Key highlights
- The five years include their national service and house manship period.
- UK’s decision to place Nigeria medical personnel on red alert from coming to their country was a pointer to the bill.
- Bill has caused an uproar online as young doctors blast the direction of the government.
The House of Rep member, who sponsored a bill to ban Nigerian doctors from leaving Nigeria, before working for five years said the bill was necessitated by the crisis in Nigeria’s health sector.
This was disclosed in a press statement on Thursday by the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Abdulganiyu Johnson (APC-Lagos).
The bill which caused a stir when announced has been condemned by young doctors in Nigeria.
Crisis
Rep. Abdulganiyu Johnson (APC-Lagos) revealed the bill was sponsored as a response to the rising manpower crisis in Nigeria’s health sector, he adds the bill was not meant to prevent anyone from traveling abroad and also not an attempt to impede human rights.
Media reports state that the bill seeking to mandate Nigeria-trained medical and dental practitioners to practice for a minimum of five years in the country before being granted full license passed the second reading in the House of Representatives on April 6, he said:
- “Our population is more than 200 million and the number of medical doctors we have is about 10,000. If care is not taken may be herbalists will have to take over and be treating our people.
- “We have a crisis already and how do we mitigate it? Let us increase the number of years they (doctors) will get their licenses and this is not to stop them from traveling abroad.
- “The five years include their national service and housemanship period, which amounts to three years and it is a way of promoting professionalism. You can register for your residency and engage in hospital services.
Win-win
The Representative added that by the time the Doctors, complete the three years of their residency, “t will be a win-win for the country and the medical doctors,” he said.
He added that with the residency training, the doctors would become specialists, pointing out it would be a way of promoting the nation’s medical doctors to be specialists instead of just being general practitioners.
He also noted that UK’s decision to place Nigeria medical personnel on red alert from coming to their country was a pointer to his bill, the report added:
- “We have a crisis and if the UK said we cannot continue to deplete their medical doctors that show they support my position.
He also blamed medical doctors for only looking at the bill from their own point of view but not holistically and placing Nigeria’s interest above theirs.
Here’s a simple solution.
Just charge medical school students in Nigeria THE SAME TUITION FEES AS CHARGED IN MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN THE US, UK, CANADA, ETC.
Medical school graduates who stay in Nigeria can then have their school fees reimbursed (or educational loans forgiven) over a 5-year period.
Medical school graduates in the US carry about $250K of loan debt, while we are SUBSIDIZING medical (and other) education here in Nigeria.
We do not have the resources to continue to SUBSIDIZE the training of doctors to supply to much-richer foreign nations.
Irony is that when these doctors arrive abroad, they proceed to complain to their DEBT-RIDDEN foreign colleagues that Nigeria did nothing for them!
fair enough!