Brain-Drain: Nigeria’s teeming population challenged by shortage of experts

Perhaps, ignorance of the macro impacts of the defects of brain-drain on national stature may be one of the reasons Nigerian authorities have not yet risen from their slumber in decades since the phenomenon began to take course. At another level, it may be not much a case of unawareness, but gross insensitivity to the plight of the masses; and at another level, the ready resort in the scale of choices for medical tourism as a ready alternative, may be largely responsible for the perceivable slumber of the custodians of power in the Country to fix the depths of rot in the Country’s health sector, which has continually formed the ground informing the disposition for escape by medical practitioners from the Country, in search for greener pastures in what has come to be given the pronounced nomenclature of ‘brain-drain.’ While the phenomenon is not peculiar to the health sector, it’s reverberating resonance in the sector by scale, number and weight is largely disturbing. Perhaps, the significance of the sector to lives not only in the Nigerian society but everywhere in the world, would leave no less than such mind-blogging concern on board.

It is known that among leading sectors ridden with grievances with the reflections of incessant industrial actions in Nigeria, is the health sector. The lamentations which have been left unaddressed over the years, as would be seen in other critical sectors as higher education, have left behind a phenomenon of which medical practitioners see no hope than resorting to flee abroad for greener pastures. At the moment, the rate of the neglect of the Country for better climate where the system offers promising choices for professionals has become so pronounced calling for crucial attention if health management is really of utmost concern to the government, it is indisputable that concerted efforts must be galvanised towards the prevailing strains in the sector, now constrained by manpower deficits.  Recent statistics have shown Nigeria struggling with a 1:4000-5000 doctor to patients ratio which falls far short of World Health Organisation’s recommended 1:600 doctor-to-population ratio.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) on Monday, 04, April, 2022, disclosed that no less than 9,000 medical doctors fled the Country for greener pastures in two years. Their destination were noted to be largely the United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada. Statistics of records since the period of concern (2016 and 2018) have left the health care system with only 4.7% of specialists to manage Nigerians’ health concerns – a development experts have lamented has negative impacts for health management in the Country. The rippling effects of the deficiencies have seen the Country loosing billions to medical tourism.

In lamentation, NMA President, Professor Innocent Ujah, at the NMA’s maiden annual lecture tagged: “Brain Drain and Medical Tourism: The Twin Evil in Nigeria’s Health System,” disclosed that over $1billion was being spent yearly by Nigerians on medical tourism. He decried the high emigration rate of doctors of Nigerian extraction to foreign nations, regretting a situation of health workforce crisis. The Don who doubles as the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Medical Science, Otukpo, noted that human resources for health, which according to him, represented “one of the six pillars of a strong and efficient health system,” was critical to the improvement of health system, said the huge amount Nigerians were injecting into medical tourism has weakening effects on Nigeria’s economy. According Ujah, the impacts of the ugly phenomenon on the economy, include reduction of funding and investment in the health sector, widening infrastructural deficits and the growing distrust in the Nigerian health system by the Nigerian public.

“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sub-Saharan Africa has about 3 per cent of the world’s health workers while it accounts for 24 per cent of the global burden of disease. Nigeria has a doctor-to-population ratio of about 1: 4000-5000 which falls far short of the WHO recommended doctor-to-population ratio of 1:600. Nigeria is still grappling with disturbingly poor health indices. The Nigerian health sector today groans under the devastating impact of huge human capital flight which now manifests as brain drain.

“The twin monster of brain drain and medical tourism seems to have a bi-directional relationship, which implies that one will lead to the other and vice-versa. It is because of the devastating consequences of this twin evil on the health system efficiency and effectiveness and the urgent need for solutions and action that inspired the theme for this maiden NMA Annual Lecture tagged, Brain Drain and Medical Tourism: The Twin evil in Nigeria’s Health System.  The burning desire of NMA to proactively confront the many challenges of healthcare delivery in Nigeria must be sustained using evidence-based constructive engagement, high-level advocacy and understanding to achieve quality healthcare for our people so as to reduce the unacceptably high morbidity and mortality. This national discourse on brain drain and medical tourism is, therefore, inevitable at this time,” he was quoted.

The rippling effects of manpower deficits in the Country coupled with the loss of capital to medical tourism, with the rot of architectures inefficient for a reliable health system, are alarming. As the population of the Country is exploding, the demands for a robust public health system is paramount, but it is apparent that the response to the demands has remained largely incommensurate to the realities of addressing same. It is now an emergency that must be addressed. If the Country would seek to optimise the benefits of a teeming population, it is only when such huge population is largely healthy that such optimisation can take the force of meaningful impact.

The demands on the government as the leading determinant is of emergency to take, with utmost firmness, the demands as of necessity, to clear the rot in the health system, develop the working fabrics of same, and address the factors of grievances informing not only the grounds breeding fleeing of health professionals to better clime, but also the life threatening and challenges of the deficiencies of the systemic architecture to the teeming disadvantaged Nigerians who in their numbers have no luxury for health tourism abroad, even when their challenges demands same.