Doctors Leaving Nigeria Are Not Patriotic, Says Labour Minister

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on Tuesday said medical doctors in Nigeria leaving the country for greener pastures are unpatriotic despite subsidized medical fee by the Federal Government.

Ngige disclosed this while briefing the press at the State House in Abuja.

The minister who revealed that the government had subsidized medical fees to N48,000 which is less than $100 said Nigerians are ungrateful to still migrate to other countries without a sense of commitment.

“Medical doctors in Nigeria are trained for next to nothing, they are made to pay an average of N48,000 per session as fees in public tertiary institutions which are not up to 100 dollars.

“Our counterpart in Europe, UK (united Kingdom), and America pays 70,000 pounds and above per session without residency, the loan which some of them keep paying back after graduation.

“But in Nigeria, subsidized education is possible by the government because a good quality medical education should cost nothing less than N3 million a session. The sense of patriotism should be there, after FG’s efforts” Ngige said.

The Labour Minister, however stressed that although migration is inevitable given the remittance it generates for the government to the tune of $30bn, the adverse effects are alarming as available doctors now work overtime.

Ngige said some of the doctors going abroad end up returning home to establish quality healthcare hospitals in Lagos and Abuja, which other citizens now access and also serve as a means of job creation.

He also said the ministry has been quite proactive contrary to opinions by many Nigerians that it is docile.

On March 3, the Chairman Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Uche Rowland disclosed that Nigeria has the highest number of medical doctors in the UK, after India and Pakistan, with the Nigeria doctor-to-patient ratio at one to 4,900.

He said the General Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for licensing and maintaining the official register of medical practitioners in the UK, reportedly licensed 200 Nigerian-trained doctors scheduled to leave the country between August 31- September 30, 2023.

Rowland noted that the situation further showed that an average of three Nigerian doctors per day were licensed this year to work in the UK.