for better conditions, how do you hold them here? You have to give them a bit of incentive.”
