Confronting The Doctors’ Brain Drain

 By Cosmas Odoemena

It’s no longer news that Nigerian doctors are leaving the country in droves for greener pastures. According to the Nigerian Medical Association, of the 75,000 Nigerian doctors registered with the NMA, more than 33,000 have left the country, with 42,000 left to take care of more than 200 million people. It’s not only doctors that are leaving: nurses, physiotherapists, radiographers, pharmacists, medical laboratory scientists, etc. But this piece is focused mainly on doctors.

Brain drain among doctors is not a new phenomenon. In Nigeria, it has been ongoing for years. But it has never jolted the Nigerian healthcare system as it has now. This is because the number of doctors leaving has risen astronomically. Doctors are voting with their feet. Specialists, medical officers, retired doctors, and those fresh from medical schools are all leaving. In final-year medical school classes, migrating abroad after qualifying is what is trending.

COVID-19 And Nigeria's Pathetic Leadership Deficit

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

There is no better warning about the growing confusion that seems to be gradually beclouding the federal government’s response to the coronavirus challenge than the belief it betrayed last week that, perhaps, all it needs to calm the fears and apprehensions of Nigerians about its ability to halt the spread of the virus is to reel out a catalogue of activities President Buhari was said to have undertaken so far concerning the pestilence, whether the people felt their impact or not.

*President Buhari and his spokesman, Femi Adesina

Now, if your family is starving badly, do you solve the rumbling signs of biting hunger in their stomach with some wild tales of the efforts deployed by you so far to feed them, or just keep quiet, give them food, and they will see and feel for themselves that you have played your role responsively and effectively?  Or if you must talk, tell them something you have done whose benefits they can readily verify and identify with.

Indeed, some Nigerians are beginning to achieve the conviction that there must be something about being in government in this country that seems to diminish the reasoning ability of people once they get in there and deprives them of the capacity to realize when they have stopped making sense or even become downright annoying. This is very pathetic.

Stay Away From All Forms Of "Free Medical Programmes" – NMA

Press Release

The Nigerian Medical Association, Imo State, wishes to inform the General public that whereas immunization is necessary for the prevention of some killer diseases especially in childhood, there is no officially approved immunisation programme going on in the state presently. 

As a result, parents and teachers are advised not to submit their wards to persons or group of persons for any purported form of immunisation. 

This is on the backdrop of alarm being raised about "forced immunization" in some places in the state on Wednesday 11th October, 2017.

Similarly, The Nigerian Medical Association Imo State advices the general public to stay away from all forms of "free medical programmes" that do not have the approval of Nigerian Medical Association, while we keenly monitor events unfold.

Dr Dike Victor O.
Secretary, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA)

Imo State

My Distaste For Professionals’ Association Or Trade Union In Nigeria

By A. S. M. Jimoh

As a graduate of engineering, I have never had the interest of being a member of my professional body. Over time, I have scrutinized many professionals’ associations and their conduct, what I came up with is that trade unions in Nigeria are formed to promote misconduct among their members. Trade union or professionals’ Association is also a money making venture for its officials.

That is why people spend fortune or even kill to become the leader of these bodies in Nigeria. From the motor park union of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) or Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) to the professional bodies of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) or Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), it is same goal: to protect the interest of our members even if such a member is a criminal.

While I am not here to convince anyone to drop out from being a member of professional body or trade union, but I am going to demonstrate with specific events that have further alienate me from joining any Nigeria professional association.

In 2003, a group of nurse beat an old female patient at Okene General Hospital, hauled her from her hospital bed to detention at the police station. Her crime? Her grown up son had refused to participate in a so-called sanitation exercise organized by the hospital. The case got to the court as they insisted on teaching the woman and her son a lesson of life.  On the day of the court proceeding, the umbrella body of nurse and midwives, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANMW) shut down hospitals cross local governments to attend the proceeding.  Nurses who were supposed to be at duty post abandoned patients to show solidarity with a wicked colleague. Is this what trade union is all about?  Instead of NANMW to sanction their members who proliferate pharmaceutical stores selling substandard drugs, they rather defend the wicked conduct of their members.

Fast forward to February 2016, a certain Ricky Tarfa (SAN) was charged by the Nigeria anti-corruption agency for obstruction of justice and for being a bribe carrier within the judicial circle. Instead of his professional body members, SAN, the very people who are to be more schooled in law, to wit, discipline and morality, to carry out an in-house investigation to ascertain the fact of the case, they rather trooped to the court to intimidate the judge and subtly obstructing justice, the very crime their colleague is being charged with. It leaves you with no hope when people who are supposed to be the personification of justice now congregate to pervert it in the guise of solidarity with a professional colleague charge in criminal suit. Well, more revelations coming out are that there are more Ricky Tarfas among SAN than there are the like of Femi Falana. Alas! Who our SANs are have been revealed.