NMA Warns Nigeria Will Keep Paying Price of Medical Brain Drain
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has cautioned that Nigeria will continue to bear the consequences of the so-called “japa syndrome” — the steady emigration of Nigerian professionals abroad — unless the underlying conditions pushing doctors and other skilled workers out of the country are addressed, according to Vanguard News.
“Japa,” a colloquialism widely used across Nigeria to describe the act of relocating overseas, has become shorthand for the wave of skilled Nigerians moving abroad in search of better wages, working conditions and security. The trend has been particularly visible among medical practitioners, and successive NMA leaderships have described it as one of the gravest threats to the country’s healthcare system.
The NMA is the umbrella professional body for doctors in Nigeria and the country’s largest medical association, with branches across the thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory. It regularly engages federal and state governments on policy matters affecting the health workforce, including remuneration, postgraduate training and the conditions under which doctors practise.
Although the Association has not, in the Vanguard News report, published a specific figure tied to its latest warning, the broader context is well established. Nigeria already has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios in Africa, and the country is widely cited as falling well short of the World Health Organization’s recommended density of health workers per 10,000 people. The loss of specialists, including consultants, surgeons and anaesthetists, has been a recurring concern of medical associations across West Africa, not only in Nigeria.
Doctors interviewed over the years by Nigerian and international media have frequently cited a combination of factors driving the migration: poor remuneration relative to peers abroad, deteriorating hospital infrastructure, heavy workloads, limited access to continuing medical education, and, in some regions, insecurity. The NMA has long argued that addressing these conditions is essential if Nigeria is to retain the medical workforce it trains.
Without such action, the Association has suggested, the country will continue to produce doctors who go on to serve healthcare systems elsewhere — a cycle that, as Vanguard News reported, the NMA believes is already shaping the outlook for Nigerian medicine.
Sources
This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.
