By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Doctors whom Muhammadu Buhari does not value in Nigeria are being snapped up by Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom, with 353 of them employed between June and September alone, bringing the total to 4,881 in six years.
The drain of the best and the brightest excludes the droves that have migrated East to Saudi Arabia, some employed in August before Buhari sent Department of State Security (DSS) to disperse them on the second day of interview in Abuja.
Doctors often resort to strike actions in Nigeria to press for improved welfare conditions and increased allocation to the health sector.
TheCable reports that a Nigerian doctor gets N5,000 as monthly hazard allowance while Senators are paid 248 times higher (N1.24 million) to buy newspapers monthly.
“The Nigerian government does not care about the welfare of doctors; so, the best thing to do is to look out for other opportunities and I am glad that people are gradually seeing the light,” Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) Vice President Adejo Arome told The PUNCH last month.
This situation, among others, has forced many medical doctors to leave the country in search of greener pastures.
Research by Africa Check in 2018 showed that at least 12 doctors leave Nigeria for the UK every week.
353 employed in 3 months
At least 353 Nigerian doctors were registered to work in the UK in the 100 days between June 10 and September 20, according to the website of the British General Medical Council (BGMC), reported by The PUNCH.
Between July 24 and September 21 about 862 of them were licensed in the UK despite the pandemic. Overall, 8,737 doctors who obtained their degrees in Nigeria currently practise in the UK.
The figure is apart from the number of Nigerian doctors who were trained in the UK and are practising there, said Miranda Newey, BGMC Senior Medical Officer, who disclosed this to The PUNCH.
BGMC licenses and maintains the register of medical practitioners in the UK and Newey said the increase in the number of doctors migrating from Nigeria and other countries has led to the opening of a bigger clinical examination centre.
She said: “The data released to you contains the total of Nigeria trained doctors who gained their primary medical qualifications from medical schools in Nigeria. This is excluding Nigerians trained in the UK.
“The spike in doctors’ migration made us to open a bigger clinical assessment centre to enable us to test more doctors wanting to work in the UK.
“Despite being forced to close during the pandemic, there has been a lot of demand for test placements from people coming in from Nigeria.”
BGMC data shows that 4,528 medical doctors trained in Nigeria passed the examination to practise and were employed in the UK between 2015 and July 2021, broken down as follows:
- 2015 (233)
- 2016 (279)
- 2017 (475)
- 2018 (852)
- 2019 (1,347)
- 2020 (833)
- 2021 (509) – between January 1 and July 31
More exodus expected
NARD Vice President Julian Ojebo told The PUNCH that the rate of migration may double in the coming weeks because doctors are poorly remunerated.
Ojebo argued that the doctors migrating to Saudi Arabia may even be more than those moving to the UK, saying Abuja has failed to address their plight and meet their conditions for calling off the strike which began on August 1.
His words: “If 353 Nigerian doctors have been licensed in the last 100 days, I am sure the figure will double within the next one month. The strike has opened the eyes to the doctors that Nigeria does not care about them.
“I am sure the statistics for those migrating to Saudi Arabia would be higher. I have always said it that remuneration is usually the trigger for migration. It is now worse due to insecurity and the lack of political will by government appointees to address the issues affecting the health sector.
“I can tell you categorically that some of the issues we are fighting for are matters that should have been addressed since 2014 and we are still protesting in 2021.
“Like we have always said, whatever you earn in Nigeria, you stand the opportunity of earning three times that amount [abroad] with better working conditions.”
A poll by NOI in 2018 showed that 88 per cent of Nigerian doctors were considering work opportunities abroad, but experts say the figure may now be higher due to rising insecurity and economic crunch.
NARD has continued its strike amid rising coronavirus and cholera infections.
Nigeria’s ratio of doctor per patient is 1:5,000 – one of the lowest in the world – against 1:600 recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Buhari disperses Nigerian doctors seeking Saudi jobs
Buhari was in August embarrassed by the sight of Nigerian doctors queuing up for interviews in Abuja for jobs in Saudi Arabia, and so, by fiat, ordered the DSS to disperse them.
However, Buhari has not solved the problems listed by doctors, and given his famous record of incompetence, callousness, bullying, and law breaking, he cannot (and will not) solve the problems – which include a lack of medical facilities and low pay.
He himself knows about these problems in health care delivery.
But rather than fix them as he promised during his campaign in 2015, he travels abroad for medical treatment, at huge cost to the treasury. He does not even feel shame for failing to deliver on his promise. Nor does he bother to explain why.
SERAP vs Buhari for squandering public funds
In August, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) urged Buhari to redirect the N4.87 voted to spy on social media activities, phone calls, and text messages of citizens to pay the salaries of striking doctors.
The activist group also wants the sleuth money used to improve the benefits of resident doctors as well as health care facilities for poor Nigerians who rely on those facilities and have no means for medical tourism abroad, like Buhari.
According to logging by Premium Times, since Buhari assumed office on May 29, 2015, he has spent 200 days in the UK for medical treatment in seven trips, the last of which he returned from on August 13.
His ailment has never been made public, even though his treatment has chalked up millions of pounds sterling – counting in his official entourage, family members, presidential jet maintenance and fuel cost, hotel bills – footed by tax payers.
He promised on the campaign trail in 2015 to upgrade medical facilities in Nigeria and end foreign medical tourism of government officials, including himself. But he fails to deliver on the promise and characteristically refuses to give account.
“We also urge you to send to the National Assembly [NASS] a fresh supplementary appropriation bill, which reflects the redirected budget, for its approval,” SERAP said in an open letter to Buhari, reported by Vanguard.
