Professor Farooq Kperogi made the assertion during a public discussion on immigration and medical professionals.
In light of the depressing exodus of many medical professionals from Nigeria to other developed countries of the world, calls on the Nigerian government to create better conditions for them to stay back have intensified in recent times.
Nigeria is currently losing huge number of professionals especially those in the medical field to other developed countries given what can be described as avoidable challenges at home.
This development has continued to put the health sector in jeopardy and increased mortality rate as professionals tend to leave the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere.
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, at the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) in May this year lamented that health systems remain weak in many developing countries like Nigeria partly because they continue to lose their trained health professionals to developed countries that did not invest in their first professional education.
Mr Pate, however, mentioned that efforts are ongoing to address the situation and make the health sector more productive and sustainable.
Experts harp on better conditions for medical professionals
Given this worrisome development, Nigerians in the diaspora have urged the Nigerian government to deepen efforts geared towards assisting medical professionals.
This was as Professor Farooq Kperogi, Professor Moses Ochonu and Dr Osmund Agbo, in their September’s diasporan dialogue themed “Japa: Should We Force Doctors and Nurses to Remain in Nigeria?”, emphasized better conditions for medical professionals and others in the country.
Farooq Kperogi, a communication professor at Kennesaw State University in the US, noted that while migrating to another country can be very stressful, medical professionals shouldn’t be faulted for leaving for other countries in search of better conditions.
The academic also slammed the proposed bill targeted at restricting medical professionals to Nigeria for five years upon graduation.
“For any single person who has migrated, the first few years are very tough. I cam here in my early thirties. You can imagine migrating in your 40s or 50s. The cultural adjustments you’re going to make. It’s easier to say you want to migrate but it’s very tough”, Kperogi noted.
“So For someone to know and still go ahead to do it, it must be that they’re running away from something horrible back home. So let’s create the conditions so that people don’t even have reasons to leave or migrate other than for fun instead of existential torment.
“Many international media organisations talking about medical tourism in Nigeria says Nigerians who go to London and United States hospitals are most likely treated by Nigerians. So what do you do? You retain them and create better conditions for them.”
Moses Ochonu, a professor of African History at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennesseea, also condemned the plans by the Nigerian government to keep these professionals at home without creating opportunities for them.
“Medical professionals are humans; so let’s treat them as such. A lot of them are vey young with a lot of potential. I think it’s morally wrong to prevent anyone through the instrument of legislation from realising their full potential. This is what the proposed bill, if passed and approved, will do. It will basically say to the young professionals not to pursue their aspirations, however, beautiful, outside the shores of Nigeria even when we haven’t made the provision for you to realize these aspirations.”
Advice for policymakers in Nigeria
Dr Osmund Agbo, a medical expert practising in the US, spoke on the struggles of medical experts to get jobs after graduation.
While advising the Nigerian government on initiatives that can assist medical students during training, the medical expert insisted people who want to leave for better opportunities shouldn’t be restricted through coercion.
“Nigerian policymakers must be alive to the law of demand and supply. As long as you’re willing to buy, there are people who will be willing to sell”, Dr Osmund noted.
“They should also be alive to the law of self-preservation which is the fact that loyalty is to yourself, your family before your state, tribe of country. If your country can’t provide for what you need in your life, you go somewhere else. If other countries offer what Nigeria can’t, it’ll be virtually impossible to convince anybody to stay in the country.”
