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.

Abuja’s Special Constitutional Status And Why It Is Not A State

 By Sola Ebiseni

Contrary to wild assumptions for and against, Section 134 (1) (b) or 134 (2) (b) which deals with the requirements of 25 per cent of the votes cast at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as a prerequisite for declaring a candidate winner of the Presidential election in Nigeria, has never been directly and purposely interpreted by our courts. This is because no one has ever been declared President without having scored 25 per cent of the votes cast in the FCT to invoke the jurisdiction of the court to interpret the section accordingly.

It is a cardinal principle of our jurisprudence that courts do not indulge in speculative or academic matters. Its authoritative jurisdiction is invoke to interpret live issues. Thus, none of the cases so far cited from the varied opinions is precedent for our purpose. As stated by the Supreme Court in a plethora of cases “the decision of a court must always be considered in the light of its own peculiar facts or circumstances. No case is identical to another, though they may be similar. 

Nigeria: Terror Alert And Doubting Thomases

 By Ray Ekpu

The United States and United Kingdom embassies in Nigeria have raised the alarm over possible terror attack on facilities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Other countries have followed suit. These include Denmark, Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland and Canada. Although these countries are addressing their message to their citizens living in or visiting Nigeria, it is obvious that the message is also for the benefit of Nigerians and the federal government. 

The United States advisory says that the terrorists might target such places as government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings and transport terminals, facilities belonging to law enforcement agencies and international organisations. The American embassy therefore directed its non-essential staff and their family members to either leave the FCT or avoid public places. Many of the places mentioned by the embassy have been attacked by terrorists either in Abuja or elsewhere in the country so they are all potentially vulnerable. 

Economic Implications Of An Unsafe Abuja

 By Cheta Nwanze

A country’s capital is the city where its national government is located. This location is usually carefully chosen and designed to offer the best impression and position for a nation’s government and people to connect optimally with citizens and visitors. Sometimes nations change their choice of capitals to get new ones that adequately serve these purposes and this was the idea behind the Nigerian Government moving the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.

Thirty-one years later though, what we have is a situation where Abuja is dealing with a significant terrorist threat that began as a spate of armed robbery attacks on the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory and recently manifested as prison breaks that had arrested terrorists and criminals being freed.

The situation should be shocking but it really isn’t. It has sadly been rather predictable and began with the regime of retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari responding to attacks on Northern minorities with a disdainful lack of concern that had many onlookers believing it was complicit in some way.

Avian Influenza: Not Again

By Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor 

It’s only a-day old kid that is yet to realize that Nigeria is current­ly bewildered by the re-emer­gence of Avian Influenza, popular­ly known as ‘bird flu’. When Ebola virus was on board in the country some months ago, as an analyst and activist, in most of my commentar­ies, I categorically stated that Nigeria would surely overcome the scourge if we could employ severe and sus­tainable measures just as we did dur­ing the era of avian influenza.

To have used avian influenza as an instance as regards severe ap­proach towards containing an ep­idemic signified that undoubtedly every needed step was taken when the country firstly experienced the disease (bird flu) in 2006. To this end, the capital question that needs to be asked at this point is: why the re-emergence, or why is the coun­try experiencing the outbreak for a second time barely after nine years of its initial occurrence?

The country was able to over­come the said pandemic infection during its previous outbreak, spe­cifically in 2006, owing to the tacti­cal and drastic approach employed by the government and other con­cerned bodies. This implies that the re-emergence of the menace might not be unconnected with the fact that we went to sleep or on a recess; that is, apathy on the part of the con­cerned authorities and personnel re­garding sustenance of the measure initially utilized. In view of this as­sertion, it’s high time we are awoke.

Presently, survey indicates that seven outbreaks of highly patho­genic Avian Influenza have been discovered in Nigeria. Six of the A(H5N1) outbreaks were report­ed in the central and northern re­gions of the country, which affect­ed states like Kano, Plateau, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); over 21 thousand birds were re­portedly killed in the six outbreaks. Another outbreak occurred in the southern region of Bayelsa, affect­ing 8-week old pullets; 850 poultry died whereas 2150 were destroyed in this very outbreak. Officials said that farm workers visited other farms in the affected areas, which has great implications for possible infection routes and biosecurity.

Avian influenza is an infectious viral disease of birds particular­ly wild water fowls like ducks and geese among other such animals as pigs, whales and horses. Most avi­an influenza viruses don’t infect humans; however, some includ­ing A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) have caused serious infections in peo­ple. It is noted that outbreaks of A1 in poultry may raise global public health concerns as a result of their effect on poultry populations, their potential to cause serious disease in people, and their pandemic po­tential.