By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) says about 15,000 Nigerian doctors have relocated out of the country in 12 years, from 2014 to date, with 4,700 leaving the shores of the country in 2024 alone
The National President of NARD, Dr Mohammad Suleiman, stated this while speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the association’s five-day training on effective policy making and strategic leadership for association leaders at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, Plateau State.
He noted that the situation is the reason the association embarks on a strike to confront the degradation in the health sector and spur the government into action.
Dr Suleiman stressed that the association’s recent strikes were motivated by patriotism, adding that the perception that its members are unpatriotic is incorrect.
He further noted that the majority of its demands were intended to solve issues that would bring a turnaround in the healthcare sector.
According to the NARD president, if the present state of affairs is not addressed, more doctors will relocate from the country, leading to a total collapse of the sector.
“I always run back to the facts. Facts don’t lie. Figures don’t lie. In 2024, 4,700 doctors, not healthcare workers, left the shores of Nigeria. From 2014 to date, over 15,000 doctors have left Nigeria. Every year, we produce 2,000 to 3,000 doctors. If in 2024 we produced 2,000 or 3,000 doctors and we lost 4,700, it means we have lost a net of about 1,700 doctors.
“If you plot that over the next 10 years, it simply means in the next 10 years we’ll lose another 15,000 doctors in this country. Nigeria cannot survive that. So when you see us reacting like this, these are some of the facts that push us to it,” he said.
Suleiman noted that if the newfound commitment, understanding, and zeal to solve problems in the health sector are sustained by the government, there would be no strike in the foreseeable future.
He said, “If we are able to agree to those terms that we’ve already agreed on, for me, it is to ensure that that ditch that is in front of us—another 15,000 doctors leaving the shores of Nigeria in the next 10 years—we have to avoid that by whatever means necessary.
“Because in those 10 years or 15 years, our family and our fellow Nigerians will run to the hospitals, and they won’t be able to see a doctor.”
He admitted that the Federal Government cannot meet all the demands of the association in the health sector, saying that was the reason the association did not bring any new demands to the table.
“That is why we are not bringing any new demand to the table. That is why we just dusted off all agreements we had with government agreements that would not cost the government a penny to be implemented now to save the healthcare system,” Suleiman added.
